If ’manufacturing’ is a sequence of engineered systems that creates value for its customers, then ‘Manufacturing Excellence’ can be considered the enabler of sustainability in this endeavor to enhance competitiveness of organizations and their supply chains

Contribution from the manufacturing sector is expected to get a boost with the new manufacturing policy making its intention clear; that of increasing GDP from manufacturing to 25 percent by 2025. Quite clearly there will be allocation of resources and opportunities. Organizations will compete with each other to get their share of the same. Overall growth will happen and suddenly one will find an intense focus amongst those who ride the wave…to sustain and thrive. This will lead to more aligned and robust Manufacturing and Supply Chains. In a way, the dominant onus of competitiveness could very well shift towards successfully doing so!

Successful organizations strategize on improving operations, strive to eliminate waste and thus create lean organizations. This often results in higher productivity, improvement in cost competitiveness, lead time reduction and consistency in quality. Sequential methods of performing work are being replaced with concurrent methods to compress time, while functional and hierarchical divisions of duties are being replaced by team-driven activities. If change is taken as given, then the future belongs to change agents who can surgically prioritize areas for strategic change, and then implement the same in a sustainable manner..

India Manufacturing Excellence Awards (IMEA) was conceptualized and instituted by Frost & Sullivan in 2004 to support companies in their journey towards building a competitive and lean organization. With effect from 2009, Frost & Sullivan and the Economic Times have collaborated to jointly host the India Manufacturing Excellence Awards. With a mission “to recognize the Indian Manufacturing capability and assess its Global Competitiveness”, ET-IMEA in partnership with Frost & Sullivan has a robust, highly acclaimed and constantly updated assessment process in place derived from the best global manufacturing practices. Being the only one of its kind in India, ET-IMEA in partnership with Frost & Sullivan has over the years increasingly received the reputation of being an independent, unbiased and credible evaluation of supply chain efficiencies with respect to their leanness and flexibility.

The facilities are rated through Frost & Sullivan’s proprietary methodology and the top ranking facilities are eligible for awards. ET-IMEA in partnership with Frost & Sullivan is considered to be the most successful and long established manufacturing award program in India, and a unique platform that provides a detailed benchmarking and assessment process to help improve the business.