QUARTERLY MAGAZINE October 2023 Vol 14
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE October 2023 Vol 14
Focus
After achieving the prestigious Lighthouse designation for its Halol manufacturing facility by the World Economic Forum earlier this year, CEAT, India's leading tyre manufacturer, has been awarded the prestigious Deming Grand Prize making it the first tyre brand in the world to receive this rare distinction.
The Deming Grand Prize is a singular distinction for organisations that have received a Deming Prize in the past and have continued to sustain and elevate their Total Quality Management (TQM) practices for over three years. CEAT has been on the TQM journey for over 15 years and in June 2017, became the first tyre company outside Japan to win the prestigious Deming Prize.
We're deeply honoured by the Deming Grand Prize. This accolade underscores our unwavering commitment to excellence. Our gratitude goes to our invaluable partners and vendors for their steadfast support. This achievement inspires us to continue leading the tyre manufacturing industry worldwide, focusing on quality and customer satisfaction.”
Anant Goenka,
Vice Chairman, RPG Group
The Deming Grand Prize was institutionalised in 1969 and is one of the longest-standing quality awards presented by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) for excellence in Total Quality Management (TQM). CEAT is one of only 33 companies worldwide to win this honour and the only tyre brand on the global stage.
We are extremely delighted with this achievement. Winning this prize reflects our robust business systems and processes, leading to the creation of highly reliable and dependable products and services every time. This is delivered through involvement of every employee and all stakeholders making it truly partnership based. We believe that CEAT's customer-centric approach and superior quality standards have played a critical role in winning us this honour.”
Arnab Banerjee
MD & CEO, CEAT
Companies that operate at high levels of TQM stand out in their customer-centricity, systematic way of working and people capabilities.
The company started its Quality Based Management (QBM) journey in 2009 by adopting a two-pronged strategy. On the one hand, it worked towards eliminating MURI (overburden, beyond one’s power, excessiveness, etc.) from the front-line employees, thus fostering an environment of trust. On the other hand, CEAT initiated cross-functional councils to break functional silos.
In FY11, the company launched its first Vision, which helped bring alignment within the company as part of the Policy Management approach for QBM. Post that, several initiatives were undertaken across the company, including sales, manufacturing, new product development, and people management.
In 2015, in order to check their preparedness, CEAT took a bold decision by calling Japanese assessors and asking them if the company was ready to challenge the award. While the company had made significant progress from 2009, there was still room for improvement. In 2016, CEAT launched its Purpose Statement and in 2017, its second Vision.
After the launch of our Purpose and Vision, we worked extremely hard with a single-minded focus of winning the Deming. And we succeeded in 2017. What next was what we all asked ourselves after that. Back then, the Deming Grand looked too far away to realise. However, we continued to work on quality and excellence, and improved further. By 2021, we considered giving the Deming Grand a shot and did the assessment successfully the following year before getting the Deming Grand Prize in 2023.”
Manohar Sethpalani
Vice President (QBM) CEAT
For CEAT however, winning the Deming Grand Prize is just another milestone. Manohar adds, “This is not the end of the road. This is the beginning, and we are very excited and confident to take our journey ahead.”
In the future, the company strives to enhance its focus on building capabilities needed to develop a path-breaking new customer experience through the skilled use of QBM. CEAT also plans to focus on further intensifying digital transformation across the entire value chain, leading to customer delight and competitive advantage.
