Philips, Federal Mugul, Smart Data, Godrej, Reliance are among the top companies that have won the north-west region?s prestigious 9th NorthWest Qualtech Awards presented at the annual North-West QualTech Convention organized by the PTU?s Gian Jyoti School of TQM and Entrepreneurship at the CII northern region headquarters.

Instituted by PTU?s Gian Jyoti School of TQM & Entrepreneurship, the first School of Excellence of Punjab Technical University, the school has been driving the transformation of industry in the region for last nine years by introducing systematic world-class quality practices.

In the manufacturing category, Vardhman Quality Navigator Award for large business, was won by Philips Electronics of Mohali, with Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing, Mohali and Reliance Industries of Hoshiarpur winning the second and third place.

For medium business, Trident Quality Pioneer Award was won by Federal Mugul Goetze (India) Ltd, of Patiala with Winsome Textiles coming second. The Winsome Qualiity Pathfinder Award for small business in manufacturing sector went to Farm Parts of Ludhiana, with Swaraj Automotive of Nabha coming second.

In the services sector, Smart Data Enterprise of Mohali, won the Educomp Qualiity Innovator Award. Globe Toyota of Mohali cornered the second position in the category. The 18 finalists had implemented quality processes in their respective organizations leading to an annual saving of over Rs.6 crores.

Eighteen finalist teams from manufacturing companies, who competed for the 9th North-West QualTech Awards have added Rs. 6 crores to their bottom-line just by implementing various Total Quality Management (TQM) practices.

K.C. Mehra ? Chairman of the National Board for Quality Promotion, Quality Council of India ? who gave away the awards to the winners in his keynote address complimented the participating companies, and implored the participants of the Convention to join hands with Quality Council of India to achieve its mission of ?Quality for National Well Being?.

During the day-long convention, 21 project presentations (including 3 from service sector) were made by teams from various companies from Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, both from manufacturing and service sectors, who had reached the final round of the competition.

Manish Trehan, CEO of the School, said that the School has been spearheading the quality movement in this region, and it is a matter of great satisfaction that the finalist teams, who presented their projects at the Convention, have been able to achieve extraordinary results for their companies through structured quality improvement initiatives.

Padmashri Chandra Mohan, Chairman of the School?s Governing Council said ?it is also a testimony to the universal applicability of the practices of Total Quality Management and heralds a bright future for the manufacturing and service industries in this region?.

The inaugural session was chaired by Sachit Jain, Managing Director, Vardhman Special Steels Limited. A unique feature of this year?s Convention was the panel discussion on ?Achieving Competitive Advantage through Quality?, which was chaired by R P Sehgal, Director Works, SML Isuzu Limited. J S Bedi, member of the Governing Council of the School complimented the participating teams for sharing their best practices.