Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) has announced the list of winners of its prestigious Ishikawa-Kano Award for the year 2012.

This year’s winners include Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company, Dong Mingzhu President, Gree Electric Appliances and Liang Haishan, Executive Vice President, Haier Group. The awards were bestowed on them on the last day of the ANQ Congress, 1st August 2012, in Hong Kong.  Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) which was established in 2002 is aimed at promoting the rapid evolution of Asia’s quality management.

The Ishikawa-Kano award is fittingly named after two eminent thinkers in the field of quality management in the latter half of the 20th century who passionately promoted quality as a way of life in different parts of the world often at their own expense and time, Prof. Kaoru Ishikawa and Prof. Noriaki Kano. Prof Ishikawa is considered the pioneer of the evolution of Total Quality Management in its holistic approach as it is perceived today. His most prominent legacy is in people involvement particularly at the Gemba through Quality Control Circles for harnessing their emotional and intellectual potential for managing their work for the benefit of all stakeholders.  Professor Noriaki Kano is considered as amongst the handful of the contemporary leaders in the field of quality management in the world who made substantial contribution in many ways to the concept and practice of quality management. His most widely used legacy is the Kano Model for Attractive Quality Creation that has influenced product development processes in all sectors of economy around the world.

It is only appropriate that someone like Venu Srinivasan, who lives TQM, be awarded in only the third edition of this prestigious award. In fact, he has been the driving force behind his companies’ quest for achieving total quality and what is not well-known is the contribution of the total quality management (TQM) processes that were put into practice in the early ’90s that culminated in the company receiving the Deming medal.

A recipient of one of the highest honours in India, the Padma Shree Award, Srinivasan was conferred with an honorary “doctorate degree in science” by the University of Warwick, U.K. for excellence in manufacturing and contribution in the field of technology and R&D, in 2004. He is also the recipient of the Jamsetji Tata Life Time Achievement Award for the year 2004 by the Indian Society for Quality and was conferred with ‘Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa)’ by IIT Kharagpur, India, for outstanding contribution to the field of Quality Movement and Manufacturing Excellence in India.

It is Srinivasan’s firm belief that Quality consciousness is not a technology revolution but rather a human resource revolution. In other words, TQM is all about changing the mindset of the company, its suppliers, its vendors, its customers and then the larger society and making them quality conscious.

 

Company looking at launching a mass market scooter in the country.

With the growing popularity of Vespa LX-125, a retro styled gearless scooter, Piaggio has tasted success. According to company Chairman and MD, Ravi Chopra, they currently have a total of 8,500 units in retail sales and bookings for the scooter. Moreover, the company is hoping to achieve about 40,000 units by the end of this year. This might sound like decent numbers for their début 125cc scooter, positioned at the top of the pie with a hefty price tag of Rs 74,500 (OT, Pune). But the company has bigger plans for India.

According to sources, the company is aiming at the bread-and-butter segment of many two-wheeler manufacturers like Honda, Mahindra and Suzuki, as it is now working on a new mass market scooter. The Rs 50,000-to-Rs 55,000 scooter segment is growing at neck-breaking pace, 24.5 % in 2011-12 to be precise, and the Italian brand wants to be present here to cash on it. To develop a new, India specific model would take them about a year or a year-and-a-half, and so we hope to see the scooter being launched around Diwali, late next year.

But the big challenge here would be to make sure not to cannibalise on the Vespa LX-125, as the new model would also be a twist-and-go gearless scooter with a similar 110cc-125cc engine. To avoid it, Piaggio will not be launching it a with Vespa badge and is considering to introduce an altogether new sub-brand for its inexpensive products line-up. This will help Vespa maintain its current premium status among scooters. The group also owns two other two-wheeler brands, Gilera and Scarabeo, which it might consider for this task.

The company will be investing Rs 150 crore to double the capacity at the Baramati plant, so that in 2014 it can produce about 20,000 units a month. At the same time, network and distribution will be ramped up to close to 100 dealerships by the end of the year, from the existing 48 in 35 cities.

*Image used for representation purpose only

Husqvarna recently pulled the covers off their TR 650 Strada and TR 650 Terra models.

Both these models are essentially the same bike, with the Strada being more street-focused and the Terra having good off-road capabilities. Powered by a 652-cc, single-cylinder engine borrowed from the parent company’s BMW G650GS, these Huskies get about 58 PS from the engine (an extra 11 PS over the old specs), with an option of a restricted power version (48 PS) also being available. The Strada will come with ABS as a standard feature, which will be an optional feature in the Terra.