Against the backdrop of COVID-19, as businesses and the economy gets impacted, quality will play a key role as a differentiator and help companies deliver products and services that exceed customer expectations and help the company expand its market.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) took a lead in setting up the Total Quality Management Division (TQMD) on Late Professor Ishikawa’s recommendation of starting a national drive for quality in India. This was during his visit to India in 1986 when he was heading the JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers). Since then, CII has led several missions of Indian top management to JUSE, where senior managers received training in the practice of Total Quality Management.
Along with JUSE, CII also has close ties with other prominent Japanese institutions such as Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) and Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS).
CII has been spearheading the quality movement since the mid-eighties when the TQMD took shape within CII. The TQMD evolved into the CII Institute of Quality (CII IQ), one of the 9 centres of excellence of CII. The mission of CII IQ is to lead a quality movement that transforms Indian businesses by offering them standard solutions, creating practical insights, and driving tangible results. Its vision is to be a Centre of Excellence (CoE) that transforms organizations and society through its role model products & services. CII IQ has tie-ups with several international organizations to bring best practices to India.
Many organizations have improved their Total Quality Management (TQM) Systems through CII IQ and have garnered international recognition such as the Japan Quality Medal and the Deming Prize. In 2019, four of the five Deming prizes were awarded to Indian companies. Since 2000, organizations based in India have received the greatest number of Deming Awards.
To promote quality practices CII IQ offers a wide wide gamut of services:
- Counselling
- Training
- Events to Share Best Practices
- Seminars & Conferences
- Assessment
- Study Missions
- Awards / Recognition
- SME Clusters
Depending on the requirements of the partner organization, CII IQ delivers tailor-made training programmes. It also shares best practices through conferences, seminars, and domestic and international missions. To ensure that high-quality is maintained across different services offered by CII IQ, a specialized team of highly skilled experienced counsellors provides handholding services to organizations to accelerate their TQM journey.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are core to sectors such as manufacturing. The SME sector is touted as the backbone of India’s economy. CII IQ plays a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs through the cluster approach. A cluster comprises of eight to ten companies that are guided by IQ counsellors, enabling mutual learning and improving businesses on parameters such as quality, cost, and delivery.
CII IQ recognizes companies through awards such as the CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence, the Six Sigma Award, TPM Best Kaizen Award, TPM Kaizen Championship Trophy, and TPM Circle Competition Trophy.
CII recognised the importance of enhancing the competitiveness of Indian industry much before liberalisation, the opening of the Indian economy, which changed the landscape for Indian companies. It has successfully led companies to enhance competitiveness in diverse areas such as water management, sustainable development, and continues to drive the quality movement in India.
Quality is key to India’s economic development and CII IQ is playing a pivotal role in shaping the quality movement in India.