CII to extend quality movement to SMEs

BANGALORE: Confederation of Indian Industry is considering starting a "Quality Movement" in the country involving the small and medium enterprises through the cluster approach, Surinder Kapur, chairman, CII National Committee on Quality, said.

"The quality focus so far has been on larger companies whereas it is SMEs which need to be involved to meet the global challenges in the manufacturing sector", he told reporters on the sidelines of CII''s Quality Summit here.

Clustering for competitiveness introduced by Prof Tsuda in India in 1998, in which non-competing companies are given a "common set of inputs through training and counselling and meet once a month to mutually share and learn from each other''s implementation experiences, has yielded good results", Kapur said.

At present, there are 20 clusters (about 12 companies form a cluster) throughout the country covering 200 companies which have benefitted from this concept using the services of 21 counsellors, he said.

"We (CII) want to start 100 clusters by the end of next April which will be guided by 50 counsellors, including some Japanese consultants, member companies and individual companies," he said.

CII is looking at geographically close companies for the cluster approach as it improves cost effectiveness, Kapur said.

The SME''s contribution in the manufacturing sector is huge and looking at the tremendous potential this sector has for exports, this kind of "Quality Movement" can prove a boon for the sector, he said.

"Extending quality practices across SMEs can help us take our manufacturing exports from $40 billion to $300 billion by 2015, as worked out by a CII-Mckenzie joint study," Kapur said.