Three Manufacturing Plants and Two Power Sector Divisions bag the CII-Exim commendation for business excellence.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has achieved a major milestone, with its three manufacturing plants and two Power Sector divisions, bagging the prestigious CII-Exim commendation for business excellence.

Significantly, five participating units of BHEL have been awarded, which is a unique feat for any corporate among the public as well as private sectors. Notably, BHEL was the first public sector company in India to have won the CII-Exim Commendation in 2002, for its Trichy plant. The awards were presented by the Union Minister for Science & Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal, here today.

Of the five major manufacturing units of BHEL, three units located at Haridwar, Trichy, and Hyderabad have been recognised, besides its Power Sector - Northern (PS-NR) and Eastern Regions (PS-ER). While the Haridwar and Trichy plants have been awarded the Commendation for Significant Achievement, the Hyderabad plant, PS-NR and PS-ER have won the Commendation for Strong Commitment to Excel.

Jointly instituted by CII and Exim Bank, the coveted commendations (2005) have been awarded to BHEL for ongoing journey towards Business Excellence, aimed at improving overall operations and encouraging Total Quality Management (TQM) at all levels. The highest recognition of its kind in the country, the award has been instituted in India in line with International Quality Awards like the 'Malcolm Baldrige National Award' in USA, the 'Deming Prize' in Japan and the 'European Quality Award'.

While the above plants of BHEL manufacture state-of-the-art equipment for power and other infrastucture sectors, the company's Power Sector divisions are responsible for erection and commissioning of power projects in Northern & Eastern India.

The criteria for the award included display of visionary leadership, besides demonstrating a clear policy and business strategy in achieving the vision in a time bound fashion. In addition to effective deployment of people and other resources, this called for creating synergy with the company's business partners in a bid to satisfy its major stakeholders like customers, employees, society and investors. Their satisfaction levels were then ascertained in a systematic way through feedback.

BHEL initiated TQM in 1995 at its Trichy unit. Later, the concept was extended company-wide and a road map for business excellence was evolved. TQM concepts, deployed under the ‘Movement towards Business Excellence’, focussed on benchmarking and improving its products and internal processes to global standards. A quality conscious organisation with a strong customer focus, BHEL has acquired ISO-9001 (2000 version), ISO-14001 and OHSAS-18001 certification, for all its operations.