Tata steel India bags Deming Prize-2008

Jamshedpur, Oct 7 (UNI) Tata Steel India today became the first integrated steel company in the world outside Japan to be awarded the Deming Application Prize for its excellence in total quality management(TQM).

A Tata Steel communique said the company won the award for the year 2008, adding it was announced today by the Deming Prize Committee instituted by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers(JUSE), the apex body spearheading the quality movement.

The formal award ceremony will take place on November 12 in Tokyo.

Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman, while expressing satisfaction over the firm's achievement, said, ''No other activity made us think so deeply about our business and relationships than the process of applying for the Deming Prize. The TQM is a fundamental way of managing business and every organisation can gain from institutionalising the culture necessary for winning the prize.'' Mr Muthuraman dedicated this recognition to the employees of Tata Steel as well as its customers and business partners who had consistently embraced the culture of continuous improvement and demonstrated a great teamwork leading to several recognitions in the last 20 years since the TQM journey started at the steel company in 1988.

The Deming Prize, established in December 1950 in honor of W Edwards Deming, was originally designed to reward Japanese companies for major advances in quality improvement.

It has grown, under the guidance of Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and is now also available to non-Japanese companies.

The prizes are awarded to an individual or company and other operating organisations and factories located outside Japan.

The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) are the administrators of the process and the examiners are typically university professors with areas of expertise in quality management.

Worldwide, 160 companies have won the Deming Application Prize since the time it was instituted, out of which 15 companies were Indian, primarily from the automotive sector.

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