Pune, October 18, 2016: Pune-headquartered Kirloskar Ebara Pumps Ltd (KEPL), a joint venture of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL) in India, won gold and silver trophies at the “31st Chapter Convention CCQC-2016”, organised by Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI), on September 24th 2016 in Pune, India.

Established in 1982, QCFI was recognized as the institution representing “The Quality Concept” movement in India. It has successfully implemented quality concepts under the TQM umbrella across several industry verticals which have experienced phenomenal enhancement of their work processes and productivity after implementation of quality concept tools.

Three teams from KEPL (Team Anand, Team MSD and Team Utkarsh) participated and presented their Kaizen case studies. The case studies were highly appreciated and awarded with the “gold and silver trophies”. The theme for this convention was “quality circle and its allied concepts”. Teams have passed through the entry gate for National Convention Quality Control (NCQC) which will be held at Raipur, Chhattisgarh during December 16 – 19, 2016.

This was a forum for interaction and, sharing of knowledge and ideas on quality circle and other allied concepts such as TPM, 5-S, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Poka-yoke, SMED, JIT, Kanban etc. The programme was categorized in a QC and allied case study, model exhibition, poster, presentation and visual display. KEPL team “Anand” presented their Kaizen case study titled “cost reduction through VA/VE project” and were awarded with silver trophy, team MSD presented their case study on “improve the utilization of cutting tool (broach) by enhancing keyway sizing machine capacity” and were awarded with gold trophy. Team Utkarsh presented a case study on “throughput improvement by reducing NVA’s in steam turbine assembly” and were recognized with gold trophy.

The presentation flow started with the introduction of Kirloskar Group and its uniqueness, introduction to the case study, followed by systematic problem solving steps like problem identification, root cause analysis, permanent solution amongst available alternatives, Kaizen theme and Kaizen idea, implementation and benefits, horizontal deployment of Kaizen theme etc. The effective use of problem solving tools and techniques was demonstrated through this case study. The presentation was concluded with an interactive session of questions and answers.

S S Katare, Plant Head, KEPL said, “since 2012, KEPL is participating in various competition organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Poona Divisional Productivity Council (PDPC) and Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI). These forums are excellent platform for sharing and learning. Our plant people developed a culture of adopting best ideas and implement similar concepts to solve their day to day problems. We are honoured to receive such awards for our quality and Kaizen improvement practices. We look forward to receiving more such recognitions in the coming year which will further encourage our Kaizen culture”.