Friday, May 17, 2002
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By Our Special Correspondent
The two experts, who have been spreading the message of "lean manufacturing" — the name that they assigned to what is generally known as the Toyota Production System (TPS) introduced and practised by the Japanese company for five decades now — are sanguine about the relevance of the concept to all sectors, including steel or textiles and even services. Addressing a press conference here today on the occasion of the two-day "Lean Summit" organised by the ACMA (Automotive Components Manufacturers Association) Centre for Technology (ACT) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and in their presentations at the summit, Dr. James Womack (President, Lean Enterprise Institute, U.K.) and Prof. Dan Jones (Chairman, Lean Enterprises, Europe) conveyed in particular a message that they consider important for Indian enterprises — "shed the obsession with economies of scale and large batch production and learn to make the most out of existing capacities and machinery". Lean manufacturing, which forms a triad along with TQM (total quality maintenance) and TPM (total productive maintenance), according to them, is the only way to improving quality and at the same time cut costs. With its emphasis on elimination of "muda" (waste) by identifying and eliminating non-value adding elements in the whole value chain, but starting invariably with the shop floor, lean manufacturing techniques would help Indian industry become suppliers or partners of MNCs with their exacting demands instead of either being taken over by MNCs or being driven out of the market by them. The experts emphasised that lean manufacturing would lead to higher volumes through lower costs and that was the only way to make profits. In fact, according to the gurus, in the automobile industry worldwide, profits accrued mainly from auto financing and the aftermarket (replacement market). Lean manufacturing meant flexible and small batch production that made products suited to customer needs and met delivery schedules with least costs in terms of inventory of raw materials and finished products. Increasing the size of the domestic market through lower costs and taking to exports as a cushion against recession at home would be the right strategy for companies. Prof. Dan Jones and Dr. Womack said what they saw at the plants of Sundaram Brake Linings and Sundaram Clayton in Chennai, enterprises which had won the Deming Award and which had adopted lean manufacturing after taking to TQM and TPM, gave them the confidence that Indian industry was capable of meeting the challenge of international competition. The President of ACT, K. Mahesh, said lean manufacturing required total commitment on the part of the CEO and the managements' open admission that it was not the workers but the managements themselves which were to blame for the poor competitiveness of Indian industry. Adoption of lean manufacturing would not lead to redundancy because the surplus manpower arising from effective deployment of resources would be absorbed in meeting the growing demand but in those enterprises like the railways or airlines where excess manpower existed even with reference to existing production systems, such fat might need to be eliminated before adopting the TPS.
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