PRODUCTIVITY SUMMIT 2006 “Unleashing the Power of Productivity in Metalworking”

Chennai, April 22, 2006: The first ever Productivity Summit 2006 was inaugurated by Mr. Venu Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Motors Limited, followed by a key note address by Mr. Crispin Vincenti-Brown, Bourton Group, France. The Summit was well attended by 500 delegates from 100 companies across the country, including CEOs, Senior Executives, Practicing engineers, R&D Specialists, Consultants, Industry experts, technologists and Middle management Personnel and Supervisors.

After the lighting ceremony, Mr. Venu Srinivasan, shared his experience and expertise in the manufacturing field. He said, “China is the real global power house and is way ahead of India in the manufacturing sector. The hurdles in India are lack of scale, lack of infrastructure and low investment in education and training. The solution would be to invest in change, low cost innovation and grasp the challenges. The vision for 2020 should be to put India ahead on the global map as the choice for manufacturing outsourcing in key industries. To achieve this, India requires taking steep jumps in Cost, Speed, Productivity and Quality. Speed is the only way to move up the ladder and improve competency. We need to run faster to catch up with China and productivity is one aspect that will help in achieving it. It is better to build on our strengths than copying China and other countries. India needs to focus on high process capability and operate on 6 sigma levels. We need to develop global skills to earn the world class leadership position.”

Suggesting neutralising methods, he insisted that the cost gap needs to be minimised. He suggested that lean management was the only way to go. He shared his experience at Sundaram Clayton and TVS motors through a case study.

He also insisted that the immediate need was a Manufacturing Revolution in India, which is currently represented by the auto industry. The auto industry is only 10% of the manufacturing industry in the country. The revolution needs to spread to lot more industries like durables, construction, electronics and textiles. Reiterating the Lean management should become a religion in the country, he said that currently only 150 companies in the country are practicing lean management and I would like this to scale upto atleast 1500 companies in the next few years. He said that lean management has to be brought into the system from the top through a systematic process and drived into the bottom. It is time to leverage upon technology, processes and human competence, he concluded.

The Summit also features a concurrent exhibition – ‘PRODUCTIVITY SHOP’ set up by 20 companies highlighting the recent innovations in enhancing and supporting productivity in the metalworking industry. The productivity shop will be open to business visitors and those interested in the subject for the next two days.






The Summit for the next two days will address and demonstrate a wide array of productivity-related issues through live case studies and keynotes by renowned experts in this field. The case studies will be evaluated by a panel and chosen for the IMTMA – Siemens Productivity Championship Awards. The mega event, which is the first of its kind in India, brings together individuals and corporations from varied segments of the metalworking industry to discuss, deliberate and share experiences on multifarious ways and means to enhance productivity, in order to achieve manufacturing excellence.

Coinciding with the Summit, IMTMA along with Siemens has instituted the “IMTMA-SIEMENS PRODUCTIVITY CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS” to acknowledge and recognise the creativity and innovativeness of the Indian manufacturers in their strive towards attaining the highest level of productivity. The productivity champions would not only be honoured at the Summit, but will also share, with participating delegates, their initiatives and journey to success.

Later Mr. R. Srinivasan, Chairman, Core Group, Productivity, addressing media, said,” IMTMA is a 59 years old organisation and has 350 members across the globe. Faculty comprises reputed experts from global companies such as Bourton Group from France, Siemens AG from Germany as well as from leading Indian companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS Motor Company, Kirloskar Toyoda Textile Machinery, BHEL, BEL, SKF India, Whirlpool India, Sundaram - Clayton, Brakes India, etc. The organisation will be taking this annual summit across the country. IMTMA has a machine design school which imparts short term course in Bangalore out of which 400 engineers have passed out in the past 4 years. IMTMA is also planning to open a centre of excellence and productivity by Jan 2007. The next summit, I hope attracts other industries like textile and construction and derive value from the experience and expertise provided through these exchanges, he added.”

About IMTMA

IMTMA is the apex industry association for machine tools in the country and represents over 90 % of the industry in India. With the objective of facilitating growth and development of the industry, IMTMA organises a range of activities for benefit of Indian manufacturing industry. Major initiatives include Machine Tool Industry Summit and International Seminars on metal-forming and metal-cutting technologies, as well as well-known international exhibitions such as IMTEX (for machine tools and manufacturing solutions) and Tooltech (for cutting tools and tooling systems).

For further details contact:

Srinjoy Das
IMTMA
9871699035

BhuvanaS
Integrated Brand Comm Pvt Ltd
Chennai
044 28520148/ 49
94440 19730