CII-AVANTHA Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs, Chandigarh has covered one more milestone with the successful completion of JCB Cluster. This is the first cluster from the Earth Moving and construction equipment industry.

In JCB Cluster, financial saving was Rs 3.14 crore. In terms of space saved, it was an impressive quantum of 38, 891 square feet. There were a host of other tangible and intangible benefits from the cluster.

The JCB Cluster, which started in May 2010 and ended in November 2011, lasting around 18 months, has 12 companies. Inspired by the outcome of the Cluster whose formal closing ceremony and certificate distribution was held recently, all the group companies participated in the advance cluster.

"I am happy at the progress of this cluster which resulted in monetary benefit to the suppliers as well as reduction in rejection to the suppliers' product supplied to JCB", said S. Bagavathy Appan, VP Procurement, JCB India Limited.

"I am filling my hear with joy at the success of the JCB Cluster. JCB is a very special company as they are one of the first to have started ISO activity and they can offer a lot of learning to suppliers and to industry at large," said Dr Sarita Nagpal, Deputy Director General, CII. "Always produce against customer demand and never overproduce," was the message Dr Nagpal gave to suppliers and manufacturers.

In order to sustain growth, all 12 companies in the cluster have opted for the JCB Advance Cluster, which also got started at the same date, said Amit Sanghvi, Counselor, CII AVANTHA Centre for Competitiveness.

Apart from savings, other parameters of Cluster also showed notable improvements. Inventory turnover increased by 37% and delivery schedule adherence showed an improvement of 8.2%. Cluster company sales was up by 44%. Customer complaints were down by as much as 64%. Customer return was down by 52%. In-process rejection also showed a decline of 57%. Companies also showed a decline in break-down hours by 55%. Cluster members also achieved intangible benefits such as greater employee involvement, better working environment, improved floor space utilization and safe working conditions.

Speaking about his experience of participating in the JCB Cluster, A K Shukla, CEO - JBM Industries said, "We could save a lot during learning and implementation of innovative idea guided by CII Counselor. We are looking forward for participation in Advance Cluster."

Another participant, Sumit Arora, MD - Saket Metal Technocraft Pvt Ltd Said, "The journey that we covered with CII was totally an eye opener for me and my team. We experienced a cultural shift in our organisation, the seeds which we have sowed during this journey have started giving us fruits in terms of productivity increase, employee involvement in kaizen activities, better space utilization, good command over inventory control and reduction in breakdowns.

The 12 companies in the JCB Cluster includes JBM Industries Ltd, Jay Cee Autofab P Ltd, Pranjal Projects ( P ) Ltd, Vishal Engineers, Shivai Enterprises Pvt Ltd, Saket Metal Technocraft P Ltd, Bird Machines Pvt. Ltd, Rakheja Engineers P Ltd, Arkay Industries, Trikuta Metals, and Panchal Manufacturing Co Pvt Ltd.