In a first, IMEA moves to recognise efforts in manufacturing space

NEW DELHI: Indian Manufacturing Excellence Awards (IMEA) presented by The Economic Times in partnership with global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan is initiating the first step towards recognizing the efforts of companies in the manufacturing space.

If you want to know how well your manufacturing processes and practices measure up to global standards, express your interest to IMEA by way of a simple email at etimea@timesgroup.com or just send ETMA to 58888, giving company name and email id of the representative.

The last date for sending this expression of interest is June 20, 2009. IMEA panel will then individually contact each company. The next step would require the companies to fill an application along with a self-assessment docket comprising a set of pre-graded checklist queries on key operational and business matrices.

The participating enterprises will be categorized in the following categories ��� Small & Medium, Emerging, Medium, Large and Mega Large, based on their annual sales. These companies will be further clubbed into sub categories such as automotive, engineering, metals, chemicals, healthcare based on operational processes.

All submissions will be evaluated by Frost & Sullivan (both qualitatively and quantitatively) and will be short-listed for further assessment by an expert team. A team of about four experts will scrutinize the short listed candidates for1-3 days. Frost & Sullivan will use the data collected for certification purposes. The data collected during the assessment will be the intellectual property of the assessed company and will not be released in public domain.

The short listed candidates would be judged on 12 factors, each to be market on a scale of 100. The factors our expert team would watch out for are ��� Focus on Customers, Orderliness with Safety & Environment, Visual Management, Scheduling systems, Layout and Material Handling System, Inventory Management, Internal Competence, Asset care, Operational Flexibility, Supply Chain, Quality Systems and Innovation Adaptation.

The companies will then be categorized in order of merit for each industry cluster, dividing its member companies into one of the three certification levels ��� Platinum (Above 875 points), Gold (820-874 points) and Silver: 765-819 points. The candidates will be awarded based on these three categories.

Besides, factors like process complexity and leadership commitment will also play an important role in deciding the awardees. The Indian Manufacturing Excellence Awards will also assess an organization���s ability to plan at a strategic level, while creating innovative business models that will help them survive the slowdown. Also, the two highest performing companies across clusters and categories get Super Platinum and a Super Platinum first runner up award.