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Connecting to the world

Rukmini Priyadarshini

THE first occupant at Bangalore's Electronics City, ITI's plant was also the first telecom player in India to get ISO 9002 certification. Located on a lush 67-acre campus, the plant which makes a range of teleswitching systems was started in 1987 as an e xclusive pilot production plant making C-DOT exchanges.

With a turnover of Rs 235 crore last year against the Rs 195 crore estimated, ITI's Electronics City plant has progressed on quality and capacity the plant is planning to make 7,75,000 lines this year. Productivity too is way beyond most other PSUs. Abou t 650 people generate Rs 235 crore of turnover at the plant last year.

``Sam Pitroda called it a model plant, built as it was to set an example for any small entrepreneur starting a business,'' says K.K. Sundaram, General Manager. Unlike in many public sector units, where capacity is created in anticipation of demand 10 yea rs down the line, ITI's Electronics City plant was started on a small scale. To date the total investment has not exceeded Rs 20 crore but the plant makes about 8 lakh lines a year.

``The place was simply barren when we came in,'' recalls Mr Sundaram who had over a 1,000 trees planted. Now a lush and modern facility, the Electronics City did not even have a telephone exchange of its own. ITI donated premises and an electronic exchan ge which is still serves the needs of all the occupants of the Electronics City.

But there is more to the plant than the quality of its gardens. Having been the first telecom player in India to get ISO 9002 certification, the ITI plant has always been dedicated to quality. ``From the very beginning, there was a sense of ownership, te am-spirit and enthusiasm,'' says Sundaram.

He relates that quality consciousness was part of every employee's work culture: ``Employee attitudes have always been to achieving quality and we have always been rigorous at documentation. That made getting the quality certification easy and, even now, quality audits go off smoothly,'' Sundaram says.

Customers even go so far ask that the exchanges they commission be made at the Electronics City plant given its reputation for the close attention to quality. Time schedules too are always met: ``We usually manage to deliver ahead of the schedule says, '' Sundaram.

To enable overall commitment to customer requirements, production incentives are based on the final despatch of the exchanges. ``That way, everyone is focussed on despatching to the customer and nobody is focussed overmuch on individual targets,'' accord ing to Sundaram.

The ITI plant plans to upgrade C-DOT's technology in the next 12 months to bring it on a par with switches made by multinationals. At a time when prices are falling, increased volumes will be needed to continue to grow at the pace set so far, according t o Sundaram.

(A broadheet feature on electronics city, Bangalore)