‘Deming award to help Tata Steel overcome current crisis’

Tata Steel has become the first integrated steel company outside Japan to be awarded the Deming Application Prize for excellence in total quality management (TQM).

Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman received the coveted medal from Fujio Mitarai, chairman of Deming Prize Committee, at a formal function recently in Tokyo.

The Deming award, the highest award for quality in the world, was given to Tata Steel not only for what it has done for its customers, employees and business partners but also for its exceptional work in the area of social welfare and upliftment in the areas of its operations.

Accepting the award, Muthuraman dedicated it to the employees and workers of the steel major.

“This prize has come to us at the right time when the world is struck by the financial and economic crisis. The work and effort that every employee and worker of the company had put in to get this prize and everything that we will do henceforth to justify winning this prize, will enable us to succeed even in the midst of this crisis and make us a better organization than what it is today,” said the managing director, addressing the gathering in Tokyo.

During the assessment process, the examinees from Japan were not only impressed by the quality parameters followed at Tata Steel but also by the social commitment of the company and the work done by it in the rural areas for a century now.

“We won the award because we were the first to take sure steps towards quality movement; our efforts to challenge the Deming Prize and the questions the Deming examiners asked us during the assessment process has made us realize that we now have a tool and a system with which we can improve everything we do in a continuous and predictable basis,” said Muthuraman.

The award ceremony was organised by the Deming Prize Committee instituted by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), the apex body spearheading the quality movement.

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

It has grown under the guidance of JUSE and is now also available to non-Japanese companies.