A powerful presentation made by M N Radhakrishnan, Managing Director, Sanmar Engineering Corporation, was one of the highlights of the Seminar on Leadership through Manufacturing Excellence: Creating the Passion conducted by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Chennai on 10th and 11th October 2003.
In his presentation, Radhakrishnan described the huge challenges posed to the manufacturing industry by globalisation as opportunities for Indian industry to exploit. The threat posed by competition from China and the impact of WTO—the ever increasing quality standards on the global stage, demanding customers, rapid changes in technology, the lack of a global scale in the Indian manufacturing industry, and changing tax laws—could be turned into opportunities if we aim to achieve excellence and pursue our goals with passion, Radhakrishnan said.
Radhakrishnan cited a number of examples of Indian companies which have achieved international standards. He listed Bharat Forge, Sundram Fasteners, Sundaram Clayton, Titan Industries and Moser-Bahr as excellent manufacturing companies.
Radhakrishnan stressed the importance of developing a Performance Culture as a prerequisite
for achieving operational excellence. He spoke of the Sanmar Engineering Corporation experience while pointing out India’s extreme competitiveness in some industries. “In all our products, we are the least cost source in our partners’ global supply chain,” he told the audience.
Radhakrishnan said that India was extremely competitive in some industries, citing the examples of metal cutting and forming. While visible costs determine the start of a business relationship, invisible costs often could mean the end of one. Long-term relationships with buyers will depend on achieving excellence in supply performance—lead time, conformance, responsiveness, flexibility, on-time delivery and commitment are the determining factors.
Each employee must be driven by a desire to perform and look at standards only as starting points to strive for higher excellence. A good performance culture is the result of team work requiring the discipline to plan, the skill to do, the will to achieve, the commitment to be responsible, the spark to imagine, the daring to innovate and the leadership to motivate.
‘MNR’—as he is known in Sanmar—who has been described as an evangelist for the passion he brings to his commitment to the goal of organisational excellence, articulated his favourite Tamil slogan: “Sonnathai Seyvom, Seivathai Solvom, Sevvana Seyvom.”
He explained the business process at SEC with specific reference to how manufacturing excellence has been achieved with minimal manual intervention, optimal utilization of resources and on-time delivery.
Radhakrishnan concluded the presentation outlining the SEC strategies for domestic dominance and export penetration.