Sundram Fasteners' Suresh Krishna conferred CII's 'Quality Ratna' award

The chairman of the Sundram Fasteners is honoured for his sterling contribution to the pursuit of total quality management in India

By Autocar Pro News Desk

25 Nov 2019

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D V Sadananda Gowda, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, government of India presents the ‘Quality Ratna’ award to Suresh Krishna, chairman, Sundram Fasteners. Also seen are (extreme left) Vikram Kirloskar, president, CII & vice- chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and (extreme right) R. Mukundan, chairman, CII Institute of Quality and MD, Tata Chemicals.

Team members of the SFL plant at Mahindra World City, Chennai, which was the first of the 17 manufacturing plants to adopt TQM practices successfully.

Sundram Fasteners is the first Indian company to bag the Deming Prize for 17 plants simultaneously with varied technologies spanning different product groups.

An unwavering focus on quality remains one of the standout features of Sundram Fasteners.

Suresh Krishna, chairman of Sundram Fasteners, has been conferred India's first 'Quality Ratna' award by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the CII Institute of Quality's 27^th Quality Summit held on November 23-24, in Bangalore.

The citation from the CII Institute of Quality reads, “Mr. Suresh Krishna has been a role model for the society in embracing the principles of quality, in both personal and professional life. He pioneered the constitution of the TPM Club of India in collaboration with the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) in 1998 and was its first chairman. Thanks to his leadership and contribution to the TPM/Quality movement, India today has the maximum number of TPM award winners outside Japan.

Sundram Fasteners is part of the 21-company TVS Group of Companies, which is one of India's largest automotive component suppliers. Set up in 1966, Sundram Fasteners has grown into a global leader manufacturing critical, high-precision components for the automotive, aviation and windmill sectors.

Its expansive product portfolio encompasses fasteners, powertrain components, sintered metal products, iron powder, cold extruded parts, radiator caps, water and fuel pumps, and wind energy components.

An unwavering focus on manufacturing and product quality has, over the years, won Sundram Fasteners plenty of global awards as well as topnotch clientele in both OEM and aftermarket in competitive markets like India, German, UK, USA, Italy and France, among others.

Deming Prize for 17 Sundram Fasteners plant -- at one go!
A unique recognition came Sundram Fasteners' way in October 2018 when it bagged the prestigious Deming Prize for not one or two plants but all of 17 manufacturing facilities! Unique because typically companies pitch for a Deming with a single manufacturing plant, partly because the award process is extremely rigorous and demands extremely high and unwavering standards of quality.

What helped SFL in its drive towards TQM is its solid foundation in total product management (TPM), which acted as a catalyst. The company has consistently achieved exceptional productivity on the shop floor, superior uptime of machines and minimal breakdowns.

Also read: Magnificent 17: All Sundram Fasteners plants bag Deming Prize

Interview with Sundram Fasteners' managing director Arathi Krishna