Excelling through technological leadership

V NarasimhanChennai: V Narasimhan, 55, is extremely meticulous by temperament. Set him a task and a date, and be rest assured that the executive director of Brakes India Limited, will see it accomplished. On time. Every time.

A masters degree-holder in industrial engineering with over three decades of management experience, Narasimhan heads the company's foundry division that won the prestigious Deming award from the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) last year.

Speaking on the positive impact of going through the grind of preparing for the Deming award audit, he says, "It is the usual practice in the foundry industry to work with customers' drawings and specifications. But we are increasingly getting involved with product design through collaborative efforts with our customers. We differentiate ourselves by getting more and more involved at the design stage itself."

According to him, the Rs230 crore foundry division works continuously to improve upon the value addition and is working towards emerging as a tier-I supplier to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) from the current tier-II / tier III supplier status.

Here he talks about the foundry division post-Deming and what the award and the total quality management (TQM) process actually mean to the company's bottomline. Interestingly the foundry division has been logging an impressive 35-per cent year-on-year growth for the past three years. Excerpts