QCI July August 2015

quality
A QCI Publication
JulyAugust 2015
india
Creating an Ecosystem
for World Class
Quality
10th National Quality Conclave, August 7-8, 2015, Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi
Excellence
is a continuous
process
and not
an accident.
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

(1931 - 2015)
A tribute!
Quality Council of India

Institution of Engineers Bldg.,
2 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi 110 002
Tel: 011-123378056/57
Fax: 011-23378678
To succeed in your
mission, you must have
single-minded devotion
to your goal!
Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
(1931-2015)
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the 2nd National Quality Conclave

Quality Council of India .
A disciplined man who

taught us how to dream,
compassion being his
supreme virtue,
truly a peoples President ...
Sir, you will be missed.
Adil Zainulbhai
Chairman, QCI
quality india | JulyAugust 2015
Message
Quality India - August 2015
Dear Quality Professionals,
n the last issue of Quality India, I had apprised you about the mega event on
Quality which is held every year since 2005 to brainstorm on quality issues in the
country and promote quality in every walk of life.
It is a great moment of pride for all of us at the Quality Council of India to be

with you again this year to deliberate on the key issues and challenges of Quality.
The Theme this year for the 10th National Quality Conclave is Creating an Ecosystem
for World Class Quality in India, that will help develop successful strategies for an
effective ecosystem essential to achieve the stringent Quality targets.
Dr. R. P. Singh
Secretary General
In NQC 2015 many luminaries who have helped develop successful models in other
countries have shown interest to be a part of the growth story in India in view of the
progressive initiatives of the Government. Several national and international experts
including policy makers and decision makers are participating as speakers in various
sessions. Most of the delegates are industry leaders and other stakeholders interested
in promoting quality along with participation of students who are expected to carry
the torch of quality in India.
The NQC 2015 has interesting sessions on the following topics:
1. Emerging Environmental Standards for an improved Ecosystem.
2. Interventions to improve quality in healthcare: Global, regional and country
perspectives.
3. Improving the Process of Education for effectiveness.
4. Quality in Indian traditional medicine, yoga and Ayurveda.
5. Quality healthcare for Universal Health Coverage.
6. Creating Quality infrastructure, promoting quality of products and services and
improving the quality of life.
7. Enhancing Employability through interventions of quality and acquiring skills for
mobility across borders.
The National Quality Conclave is a platform for a holistic view to know the best
practices around in the world and how India can build an Ecosystem of Quality in
every sphere of life. It is an opportunity to interact with some of the best International
Experts who drive the quality movement in the world and a platform to build
relations with Industry and academia and also to commit to competitivenessin the
world market.
On behalf of Quality Council of India, I invite you to be a part of NQC, our flagship
Annual Event!
We also will welcome any feedback / suggestions that you may like to give to
add further value to the work that we do at QCI and for organising such events
more effectively.
Jai Hind!
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
Competent . Creative . Cooperative

Credible . Continual . Consistent
By | Vipin Sahni
CEO-NABET, QCI
oday the key ingredients critical to our society for

reaching the evisaged goal of a developed economy
include the school and higher education, vocational/
skills training, effectiveness of Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constituting a substantial
part of industry, and environmental preservation. We quickly
need to build quality accreditation structures in these areas
for the international acceptability of our youth, be it for higher
educational institutes or as skilled manpower or for exports
of products and services. National Accreditation Board for
Education and Training (NABET) has been at the forefront in
creating enabling mechanisms through its accreditation and
capacity building schemes to support the national movement.
Through the above values NABET team has been ensuring its
contribution in the QCI Mission of Creating an Eco system for
quality. NABET has established mechanisms for the accreditation
of vocational training organizations including Industrial
Training Institutes (ITIs), skill assessment bodies, EIA Consultant
Organisations, Schools, Teachers Training institutes, Business
Membership Organisations, etc. It is also the National Monitoring
and Implementation Unit (NMIU) for the Lean Cluster Project
of Ministry of MSME.Besides its various bi-lateral agreements,
NABET has also become a full member of Pacific Accreditation
Cooperation (PAC), which will pave a way for the international
acceptability of NABET schemes especially relating to the skill
training and certifications.
Amidst a galaxy of industrialists and business leaders from all
over the world, Honble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra
Modi launched Make in India, the ambitious campaign to make
India a global manufacturing hub. It was a clarion call to invest
in India, not just to the big names in the domestic sector but
also to the international business community.
Taking a cue from the Honble Prime Ministers speech, NABET,
QCI along with the industry stakeholders,
has developed the Zero Defect Zero
Effect (ZED) maturity assessment model
to assess, rate and handhold the SMEs of
India and take them to higher maturity
levels. ZED is a model where concept
of quality has a holistic change from
a tool for compliance to a source of
competitiveness. Operationally it is
meant to evolve from a total dependency
on inspection of the final product to
correct defect, to a proactive process
of enablers of quality like quality
planning, product and process designing,
optimum processes, efficient resource
management, effective outsources
activities and breakthrough outcomes.
All along with quality of products and
services equal emphasis is on the elimination of impacts on

the environment through adequate planning at product and
process design, pre-production (startup activities), production
and maintenance activities, post production (disposal after
use) and outcome of environment performance. The net
result is compatible to sustainable development. ZED Maturity
Assessment Model has been conceived and structured to offer
graded benchmark levels of an organizations performance
through a set of standard enablers and outcomes focused on
quality and environmental performances in easily understood
terms. It aims to rate and handhold all SMEs to deliver topquality products using clean technology.
The aim is to help SMEs evolve and grow by providing them
with adequate training and funding to move up the value chain
and produce quality products. The model will sensitise SMEs
to emphasise on packaging and branding and simultaneously
train them to deliver quality products with zero defects, leading
to zero rejection.Clean energy will be a very important aspect
of the model. Enterprises will be encouraged and hand-held to
adopt clean technology to attain a sustainable growth trajectory.
There will be sector-specific assessment parameters for each
industry such as food processing, textiles, leather, autoand auto
ancillaries, etc.
The ZED Team covered the length andbreadth of the country,
approaching the SMEs and making them aware of this model
and urging them to particiapte. In this process a first hand
information on the pain points of the SMEs, the engine of
economic growth in India, were recorded which assisted the ZED
team to suitably modify its approach of the model.
Currently a select list of SMEs from all over India, cutting
across various sectors are in the process of undergoing
consulting, handholding and finally a site assessment leading
to the award of a certification based on the rating obtained.
Industry stakeholders such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and other
Industry Associations have joined hands to take this cause

forward. Association with organisations such as American
Society for Quality (ASQ), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA),
Japan plus, etc. are being explored to give the project a shot
in the arm. Also efforts are being made for capacity building of
associations, chambers , industry, consulting bodies and rating
agencies to develop competent trainers, facilitators, industry
champions and assessors across the nation. NABET has taken
this initiative to bring all stakeholders on the same knowledge,
thinking and wavelength about ZED philosphy.
E - learning is foundation of implementing ZED maturity
model and continual improvement to higher level. Efforts
are initiated for E - modules of various elements to enable
journey towards Zero Defect and Zero Effect at minimal cost
with approach even at farthest corner of the nation. ZED cells
are being created to launch this movement with Universities,
IITs, IIMs, OEMs and other educational institutions. All these
efforts will create a natural pull for International and domestic
customers who are very seriously looking for Quality products &
services with minimal impacts on environment
Needless to say, air pollution, poor management of waste,
growing water scarcity, falling groundwater tables, water
pollution, deterioration in quality of forests, biodiversity loss,
and land/soil degradation are some of the major environmental
issues India faces today.Simultaneously, the Indian market is
growing rapidly and Indian industry is making remarkable
progress in various sectors such as Manufacturing, Precision
Engineering, Food Processing, Pharmaceuticals, Textile and
Garments, Retail, IT, Agro and Service sectors. If the SMEs of
India can adopt globally accepted quality interventions and
become conscious of environmental issues, it will not be long
that India will be one of the most sought after destinations for
manufacturing in the world. And ZED can help.
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
Scheme for Voluntary Certification

of Yoga Professionals
n a presentation made by the Commerce Secretary to the

PM in July, 2014, the PM had desired to spread Indias
traditional knowledge worldwide with credible systems
with specific reference to Yoga which should provide India
leadership in assuring quality of Yoga practices across the
world.
The Ministry of AYUSH in pursuance of the above and in
the wake of declaration of International Yoga Day identified
Quality Council of India (QCI) to develop a Scheme for Voluntary
Certification of Yoga Professionals recognising that QCI has
expertise in developing such quality frameworks based on
international best practices.
The focus of the Scheme for Voluntary certification Yoga
Professionals, as it is being called, is to certify the competence of
Yoga Professionals who provide Yoga lessons/classes as Teachers
or by whatever nomenclature they are called.
QCI has designed the Scheme for Voluntary certification
ofYoga Professional by adopting the principles and requirements
laid down in the international standard, ISO/IEC 17024:2012
(E) General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification of
Persons especially clause 8 that describes the elements of the
scheme.
The Scheme aims to certify Yoga professionals using the
principles of third party assessment through the following
process:
a. Defining the competence requirements in terms of knowledge
and skills to be complied with by the Yoga professionals in the
form of Competence Standard.
b. Defining the process of evaluation and certification in the form
of the Certification Process.
c. Laying down requirements for competence and operation of

assessment bodies through Accreditation.
The draft Competence Standard was prepared by engaging
group of experts having knowledge on different schools of Yoga.
The draft was presented to a multistakeholder Steering
Committee constituted for the purpose and chaired by Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar Ji having members from the Government, Yoga
Institutions, Universities, Industry Bodies, related Organizations,
and individual experts.
It was agreed in the meeting that this Scheme for Yoga
Professionals will evaluate three levels of competence, namely,
Yoga Teacher, Yoga Master and Yoga Guru (being the advanced
level). It was also agreed in the meeting that the highest
competence level would be termed as Acharya.
An Expert Groupunder theChairmanship of Dr. H. R. Nagendra,
Chancellor, S-VYASAYoga Universitywas constituted to modify
the Scheme based on directions of the Steering Committee. A
pilot evaluation was undertaken to validate the draft scheme
and 19 candidates were subjected evaluation as per the updated
Competence Criteria (Standard) at the Morarji Desai National
Institute of Yoga.
Based on the above, the final Scheme has been presented
to the Ministry of AYUSH and waslaunched on, 22 June 2015
by HonbleHome Minister of India ShriRajnath Singh in the
valedictory function of the International Yoga Day celebration
with distribution of certificates to candidates who qualified in the
pilot evaluation.
The Scheme is mentored by Ministry of AYUSH and owned by
Quality Council of India.
For further details on the scheme, please visit www.qcin.org;
Metal Detection in food

& beverages, a need of the hour
The Food and Beverage (f&b) services market
in India are expanding at a rapid pace. The
compounded annual growth rate is currently
25 per cent and is expected to remain so over
the next few years. The overall f&b scenario in
India has evolved dramatically over the past
decade. While in the past, there were only a
handful of brands to choose from; now the
consumers have difficulty in choosing from the
multitude of brands on offer.
By | Dr. Saurabh Arora

Founder, Food Safety Helpline.com
he f&b industry has also attracted good investments

in recent years. So, with the booming f&b industry,
comes the issue of food safety. In order to ensure
that the f&b market keeps flourishing, it is important
to focus on the quality of food offered to the
consumers.
It is of utmost importance that the food we eat and
the beverages we drink are absolutely safe for human
consumption. Therefore, carrying out food safety checks is a
mandatory requirement for ensuring food safety. f&b need
to be tested for a large number of contaminants. Of these,
checking contaminating metals is very important, as these
have a deleterious effect on health, if the levels are above the
specified values. Many metals act as co-factors for enzymes
involved in various metabolic pathways. It follows that large
quantities of contaminating metals can have an adverse effect
on these metabolic pathways, leading to health problems,
especially upon continuous, long-term exposure.
The various types of metals, in particular, the heavy metals
are widely distributed in our environment, and can enter our
food chain though various ways. For example, heavy metals
in the streams, rivers and lakes can accumulate in fish, which
in turn are consumed by humans, leading to heavy metals
entering the human food chain. This is only one example out
of a myriad. However, regardless of the mode of entry into the
food cycle, they disturb the normal functioning of the body
metabolism and can accumulate in the body causing severe
toxicity.
A few other metals, namely, sodium, potassium and calcium
do not fall within the category of heavy metals, but are
nevertheless important for the normal functioning of the body.
Calcium is required for muscle contraction and transportation
of molecules; while sodium and potassium are required for
maintaining electrolyte balance within cells with reference to
10
Dr. Saurabh Arora
its extracellular environment. A deficiency of these metal ions

can lead to various health problems. For example, calcium
deficiency can cause osteomalacia or weak bones, while excess
can cause toxicity. Deficiency of sodium and potassium can
cause hyponatremia and hypokalemia respectively, while their
excesses can lead to toxicity.
Safety limits for heavy metals

recommended by FSSAI
To protect the consumers, regulatory bodies across the
world have established regulations with stringent limits on the
permitted levels of heavy metals in different items of food. The
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the apex
regulatory body on food in India, has recommended safety
limits for metal contaminants in food and beverages, which
should not be exceeded. These are tabulated in Table 1.
How are metals tested in food and

beverages?
The presence of heavy metal contaminants in f&b makes it
important for the food industry to ensure that their products
are free from these toxic elements by regularly testing their
ingredients and products for compliance with the regulatory
requirements.
Table 1: FSSAI recommended limits for metal contaminants in foods and beverages
Metal Contaminant
Article of Food
Parts per Million (ppm) by Weight
Load

Beverages:
Concentrated soft drinks
Tomato juice & other fruit and vegetable juices
Lime juice & lemon juice
Tea
Foods:
Edible oils, fats and refined white sugar
Ice cream & ice lollies
Canned fish & meat, meat extracts, hydrolyzed protein,
dried and dehydrated vegetables
All types of sugar: raw sugar, sugar syrup, invert sugar,
edible molasses, caramel liquid, solid glucose
Iron fortified common salt
Meat and meat products
Solid pectin
Hard boiled sugar confectionery
Foods not specified
Copper

Beverages:
Soft drinks excluding concentrates and carbonated water
Carbonated water
Concentrates of soft drinks
Coffee beans
Tea
Juice of orange, grape, apple, tomato, pineapple and lemon
7.0
1.5
20.0
30.0
150.0
5.0
Foods:
Pulp and pulp products of any fruit
Infant milk substitute and Infant foods
Caramel
Tomato puree, paste, powder, juice and cocktails
Tomato ketchup
Edible gelatin
Pectin solid
Foods not specified
2.0
5.0
15.0 (but not less than 2.8)
20.0
100.0 on the dried tomato solid
50.0 on the dried total solids
30.0
300.0
5.0
30.0
Arsenic

Beverages (including milk):

Milk
Soft drink intended for consumption after dilution
except carbonated water
Carbonated water
Juice of orange, grape, apple, tomato, pineapple
and lemon
Foods:
Infant milk substitute and infant foods
Preservatives, anti-oxidants, emulsifying and stabilising
agents and synthetic food colours
0.5
1.0
2.0
10.0 on the dry matter
0.5
1.0
5.0
5.0
2.0
2.5
50.0
2.0
2.5
0.1
0.5
0.25
0.2
0.05
0.2
3.0 on dry matter
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
11
Ice cream and ice lollies

Dehydrated onions, edible gelatin, liquid pectin
Dried herbs, finings and clearing agents,
solid pectin all grades, spices
Foods not specified
Tin

Beverages:
Juice of orange, apple, tomato, pineapple and lemon
250.0
Foods:
Processed and canned products
Jam, jellies and marmalade
Meat and meat products
Foods not specified
250.0
250.0
5.0
250.0
5.0
250.0
250.0
Zinc

Beverages:
Ready-to-drink beverages
Juice of orange, grape, tomato, pineapple and lemon
Foods:
Edible gelatin
Fruit and vegetable products
Foods not specified
Cadmium

Foods:
Turmeric whole and powder
Other foods
0.1
0.1
1.5
Mercury

Foods:
Fish
Other foods
0.5
1.0
12
5.0
5.0
20 ppb
All hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated,

interesterified vegetable oils and fats
Testing for metals in foodstuff essentially involves the

following four steps:
Sampling: The objective of this step is to obtain a small and a
representative portion of the large sample in such a way that
any subsequent test on the sample will give reproducible
results.
Destruction of organic matter: The commonly used methods
of destruction of organic matter can be broadly grouped
into wet oxidation, dry ashing and microwave digestion.
Separation and concentration of the metal: Once the
5.0
1.0
1.0
1.1
5.0
50.0 (but not less than 25.0)
100.0
50.0
5.0
50.0
Chromium Refined sugar

Nickel

0.5
2.0
1.5
organic component is destroyed, the element of interest are

concentrated by applying physico-chemical methods.
Measurement and determination of the metal: The
concentrated element is then subjected to analytical
methods to determine its actual level in the original sample
of food.
Which methods does the FSSAI

recommend?
The FSSAI has recommended a number of methods for
testing contaminating metals in foodstuff, which have been

approved and validated internationally by leading agencies such
as the USFDA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
of the EU. It is important to note that approval by international
agencies in various countries means that the methods have
been standardised and harmonised as per global standards.
Therefore, when the Indian food products are exported to these
countries and retested before distribution, they will pass the
quality and safety checks easily. Some of the approved methods
of approved and validated methods that are at the disposal of

the food analyst for testing metal contaminants in foodstuff.
Importantly, more advanced and automated analytical methods
such as AAS, ICP MS, coupled with microwave digestion for
sample preparation have immensely streamlined and simplified
the whole process of food testing. This has resulted in the
generation of more robust data that are reproducible and at par
with international standards, which has led to a new era in food
testing services in India.
Table 2: FSSAI recommended limits for metal contaminants in foods and beverages
Metal Method(s)
Lead, Cadmium, Copper, Iron, Zinc
Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS)
Mercury
Flameless AAS; Mercury analyzer; Colorimetric dithizone method
Arsenic
Colorimetric molybdenum blue method; Colorimetric silver diethyl
dithiocarbamate method
Cadmium
Colorimetric dithizone method
Copper
Colorimetric carbamate method (IUPAC method)
Iron
Colorimetric method using - -dipyridyl
Lead
Colorimetric method using dithizone and chloroform
Tin
Spectrophotometric catechol violet method (IUPAC method);
Volumetric method
Zinc
Colorimetric dithizone method
for testing heavy metals are briefied in Table 2.
Most advanced method for testing metals

The most advanced method for testing metals, which is
considered the Gold Standard is a combination of microwave
digestion for sample preparation, followed by inductively
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS) for sample
analysis. The closed sample digestion technique of microwave
digestion system allows for preparing the samples in a closed
system at high temperature and pressure without losing any
of the volatile analyst such as mercury and arsenic, which are
otherwise easily lost when the sample is digested using open
digestion with acids or ashing followed by acid treatment. ICP
MS gives the advantage of analysing all the metals at the same
time with minimum manual intervention, which is required
when analysing samples on an AAS with hydride generation
and graphite furnace assembly. It also offers unparalleled low
detection limits, in the parts per trillion levels range, allowing
for the use of smaller sample quantities which can be properly
digested giving better recovery and reproducibility of results.
Conclusion
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that testing for
contaminating metals is a very important aspect of maintaining
food safety. These metals, particularly, the heavy metals should
not exceed the permissible limits in food and beverages, as
recommended by the FSSAI. Now-a-days, there are a number
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
13
Creating an ecosystem
for quality is teamwork
By | Dr. T. Devanthi
M.B.B.S., MBA, Dy QMR
Manipal Hospitals, Salem
reating, implementing and maintaining quality

involves a comprehensive contribution of several
factors such as sound scientific knowledge, belief in
quality, soldierly dedication to the cause, unwillingness
to be deterred by the practical impediments,
astuteness in overcoming obstacles, instilling knowledge and the
spirit of quality in others, immense patience, good communication
skills and working in a collaborative manner.
And above all, the willingness to face the onslaught of sceptics
in the face of skyrocketing expenses of the organisation towards
quality.
We are now at only a nascent stage, because awareness about
what is quality, its multiple facets and implications and benefits
is understood by healthcare professionals of only accredited
hospitals. Healthcare professionals follow the norms in their
clinical practice as they think is right, based on the institution in
which they have been trained, the quality of which widely varies.
They are seldom aware about the standards of quality, especially
those about nonclinical aspects which also attribute to quality in
patient care and safety.
The first step in the right direction has been the setting up of
the QCI and the accreditation process. However, this is only for
large and small hospitals, labs, blood banks, etc. There are lakhs of
doctors having small nursing homes and private clinics, who will
never come into this ambit.
So creating quality awareness in terms of ethics, evidence
based medicine, diagnostics, engineering requirements and
patient safety has become a part of the medical curriculum
through the MCI. Awareness is the road to knowledge gain and
practice of quality in their future endeavours, be it even a small
OPD practice.
Quality is very hard to practice because of the cost and
practical difficulties in implementing it. So in any organisation,
the quality manager and the operational manager are bound
to have conflicts of interest. The best outcome will be achieved
14
when each values the others commitment and understands

that collaboration is required to achieve quality patient care, but
of course at a certain expense. It is unfair to cry foul when the
government allots a pittance for health in our annual budget
while we skimp on our quality budget, be it a large organisation
or a small practice.
On the other hand, we really need to re-examine the use of
certain disposables such as sheets, gowns, expensive devices,
etc. It definitely helps in giving quality care, but also contributes
to increasing cost to the organisation, for the patient as well to
the environment. Use of disposables has to be more rationale,
especially in a country where the majority are poor. Quality
cannot be ensured by the mere use of disposables, it can be
ensured even without disposables.
On the other hand, the government should also allow tax
concession on quality expenses of the health care provider.
So creating an ecosystem for quality is a teamwork and not an
individual or profession or person effort.
List Of DL Shah Quality Award Winners

For The Year 2015 10th National Quality Conclave
Best of Best Award

Company Name of Project
Kidney Hospital & Lifeline Medical Institutions, Jalandhar
A Study On Hospital Culture & Its impact On Quality Care
PLATINUM AWARD
VIVO Healthcare, Gurgaon
Delivering Solutions in Healthcare Education
& Emergency Response
Nethradhama Super Speciality
Determining The Economic Order Quantity
Eye Hospital, Bangalore
For Patient Files With Continuous Cost Reduction
Programme
Bharti Foundation, Gurgaon
Quality tools applied to reduce and recycle waste at
Satya Bharti Adarsh Senior Secondary School,
Rauni, Ludhiana
Fortis Escorts Hospital, Jaipur
CARE-EPIC - Strengthening Patient care through
Innovation in Nursing Care Records-
Dock to Stock Cycle Time Reduction
Nokia Solutions & Networks
SMT Process Quality Improvement
India Private Limited, Oragadam
And Capacity Optimization
GOLD AWARD
16
SANMINASCI India Pvt Ltd, Oragadam
Dock to Stock Cycle Time Reduction
Wipro Infotech, Bangalore
Electronic Cheque Clearance Processing
Time Reduction.
Essar Steel India Ltd, Surat
To Increase Snorkel life of Vessel at RH-TOB By 30%
Kalycito Infotech Private Limited, Coimbatore
e-Alerta
Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore
Clinical Audit Program-A model for the Nation
GOLD AWARD
BHEL - Bhopal
Improving Quality Process Effectiveness through
Integrated Real-Time Quality Management System
HINDUSTAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY LTD, Mumbai
Reduction of Weld Repair to 5% Level in Bogibeel
Rail cum Road Bridge Project at Dibrugarh, Assam
HDFC Life, Mumbai
Improvement in Persistency : A Win Win for ALL
NTPC Limited, Sipat
Cost Saving Through Import Substitution
In NTPC Sipat 660MW SC Boilers
Lupin Limited , Ankleshwar
Intermediate Yield Improvement
Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd Airoli
Enhancing Capacity Utilization by 35%
through Virtual Integration
SILVER AWARD
Dr. Bhanuben Mahendra Nanavati College
Transformation of Girls Students
of Home Science, Mumbai
Into Empowered Citizens
Tata Consultancy Services (BPS),Chennai
Fraud Detection Enriching Competent Minds
Wipro Business Process Services, Pune
Transforming customer experience
for UKs Fixed Line Customers
DS Spiceco Private Limited, Noida
Quality Improvement & Standardization
in Line Cartoon with the Implementation of 7QC Tools
National Industries, Ludhiana
To Reduce The Cost Of Poor Quality
(Cost of Failures)
J.K. Fenner ( India) Limited, Madurai
To Reduce Steam Cost
Biocon Limited, Bangalore
Rationale For Environment Monitoring Locations
Based On Risk Based Approach.
Xylo Paints Pvt Ltd, New Delhi
Shades of Innovation
Jagran Prakashan Ltd, Noida
Newsprint Waste reduction
Nasa Brain and Spine Centre, Jalandhar
Physical Storage of files in Medical record
Department :An easy and accountable method

JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
17
Indian packaging industry:

An overview
e all should cheer on the announcement of our

Prime Ministers MAKE IN INDIA campaign. The
existing packaging industries have great days
ahead and also the new entrepreneurs can set
up an industry, as the future of Indian packaging
scenario is extremely bright.
As in India, through rising consumer demand and new
technologies, the Indian packaging industry will change in the
near future, with an overview of the industry as well as analysis
of emerging trends, growth drivers, major players, and market
forecasts.
India has the second largest GDP among emerging economies
based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The country is the fourth
largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP).
The packaging industry in India is one of the fastest growing
industries which has its influence on all industries, directly or
indirectly.
Many new trends contribute to an 11 per cent annual growth
rate currently seen in the Indian Packaging Industry. Flexible
packaging makes transport easier, while green packaging
prevents waste. Pharma and food packaging sustain the shelf
life of products, preventing loss and increasing the value of
merchandise. India is currently 11th in the global packaging
The author Mr. Girish

Kshirsagar, is a Managing
Director of Polymark
Industries. Having
more than 30 years of
experience in Packaging
industry, he is an Award
winner from Govt.
of Maharashtra Best
Entrepreneur of the
year. He has presented
his papers in various
conferences and seminars.
Polymark Industries is
very well known company in the field of PP Boxes, Corrugated
Packagings as well as Thermocole, PE & PU Foam packagings
For Automobile, Engineering, Electronics, Electricals,
Pharmaceuticals, Floriculture etc. The company also offers the
complete Packaging Solutions.
industry, but the projected 18-20 per cent growth rate should
soon place them in 4th place.
Packaging serves to increase the value of products across a
wide variety of industries, and so makes itself a valuable market.
Through improved packaging technologies, foods are kept fresh
for longer duration, drugs and medicines have a longer shelf life
and are packaged safely, and goods can be transported without
a fear of damage. These benefits have served the Indian economy
well, and new technologies are expanding the economic benefits
gained through employment and added product value.
Industry overview
The Indian PackagingIndustry is growing continuously. The
total worth is about USD 24.6 billion. The average annual growth
rate is about 13-15 per cent. However, there is great growth
potential since Indias per capita consumption of packaging is
only 4.3 kgs whereas neighbouring Asian countries such as China
and Taiwan show about 6 kgs and 19 kgs, respectively. This
clearly indicates that there are many more commodities which
need to be marketed in packaged condition and thus, a great
business opportunity stands for the Indian packaging industry.
Moreover, the Indian retail market is the 5th largest retail
destination, globally and has been ranked the second most
attractive emerging market for investment. The market is
currently valued at USD 350 million and is expected to rise to
USD 1.3 trillion by 2016.
20
Glimpses of 9 National
th
The 9th National Quality Conclave was held on April 15-16, 2014 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New
Delhi. Over the years, the Council has been taking various initiatives to promote the cause of
good governance, empowerment and quality of public services and accordingly themes for the
conclaves are selected. The theme, for the 9th National Quality Conclave was Build and Sustain
a Culture of Excellence through Collaborative Effort.
22
Quality Conclave 2014
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
23
HMIS: A boon for modern day

hospitals
By | Dr. Pranav Thaker
M.S. (ENT), PGDHHM,
CIH, EPBM (IIM-C) (Uni. 1st)
(COO & Medical Director, Nirmal Hospital, Surat)
Abstract
A weak HIMS hampers the productivity of a hospital badly. The
huge amount of information generated in hospitals is of no use if
not captured and analysed properly to increase the productivity
and patient satisfaction. Effective strategies must be in place for
implementing proper HIMS so that there is a better coordination
between different departments and it decreases the discharge
time as it is the final step in the hospital experience and is likely
to be well remembered by the patient. Slow or unpredictable
discharge translates into a reduction in effective bed capacity
and admission process delays. We modified and implemented
certain changes in the existing software and integrated all
the medical and operational modules of the software such as
pathology, radiology, patient care and billing. We also tested
the effectiveness of the software on the workflow by comparing
outcomes between the pre-implementation control group and
the post-implementation experimental group. The implementation
of the software, resulted in a drastic decrease in discharge time
and resulted in increased patient satisfaction and decrease in the
number of payment defaulters.
Introduction
Hospital bed demands occasionally exceed capacity, especially
during high-census periods such as viral respiratory seasons
(winter seasons). When bed demand exceeds capacity, patient
IT
Management
Operation
Management
Clinical
System
Hospital Mgmt
System
24
HMIS
Finance & HR
System
Support
Services System
admissions and scheduled surgical procedures can be delayed or

cancelled. Patients can also be diverted to other hospitals. These
changes can lead to major patient/family dissatisfaction, loss of
hospital revenue and loss of competitive edge.
The hospital in question is a leading multi speciality hospital
of Surat with a catchment area of entire South Gujarat and
neighbouring districts of Maharashtra.
Though the patients were satisfied with the

clinical services, some of the common complaints patients mentioned in their feedback
were:a) The discharge process takes three to four hours, even after the
doctor had advised discharge.
b) The patients are not informed about the bill amount on a
regular basis and at the time of discharge it is difficult for
them to arrange for cash when the bill amount is high.
c) The preparation of the discharge summary takes too long and
there are too many mistakes in the discharge summary.
S.N. ACTIVITY
1
2

3
4
5
6
AVERAGE TIME TAKEN
Time taken for Prep. Disch card

Time taken in sending the file
to the billing dept
Time taken in prep the bill
Time taken for clearance of bill
Time taken for counseling
Time taken by the pt. to vacate
the room
37
15
41
13
11
14
Some of the problems being faced by the

staff were as follows:a) As the discharge process was taking too long, it was getting
difficult for allotting rooms to new patients waiting for
admission, which often led to dissatisfaction and resentment
among the relatives.
b) The medical officers and the consultants complained that the
laboratory reports were not coming on time, which delayed
the starting of treatment of the patients. The laboratory
staff on their part said that though the reports are ready it
is difficult to type the reports due to excess workload and
shortage of staff.
c) As interim bills were not being prepared on a regular basis,
the cases of default of payment were very high which was
making it difficult for the management.
d) As the billing clerk has to make all the entries of the
procedures/tests done at the time of making the final bill, it

makes the job very lengthy and cumbersome.
e) The discharge process was not proper and it needed to be
rectified.
i) Approach to solving the problem:The major problem with the software being used was that all the
modules were working as standalone individuals. It was decided
to review the HMIS system of the hospital and work on the
feasibility of integrating all the major modules of the software
which could result in improving the workflow and efficiency of
the various services of each department.
ii) Methodology:It was decided to monitor the entire discharge procedure to

begin with so that we could identify the areas where we were
going wrong and corrective action could be taken.
The discharge process after being studied

was divided into the following six parts:Time of advising discharge
Time of preparation of discharge card
Time of sending the file to billing department
Time when the final bill is ready
Time when the final bill is clear
Time of counselling with medical oOfficer
Time when patient leaves from the room
It was then decided to study the entire discharge procedure of
randomly selected patients to arrive at the exact time taken to
discharge and to find out the time taken for each process. Ten
patients were selected for the study and the breakup of the time
taken for each step in the discharge procedure is as mentioned
below:-
On breaking up the entire discharge process

the following facts came forward:It came to knowledge that the two activities that were taking
the most of the time were:- Preparation of discharge card and

preparation of the final bill.
We decided to act on the same and the following steps were taken:a) It was decided to update the inpatient files on a daily basis
and the provision for the same was provided at each patient
care department.
b) A new post of floor coordinators was created and the primary
responsibility of the coordinators was to update the inpatient
files and enter any procedure that takes place in the software.
c) The billing module was also integrated with the clinical.
module and hence any entries made in the clinical module,
the entries were reflected in the billing module as well.
d) All the details were being entered online and any patient likely
to be discharged the next day, the Medical officer on duty was
asked to update the file and keep it ready for the next day.
e) The laboratory module was also connected with the Clinical
module.
S.N. ACTIVITY
1
2
3
4
5
6
AVERAGE TIME TAKEN
Time taken for Prep. Disch card

Time taken in sending the file
to the billing dept
Time taken for clearance of bill
Time taken by the pt. to vacate
the room
10
7
11
6
10
7
iii) Impact on product or services:-
The software was implemented on a trial basis for a months

period. Ten patients were again selected on a random basis and
the results were monitored over the same.
On breaking up the entire discharge process after implementing
the changes, the following facts came forward
a) We found that the discharge time came down significantly.
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
25
b) Billing module and hence whenever the result of any test was
entered in the system, the doctor could view the same in his
department without waiting for hardcopy of the report and the
charges of the tests were reflected in the bill of the patient as
well.
c) As all the entries were being done online, it was easy for the
billing department to generate interim bills and inform the
patients about their billing status till date.
d) The incidents of default of payment by the patients also came
down drastically as the billing staff was able to keep a daily
track of the indoor bill of all patients and were able to ask the
relatives to clear the outstanding bill from time to time.
e) The reports of patients can be viewed online which helps the
clinical team to start the treatment without wasting precious
time.
iv) Details of financial gains achieved in

tangible terms and improvement of business
results :-
a) Default in payment of hospital bills which was as high as 1012 per cent earlier came down drastically to 2-3 per cent.
b) Smoothening of discharge process resulted in increased
satisfaction among the patients, which in turn resulted in
repeat visits of the patients. It was found on analysing the
feedback form of patients that 22 per cent of the patients
wrote that they would recommend the hospital to their family
members and friends for their health care needs.
c) Improvement in the services resulted in an increase in referral
cases from the medical fraternity. The occupancy of the
hospital, which was around 45-50 per cent rose to 65-70 per
cent.
d) Improvement in the services also motivated other visiting
consultants to admit their patients in our hospital.
The project demonstrated the importance of a strong HMIS
26
S.N. ACTIVITY EARLIER

1
2
3
4
5
Time taken for Prep.

Disch card
Time taken in sending the
file to the billing dept
Time taken for clearance
of bill
AFTER
IMPROVMENT
37
10
15
41
7
11
13
11
6
10
for efficient hospital bed management and decreasing the

discharge time.
References:
Discharge by Appointment: Freeing Up In-Patient Bed Capacity
: By Andrew Wilson MD, Chief of Emergency Medicine, William
Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI
A Tool for Improving Patient Discharge Process and Hospital
Communication Practices: the Patient Tracker Christopher G.
Maloney, MD PhD,1 Douglas Wolfe, MBA,2 Per H. Gesteland, MD
MS,1 Joe W. Hales, PhD,1,2 and Flory L. Nkoy, MD MS MPH1
. Myers C, Green T. Forecasting demand and capacity
requirements. Healthc Financ Manage. 2004 Aug;58(8):347.
[PubMed]
2. Falvo T, Grove L, Stachura R, et al. The Opportunity Loss of
Boarding Admitted Patients in the ED. Acad Emerg Med. 2007
Mar
3. Clayton PD, Narus SP, Huff SM, Pryor TA, Haug PJ, Larkin
T, Matney S, Evans RS, Rocha BH, Bowes WA, 3rd, Holston FT,
Gundersen ML. Building a comprehensive clinical information
system from components. The approach at Intermountain
Health Care. Methods Inf Med. 2003;42(1):17. [PubMed]
Initiatives taken by
Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State for Environment, Forests & Climate Change (Independent Charge), at QCI-EIA workshop, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi
NABH launches brochure in Tanzania
28
World Accreditation Day celebrated on June 9, 2015 at India Habitat Centre
Dr. R. P. Singh, SG-QCI, at the QCI YOGA Scheme launch by Honble Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh along with MoS Shri S.Y. Naik
Yoga Certification Steering Committee on May 25, 2015 in Bengaluru at Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ashram
NABH goes to Tanzania

JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
29
Creating an ecosystem of world

class quality at Medanta
Medanta has an ethos that aims at providing the best to each of its patients in terms of quality of
clinical care and service at a cost that ensures value for money spent. Towards fulfilling this aim
Medanta has carefully carved out its structure and processes to achieve the desired outcomes.
mproving quality, however, is a dynamic process that

requires continuous monitoring and an improvement of
these structures, processes and outcomes. Measurement
and collaborative problem solving form the foundation
of a system that strives towards perfection, and so at
Medanta. Measurement is the first step towards understanding
a process, enabling thoughtful management which eventually
leads to continuous improvement. There is an increasing trend
of hospitals using business intelligence tools to improve and
monitor the quality of health care. Metrics, KPIs, dashboards,
etc. are rapidly becoming the keywords in any health care
organisation.
Medanta too, adopted a focussed approach towards quality
measurement by defining what were the processes important
for quality of care, how they could be measured, who would
measure them and analyse them to devise solutions and how
the proposed solutions would be disseminated. The result
was a dashboard consisting of clinical outcome indicators,
clinical operational indicators, patient experience indicators,
utilisation and efficiency metrics and volumes and human
resource distribution metrics. The dashboard was measured
individually for each of the six major Institutes of Excellence
at Medanta cardiac sciences, orthopaedics, liver transplant,
neurosciences, oncology and gastroenterology and GI surgery
covering a majority of the admissions. The clinical metrics
ranged from mortality and morbidity statistics, outcomes
like average length of stays, re-exploration and re-intubation
rates, complication rates and survival rates; the patient safety
indices included adverse events such as medication errors,
falls, pressure ulcers, infection rates and other reported events;
clinical operational metrics measured adherence to assessment
protocols, turnaround times and delays for investigations,
bundle compliances, compliance to hand washing and
antibiotic protocols; patient experience was measured for
all stakeholders involved in patient care; utilisation metrics
such as Cath lab and OT utilisation, discharge efficiency were
included to improve cost efficiency for the patients and staff
patient ratios indicated effective provision of patient care
appropriate to their needs.
Measurement of these metrics was streamlined throughout
the organisation by adoption of various checklists. The
checklists were available on the hospitals intranet, Spandan,
and the stakeholders were equipped with tablets to conduct
bedside audits using the checklists. Data from these checklists
automatically flowed into the dashboards for each area.
30
Besides the checklists, tracers were instituted to audit

compliance to various processes. Dedicated tracer teams were
formed for each area comprising of a representative each from
amongst the physicians, nurses, administrators and quality
assurance teams. They conducted tracers which included
patient tracers as well as system tracers, contributing to
metrics included in the dashboard.
The overall responsibility of driving quality into the

specialities by using the dashboard as a medium was given
to a person embedded in a speciality - whom we designated
as the Institute Manager. Each institute manager was tasked
with the responsibility to track metrics and ensure appropriate
action and process changes took place in consultation with the
Institute Chairman, wherever required.
By instituting a monthly review within the clinical
department as well as the management, these dashboards
helped spread a much-needed single source of reliable
information on strengths and focus areas across the
organisation. Everyone from executives to managers to
clinicians looked at the same data. When everyone in the
organisation had access to consistent, reliable data, it enabled
everyone to speak the same language, spread a system-wide
standard of care and work together to bring about change.
The results of the dashboard have been very encouraging
and we have been able to identify many areas which need
enhanced focus. With continued efforts in these areas,
improvement in processes and outcomes has been observed
over time. An example of process improvement is mentioned:
The activity demonstrated leadership commitment to

safe and quality care showcasing it as a priority for the
organisation. The team could also check for themselves how
reliable the instituted systems of care were and provide
appropriate help to enable teams to be able to improve and
address any issues themselves. The first quarter review was
done in the quality assurance committee and 90 percent of
the operational issues were closed; others flowed into bigger
programs such as hospital infection, safety, training and HR
programs. The feedback from staff was positive and things
moving faster for closure gave the confidence to teams
that they could resolve lot of issues themselves thereby
encouraging and motivating the teams further.
The figures below are examples of how a walk round
schedule was designed, the number of issues identified from
the walk round and their tracking for closure.
The next step for Medanta would be to digitise the
dashboards and make them as real-time as possible with an
interactive interface.
Having institutionalised the dashboards as an objective
approach to quality improvement, it was also felt that
enhancement of a quality culture required a demonstrable
commitment of the leadership towards quality improvement
along with a willingness of the leadership to listen to quality
concerns of the staff, incorporating their suggestions and
feedback into the journey. Hence, leadership walk rounds were
started with the intent to engage leaders and
frontline staff in a meaningful discussion of quality care
and patient safety concerns wherein key representatives of
operations, medical administration and nursing meet
the area teams in a structured and formalised way. The area
teams were hence encouraged to discuss confidently any
issues that they were facing that hampered quality, hence
promoting an open culture of reporting and continuous
improvement.
The walk round schedule was communicated well in
advance to the teams to enable them to discuss and prioritise
points for the walk round and a site team lead was identified
who would be the point of contact for the leadership team.
The lead played an important role in introducing the purpose
of this activity and timing to the entire area staff so that
everyone would have an equal opportunity for engaging with
the leadership team and also ensure a focussed discussion
around quality care and safety. The lead would also finalise
on an interdisciplinary site team so that there is equal
representation from all the teams. Data from indicators,
incidents were used by staff to further pinpoint critical areas.
It also reinforced the concept of a ward unit team coming
together and discussing areas of concern or opportunities for
improvement. Post the walk round, the lead would finalise on
agreed points for resolution along with the leadership team
and start closing the points as per timelines agreed. The first
follow up meeting would ensue within next 72 hours wherein
quick closure items were expected to be closed and a plan for
long term action points was discussed. The second review was
a 30 day impact meeting wherein status of agreed points was
looked at and big impacts that were generated were shared.
As we continue our journey towards building an ecosystem

of world class quality at Medanta, we shall focus on
strengthening a culture of safety and quality amongst all our
staff that puts provision of quality care at the forefront of each
providers mind. A just culture, active reporting, collaborative
resolution structures, ownership for quality, supported by a
systems approach and adequate technology interface shall be
our way forward to a strong foundation in delivering quality
care to all our patients.
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
31
Creating an ecosystem for world

class quality at NABH
By | Dr. B.K. Rana
Joint Director, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals
and Healthcare Providers (NABH),
tandards are specific to purpose and therefore,

it is essential that standards are developed to
suit a wide range of requirements which means,
these can be applied to a range of organisations
and in different situations. To develop such set of
standards, one should keep in mind that the requirements
defined therein are generic so that they can be applied to
different situations without compromising on the intent.
NABH uses this methodology in developing standards for its
various accreditation programs. The benefit is that the same
standards can be applied to organisations anywhere globally,
i.e Global Standards with Local Touch. While the intent and
outcome of the standards remain same, the requirements
which are specific to that particular organisation are also made
applicable. In a short span of nine years, NABH has achieved
international recognition and has set the benchmarks for
other accreditation bodies to follow. NABH is also supporting
government initiatives to export medical services under
NABH Assessor (4th from left) with Staff of Hospital in Doha, Qatar (June 2015)
Medical Value Travel (Medical Tourism) through the Services

Export Promotion Council, Department of Commerce,
Government
of India. NABH is also committed to help neighbouring
countries in general and SAARC nations in particular by
offering special fee packages. NABH is trying to reach out to
organisations globally and already has clients from Philippines
and Qatar.
NABH has always been fortunate to receive tremendous
support from its board, staff, participating organisations and
NABH presenting before Tanzanian professionals (July 1, 2015)
H.E. Mr. Debnath Shaw, Indian High Commissioner to Tanzania holding a copy of NABH Brochure during Dar-es-Salaam International Trade Fair (June 30, 2015)
32
Quality in healthcare: Indian Spinal

Injuries Center (ISIC) perspective
Quality is continuous improvement in patient care and service, education and research and all other
activities in which we are involved in order to make the system a leading standard of excellence
within the healthcare industry. Quality healthcare means doing the right thing, at the right time, in
the right way, for the right personand having the best possible results. Quantifying and improving
the quality of healthcare is an increasingly important goal in healthcare sector today.
uality improvement of our hospital is a mutual

continuous effort of doctors, therapists, patients
and their caretakers, researchers, payers, planners,
educators, etc., to make the change that will lead
to better patient outcomes (health), better system
performance (care) and better professional development.
For several years, healthcare has been shifting from acute,
episodic care to care for chronic conditions. Chronic conditions
are now the leading causes of illness, disability and death.
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is one of the most devastating ailments,
resulting in complete or partial loss of all functions of the spinal
cord with varying degrees of paralysis, sensory loss and sphincter
disturbance which is permanent and irreversible in cases. It was
labelled as an ailment not to be treated in the Edwin Smith
papyrus 5000 years ago (Feldman and Goodrich 1999). The
management was revolutionised during the second world war,
when Sir Ludwig Guttman and Dr Donald Munro demonstrated
that if managed appropriately such people can get back to a near
normal lifestyle from the wheelchair. The management requires
a multidisciplinary team approach and involves evacuation and
first aid at site of the accident, proper transfer to the nearest
healthcare facility for stabilisation and then to a definitive centre
providing comprehensive care, including acute management,
vertebral fracture management (conservative or surgical),
comprehensive rehabilitation including physical, psychosocial,
sexual and vocational rehabilitation, community inclusion and a
lifelong follow up. The complicated multidisciplinary long term
management makes it the most expensive as compared to that
of any other ailment. The multi system involvement, the potential
for multiple complications, some of which can be life threatening,
the multidisciplinary requirement with a need for coordinated
intervention based on consensus goals planned involving the
team and the patient as well as the family and the long term
management increases the chances of errors. Hence quality care
assumes special significance in spinal injury management. It is
for these very reasons that Quality care becomes challenging in
spinal injury management.
We at ISIC work on the established principle that Ultimate
goal of quality is zero defect. The quality achieved at ISIC can be
gauged through dimensions of quality in healthcare with six aims
of improvement:
34
Accessible
The Indian Spinal Injury Centre is situated at Vasant
Kunj, Delhi, virtually next to the airport. It is easily accessible for
patients who come here not only from across India but from all
over the world. Further, the whole infrastructure is barrier free and
accessible to wheelchair users.
Relevance
ISIC was conceived to provide services in a field in which was
none available in the country. The spinal injury of Major Ahluwalia
as a result of a bullet injury in Indo Pak war of 1965 and the lack
of services for management, set him and a few like minded people
thinking about recreating similar services for the citizens of the
country who couldnt afford to avail services abroad as was arranged
for Maj Ahluwalia.
Today, ISIC is a model institution comparable to the best in the
world and has become a major referral centre. Its patients come not
only from across India, but from all over the world.
Equity of Services
The philosophy of our centre is to provide equal services
irrespective of the paying capacity of the individual. ISIC is 146bedded hospital, in which 15 beds reserved for poor patients who
cannot afford to pay. No one is turned away due to lack of funds
and there is no discrimination in the quality of medical care.
Effectiveness of Healthcare
ISIC is recognised internationally for having set excellent
standards in delivery of medical care. The Centre has a good
spinal injury design, latest state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical
equipment and a highly qualified team of doctors, surgeons and
health professionals who have all been appropriately trained. ISIC is
totally barrier-free with spacious corridors, well lit rooms as well as
ISO (22000-2005 certified) food safety management system.

NABH since 2012 as per the 3rd edition. Recently re-accredited in
December 2014 valid till 2018.
NABL
Challenges & Achievements in Quality Care
lush green landscape and has the unique advantage of providing

everything that a patient would need under one roof with the aim
of setting up of processes to ensure a continuous improvement in
patient care and services. It has comprehensive services for Spinal
Cord Injury management.
Apart from service delivery ISIC has established its Education
and Research services in keeping with its institutional and tertiary
level character. ISIC has been successfully running DNB courses
in Orthopedics and FNB in Spine Surgery. ISIC is also conducting
various postgraduate courses such as MPT (Musculoskeletal), MPT
(Neurology), MPT (Sports), MPT (Cardiopulmonary), MOT (Neurology),
Master of Prosthetics and Orthotics in affiliation with Guru Gobind
Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.
The centre has a Research Review Committee and Ethical
Committee formulated as per the ICMR/ ICH-GCP/Schedule Y
guidelines. It has a Clinical and Basic Research Wing ISIC had
launched the Spinal Cord Society, the main conference for which
is International Spine and Spinal Injuries Conference (ISSICON). This
and the other conferences that are organised help to continue
and spread the medical education and give opportunity to health
professional to participate and present their latest achievements
and upcoming challenges. The top management gives adequate
emphasis on quality through integrating continuous quality
improvement measures in the day-to-day management activities
of the hospital. Quality circles have been created through various
committees. There is emphasis on a proper work culture, customer/
process focus, employee education/training at all levels of the
organisation, benchmarking and quality management/statistical
reporting at every level as well as recognition and awards. There is
a strong lateral relationship among doctors, paramedical staff and
managers with the help of horizontally integrated service units
within the pyramidal organogram.
Indian Spinal Injuries Centre has faced many challenges in

providing quality care such as:
ISIC is an NGO without any financial support.
Spinal Injury Management is technically the most demanding
services.
It requires a multi-disciplinary team approach and huge
infrastructure.
It is the most expensive service as compared to other ailments.
Patients are most often from lower socio-economic background.
It often afflicts the sole bread earner of the family.
Even the middle class cannot afford the high costs of treatment.
Spinal Cord Injured are often paralysed and not able to go back
to original vocation.
There was a lack of availability of trained manpower in this field
necessitating human resource development in various medical
and paramedical specialties.
Conclusions
Acceptability
Without any financial support from any big organisation/

insurance, ISIC has been successful in establishing a good spinal
injury service and providing quality care. The leading reason for this
accomplishment could be its stress on quality. ISIC has been able to
achieve consistency in care, high standards of treatment, reduction
in errors, greater staff confidence/morale and increased focus on
patient satisfaction.
Indian Spinal Injuries Centre can be considered as a model, not
only for a spinal injury centre, but a super speciality hospital as well,
which could be applicable (within the available resources) not only
in India, but also in other developing countries.
We have an open source option of patient feedback where

patient satisfaction is gauged through patient feedback forms.
References:
Patient Satisfaction Score Accreditation

ISIC has the following quality accreditations:
1. Archive material. A quick look to quality. AHRQ Home

2. Batalden P, Davidoff F. What is quality improvement and how can it
transform healthcare? QualSaf Healthcare 2007;16:23
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
35
Quality considerations while

servicizing business
By | Sachinder M. Sharma, Director, Ministry of Railways
Mohita G Sharma, Professor, FORE School of Management
lobalisation and increase in awareness of the people

is forcing the industries to become more competitive
and sustainable. Firms are relooking their supply
chains to make them green by eliminating the energy
intensive processes and links. New strategies like reverse
logistics are being employed to make the reverse chains a source
of revenue. In the new scenario, the industries are integrating their
operations and shifting from the concept of pure product centred to
a supply service centred as a strategy to gain leverage. This process
of servitization has gained momentum due to shrinking markets,
product variety and due to motivation of businesses in building long
term relationships with customers.
PSS or product service system is the combination of products and
services designed and combined together so that they are capable
of fulfilling the specific needs of customer (Tischner & Tucker, 2002).
These needs include product quality (Garvin, 1984), which includes
eight dimensions viz. performance (functional specifications), features
(add-ons), aesthetics, conformance, durability, reliability, serviceability
and perceived quality. The transition from products or services to
relationships involves expansion into the dynamics of value creation
considering the relative priority of the dimensions of quality and the
relative weight that each customer provides.
The challenges faced by the manufacturing firms when shifting
from being a product provider to a product-service provider are
multipronged but this system can add economic, environmental
and social values for diverse stakeholders in the system. Although
in theory, the implementation of PSS leads to higher revenues
and margins, but in practice it takes time to build up corporate

profitability (Neely, 2008). In addition, the transition from the
product-centric strategy to a PSS is intricate (Baines, et al., 2007).
There are no readymade solutions for such a transformation as one
size does not fit all. Thus, the industry has to develop a suitable
business model clearly bringing out how it hopes to create, deliver
and capture the economic and social value.
Product based manufacturing and process-based manufacturing
have proved to be relatively easy to imitate by competitors, whereas
PSS are less easy to replicate. This has pushed many manufacturers
to recognise the strategic integration of services as a source of
sustainable competitive advantage and corporate profitability (Olivia
& Kallenberg, 2003). The concept was introduced by Rolls-Royce in its
Power by hour offering wherein instead of selling aircraft enginesthe solution based offering was offered. This shifted the maintenance
and services into the providers domain.
Although, the provider gets an assured revenue stream, he is also
exposed to more operational risks and uncertainty. There is a trade
off that the provider faces between incurring cost and limiting the
uncertainty. It also sees a benefit from pooling and centralisation
and in the process a new business model is evolved. At the same
time the provider has to address the intangible issues such as
empathy and assurance which creates ambiguity. As these are
subjective dimensions incorporation in the contractual arrangement
is imperative.
This progression and change can be seen in Indian situations as
well, e.g. Indian Railways is moving towards procurement of solutions
for the industrial products instead of outright purchase of the
equipment, the microprocessor based governors and turbochargers
are based on such criteria. The total cost of the solution is
Product - service system

Value Mainly
in product
content
PROCESS CONTENT
(TANGIBLE)
Product
CONTENT (TANGIBLE)
PURE
PRODUCT
A: Product
oriented
Product related
Advance and
Consultancy
36
B: Use oriented

Product lease
Product renting
or sharing
Product pooling
C: Result
oriented

Activity
management
Pay per
service unit
Functional result
Value Mainly
in service
content
PURE
PRODUCT
ascertained including the cost of the

product as well as the cost of the
AMC and is a win-win situation for
both the players. This support helps
in tiding over obsolescence issues
during technological upgradation
and the provider are bound to
provide spares over the deemed life
of the product even when the model
changes. The different users can use
this to place individual AMC orders
and their feedback is used in the next
procurement cycle. Thus not just the
procurer but the end user has a say
in the matter and is satisfied. As far as
the firm is concerned it has bagged
not only the initial order but a service
contract as well as the railways have
to use its services for AMC. Thus it
is assured of a market over the life cycle of the product and can
itself enter into long term contracts with its suppliers. Thus there is
competition and long term relationship at all levels in the supply
chain and the market ensures that the user gets value for money.
However, the process is challenging and complex. Determining
the expected quality and contracting for the expected outcomes
in not simple as the profits may not be shared fairly between the
players as each of them tries to increase his share and is driven
by different incentives. This can be demonstrated in the case of
procurement versus hiring/lease of a car. The car is owned by a
person who hires a driver and pays him by the days and some
overtime. The payment is received on the basis of kilometre and
hours used. The driver of the vehicle has no incentive to run extra
kilometres during the stipulated time as there are no incentives
linked to it but would like to earn overtime. In case the car is
hired on a monthly basis for running on an average 80 kms a
day the owner pays the driver for the fuel and his daily allowance
irrespective of the hours it is used. In such a case the driver tends
to save money if the vehicle is run less and so he creates situations
so that the person hiring the same is unable to use it and he can
extract some more money from the owner for petty repairs. The
driver however ensures that the vehicle does not go under repair for
the day as he stands to lose his wage for the day in that situation.
The person hiring the vehicle would like to maximise his benefit
by using the vehicle for the stipulated kilometre age. The owners
only concern is that the vehicle runs daily so that he can realise
the payment for the month and there

is less breakdown of the vehicle. It is
thus important that the incentives for all
stakeholders are tuned for the contract
to be successful.
If we look at it from the point of
view of the customer, his needs are
met over the life cycle of the product
and he is assured of the quality of
the product and its life. This reduces
information asymmetry as the decision
for procurement is based not only on
the initial cost of the product but the
cost over the life cycle for which the
supplier is bound to provide the services
through warranty or annual maintenance
contracts at a pre determined rate. With
a payment contract that is delinked to
time and material used, the provider
benefits from designing long lasting and easier to serve products.
Therefore, at the planning stage itself the need analysis and Design
for services would also be different then for outright purchase
design. This can also considered a sustainable offering as it results in
dematerialisation. The provider has full control over the equipment
support system and the customers interference and responsibility
is drastically reduced. The silo behaviour between manufacturing
and after sales service has to be removed and the issues of life time
accountability have also to be incorporated along with life time
costing.
References:
Baines, T., Lightfoot, H., Evans, S., Neeley, A., Greenough, R., Pepper, J.,
et al. (2007). State of the art in Product Service System. Proceedings
of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B,Journal of
Engineering Manufacturing , 221 (10), 1542-1552
Garvin, D. (1984). What does Product Quality really mean. Sloan
Management Review , 25-43
Images, G. (n.d.). Servitization in Rolls Royce. Retrieved July 12, 2015,
from Google Images
Neely, A. (2008). Exploring the financial Consequences of servitization
of Manufacturing. Operations Management Research , 103-118
Olivia, R., & Kallenberg, R. (2003). Managing the transition from
products to services. International journal of Service Industry
Management , 14 (2), 160-172
Tischner, U., & Tucker, A. (2002). Retrieved July 12, 2015, from www.
suspronet.org
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
37
MoEF & CC joins hands with QCI/

NABET to improve quality of EIAs
Background
Most of the industrial and developmental projects in India
need clearance from environmental angle. Such clearances
are granted on the basis of specialised reports called
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. These reports
are also being progressively used by the financial institutions
for ensuring safe investment and by the corporate sector for
due diligence studies for merger and acquisition cases.
The first Notification on the requirement of EIAs for
environmental clearance was brought in 1994 by the Ministry
of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF & CC). The
environmental clearance process was further re-engineered
through the EIA Notification, 2006. All the projects having
possible detrimental impacts are classified under two
categories A & B as per EIA Notification 2006.
EIA is a multi-disciplinary activity requiring inputs from
a team of experts having exposure and knowledge about
the proposed project and in the various specialised fields,
namely air pollution, water pollution, solid waste, ecology
and environment, social issues, land use, risk assessment,
geology, soil, noise and vibration, etc. It was a new field
of specialisation in the country and not many competent
agencies were available after the first EIA Notification in
1994 to take up such studies. In fact, even many individuals
were preparing the EIA reports without having the requisite
expertise, competence and resources.
To address this shortfall, then Ministry of Environment &
Forests (MoEF) was looking for a methodology to identify and
register consultants in the country capable of preparing such
multi-disciplinary reports. Realising the need of improvement
in this sector, the National Accreditation Board for Education
& Training (NABET), a constituent Board of Quality Council
of India (QCI), the National Accreditation Body, jointly set up
by the Govt and Industry, initiated work in 2005 to develop
a Scheme for Accreditation of EIA Consultant Organisations.
After extensive consultation with stakeholders across the
country a draft Scheme was developed which specified the
requirements for EIA Consultant Organisations in terms of
competence of human resource, laboratory arrangements,
system based approach and commitment to prepare quality
EIAs. The scheme was initially launched as voluntary Scheme
in 2007. However, looking at the merit of the Scheme, MoEF
made the scheme mandatory on Dec 2, 2009 through an
Office Memorandum. Eminent people with vast experience in
the field of environment from regulatory bodies, academics,
industry, NGOs were associated during development and
implementation of the scheme. QCI/NABET has been
successfully implementing the Scheme for the last five years
38
and now there are 171 accredited EIA consultants in the

country. List of accredited consultant organisations with the
sectors accredited for is posted on the QCI/NABET website and
is updated on the fifth day of every month.
The Accreditation Process

QCI/ NABET Scheme for Accreditation of EIA Consultant
Organisations is based on detailed assessment of following
aspects:
i. Human resource (experts to be involved in preparation of
EIAs meeting therequirements of qualification, experience
and competence).
ii. Requirements of field investigation and laboratory
arrangement (in-house or external).
iii. System based approach towards EIA through Quality
Management System to ensure capacity building of the
consultant organisations over time.
iv. Tracking the quality of EIA Reports prepared by the
consultants after accreditation.
v. Organisational commitment for continual improvement
through improved facilities, resources, trainings, etc.
The accreditation process follows the well accepted.
international approach of an Initial Assessment (IA) followed
by Surveillance Assessment (SA) and re-assessment at the
end of the accreditation period for granting Re-accreditation
(RA). Accreditation period is for three years with a Surveillance
assessment after 18 months. Achieving continual improvement
is the corner stone of the Scheme. Regular training workshops
for assessors are also organised to fine tune the assessment
process and keep them updated in this continuously evolving
field of Impact Assessment.
QCI/NABET has been seeking the feedback from
stakeholders right from the initial phase of the Scheme. As
many as 27 interactive workshops have been organised across
the country to engage consultants, regulators, experts and civil
society representatives over the years.
Achievements So Far
The Scheme has been able to achieve following:
i. For the first time in the country, a list of capability verified
EIA Consultant Organisations is available in the public domain
with sectors of expertise, category, contact details, etc.
ii. The fly by night operators have been weeded out from the
scene.
iii. The crucial concept of team work by the EIA Coordinator and
Functional Area Experts for preparation of quality EIA was
recognised.
iv. The concept of system based approach for EIA preparation,
instead of being person specific, brought in the country.

This will ultimately strengthen the EIA preparation process
in the country.
v. Recognition given to human resource at all levels
a. Functional Area Associate
: 0-5 years experience
b. Functional Area Expert Cat B : >3 years experience
c. Functional Area Experts Cat A : >5 years experience
d. EIA Coordinator Cat. B
: >5 years experience
e. EIA Coordinator Cat. A
: > 7 years experience
f. Team Member
: Provision to enter in
new sector/area
g. Mentor
: Provision for experts
with vast exp.
vi. Self-realisation by professionals of being an Expert of
particular sectors/ functional areas and a career progress
path.
Some Interesting Information on the Scheme

QCI/NABET makes all efforts to make sure that the message
is given strongly to the accredited consultants that quality
of EIAs prepared by them needs to continually improve if
they want to retain their accredited status. Minimum two EIA
reports prepared by an accredited consultant organisation
(ACO) undergo in-depth scrutiny by NABET assessors during
the assessment process. An analysis of change in quality
of EIAs for 20 ACOs as observed during two subsequent
assessments (SA & RA) is given below in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2
Stakeholders Feedback
As the Scheme has entered the final phase covering all
three processes of accreditation (IA, SA and RA), the MoEF
& CC desired that QCI/ NABET should organise one such
workshop wherein all the members of EIA fraternity viz

consultants, central and state level regulatory authorities,
experts in the field and other stakeholders can meet and
discuss their issues and chalk out a way forward. QCI/ NABET
with MoEF & CC then jointly organised a One Day Workshop
on Environment Impact Assessment Challenges in India and
way forward on April 25, 2015 in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Perspective of Ministry & Industry in Joint Workshop

This workshop was inaugurated by Shri Prakash Javadekar,
Honble Minister of State (Independent Charge) Environment
Forest and Climate Change in presence of Dr. Prodipto Ghosh,
IAS, Ex. Secretary, MoEF & CC; Mr. Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman
QCI and Dr. P. B. Rastogi, Director MoEF & CC, Govt. of India
and Dr. R. P. Singh, Secretary General, QCI. The workshop
was attended by about 300 delegates comprising MoEF &
CC officials, members of state level regulatory authorities,
representatives of accredited EIA consultant organisations and
industry.
Shri. Prakash Javadekar, Honble Minister of State
(Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest & Climate
Change, Govt. of India initiated his address by saying that
Change of work is rest. The Honble Minister talked about
the various steps that the Ministry has taken to expedite the
process of environmental clearance. 2200 applications have
been processed on-line. The process will be gradually extended
to the States also. The standard TO ` for 39 Sectors issued
by the Ministry will help further to reduce the timeframe for
environmental clearance. He added that decisions should be
policy based and not on a case to case basis. The Honble
Minister requested everyone to give suggestions and become
partners with the Ministry. He mentioned that the Ministry
is working on standards for the use of animals for medical
testing. While coming to EIA, he talked about the existence of
two types of consultants - one for actually carrying out the
study and other for liaison. He assured all that there was no
necessity of the latter and the work would be done without
their visiting the Ministry. Aspects of land acquisition and
relevance of Social Impact Assessment for the same was also
discussed.
Further, Honble Minister supported the need of
accreditation for EIA consultants. He added that EIAs should be
of high quality and cut and paste approach must be strictly
avoided. He mentioned that conditions of the environmental
clearance (EC) should be reasonable, need based and practical.
Conditions of EC must be followed and implemented. He
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
39
an effective presentation on requisite of

a good quality EIA. He explained as to
how EIA helps in inclusive development.
Industry representatives gave their
perspective and offered suggestions on
improving the accreditation and appraisal
processes in the country. Representatives
of accredited EIA consultant organizations
also presented their views on bringing
in a culture in the country for preparing
quality EIA reports. Prof. C K Varshney,
Professor Emeritus, JNU added that as
there was a dearth of experts in the EIA
field and QCI must come up with training
programmes for capacity building in this
field. He further added that quality is a
journey where the destination is never
reached. There is a great opportunity to
improve the EIA process.
Awareness Workshops Across

the Country
assured that appraisal process will be proper. He also added

that in 17 critically polluted areas already identified, pollution
monitoring devices will be put for 24/7 monitoring.
While talking about the stay order issued by various High
Courts w.r.t. the OM for accreditation of EIA consultant
organizations, the Honble Minister assured for issuing
necessary Notification.
The workshop was also addressed by eminent national
and international speakers from environmental consultants
and industry. Mr. Piers Touzel, ERM-Asia Pacific Region,gave
an overview of international practice for Environment and
Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). He talked about the system
being followed in China and Australia accompanied by case
studies. Mr. Touzel mentioned that ESIA is an evolving process.
Regulations need to be renewed on a regular basis. He further
added that challenges in India are not unique. International
experience offers some learning points.
Shri M. K. Singh, IAS, JS, MoEF & CC addressed the
delegates and participants. Referring to Mr. Touzels
presentation on a case study of Australia, where the
sometimes large number of conditions are given for
environmental clearance, Mr. Singh commented on the
similarity of situations faced in both countries. Talking about
the Scheme for accreditation of EIA consultant organisations
he added that QCIs efforts in being the first to evolve such
unique scheme is appreciated. From his recent experience
in Japan he quoted that people were surprised to know
about the existence of such a scheme and appreciated the
accreditation process. Dr. Satish R. Wate, Director, NEERI gave
40
Scheme for Accreditation of EIA

Consultant Organisations is being
implemented since Dec 2009 in line with
the MoEF office memorandum dated
Dec 2, 2009. Since then, two Versions of
Scheme i.e. Version 1 and 2 were released
on Jan 2010 and Aug. 2011 respectively. NABET has now
updated Scheme and released Version 3 including the reaccreditation as mentioned below:
Incorporating Initial Accreditation (IA) process Version 1,
Jan 2010
Incorporating IA and Surveillance Assessment (SA) processes
Version 2, Aug 2011
Incorporating IA, SA and Re-accreditation (RA) processes
Version 3, June 2015
To appraise the consultants and prospective applicants
on requirements of Version 3, a 2 day workshops were
conducted in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad
in Jun-Jul, 2015. Two more workshops are scheduled to be
conducted in Kolkata and Delhi in the last week of July 2015.
Workshops were attended by participants from applicant/
accredited consultant organisations, members of the State
Expert Appraisal Committee, State Level Environment Impact
Assessment Authority and Pollution Control Boards.
Way Forward
QCI/NABET is open to new ideas which may help
improving the accreditation mechanism further. However,
to expect that accreditation of EIA Consultant Organisations
alone would bring improvement in the quality of EIA may
not be fully justified. Government and QCI need to work
together to a) further professionalise the appraisal process
and b) incentivise the consultants producing good EIA and
c) implement the EIA/EMP report on project site with desired
efficacy.
From Quality Services to Social

Responsibility, Intertek is certainly a
comprehensive Organisation
With over 38,000 people in 1,000 locations in more
than 100 countries, Intertek is the industry leader
because of its vast experience, consistent growth
and a very rich history. Be it in its dealings at
local or global platforms, Intertek makes sure that
its services meet quality, health, environmental,
safety, and social accountability standards for
virtually any market around the world. Having
earned extensive global accreditations and
recognitions, their knowledge and expertise in
overcoming regulatory, market and supply chain
hurdles is impeccable. The history of Intertek
dates back over 130 years and its evolving journey
so far is an impressive one.
Rajesh Saigal, Regional Managing Director,
Intertek, South Asia, shares that by offering
comprehensive solutions and services based on
their industry specific knowledge and technical
expertise, Intertek works as a service provider
platform for its clients.
By | Neha Mehta
42
How Intertek works to deliver quality services?

Intertek works in the quality services domain. Our core role is to act as
partners in progress. We work as a solution provider; we dont just cater
to our clients requirement, we create a understanding with them in their
overall business dynamics and the kind of markets they are looking to
enter and then redefine the quality value proposition for them. We touch
every aspect of their business which further helps them to become a
successful trader across the world. We have been successfully using feedback mechanism of Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge the satisfaction
levels of our clients and analyze our performance matrix to improve the
quality of service.
How Intertek deals with the quality standards in the

international platforms which have become so discerning at present?
When it comes to quality, the very perspective towards it can be
different for different countries, industries as well as at the local levels. In
a consumer driven industry, it is very important for any organization to
choose its partners wisely in order to have harmonious coordination with
them which results in the optimal levels of quality. We have dedicated
team players in every stream and when it comes to quality standards, no
ambiguity in any form is entertained in our organisation.
What are the quality measures you follow in your

laboratories?
With a global footprint and legacy of helping some of the best
brands of the world, we have developed various quality control matrices
and segregated in terms of products and process be it in terms of various
parameters, overall lifecycle of the organisation, client interaction or
employee engagement, our perspective towards quality is quite vast and
we make sure that these parameters are taken care of from all the angles,
through our conduct with our own management or dealings with our
clientele base.
Have you taken any steps to reduce energy costs and

environmental impact?
We have a twofold approach when it comes to environmental
concerns and the optimal use of resource during our operations. Firstly,
as far as our existing labs and offices are concerned, we have got them
audited from the energy saving and safety point of view. To aggressively
work towards the environment we have made our Mumbai lab totally
paperless i.e. all lab related work is carried our using state-of-the-art
technology with zero paper usage. In terms of new investments, we are
designing new labs in such a way that they are equipped to use renewable energy. We are making initial investments within the labs in order
to completely do away with the huge power consumption to a large
extent. Also, some of our tests require uninterrupted power due to which
we have to use generators which in turn pollute the environment as well
as are expensive in terms of diesel consumption. In order to minimize
this, we are trying to transform the mechanism and move to battery or
inverters type of uninterrupted power supply solutions so that pollution
can be reduced.
How do you create transparency and facilitate communication in the management of energy resources?
In the age of technology, we have incorporated lab performance
system; it helps us to share and monitor employee health and
safety, energy conservation, social compliance and not just the rev-
enue information. We are regularly updated about the performance

levels which are of various labs across the organisation. HR shares
these parameters on monthly basis so all the labs know what other
labs are doing and learn the best practices.
How your company takes care of corporate social

responsibility in this competitive scenario?
We were among the early movers to foray into this part of the
industry and have a dedicated team working full time into Corporate Social responsibility. We are involved in a number of activities
in collaboration with various charitable organisations and NGOs.
Some of them include blood donation camps, dedicatedmobile
health vans, night shelters, and getting the road safety and health
care infrastructure for poor people. We are in regular contact with
civic authorities and organise meetings with Municipal Corporation
of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi development Authority (DDA) to bring to
light many issues that affect people at large.
Any plans for 2015-2016?

We are looking forward to expand our work platform in
softlines(textile testing) in the coming years. We are also investing in
leather and footwear testing, building products testing, automotive
testing, petroleum and oil testing. Lots of growth plans are in the
pipeline for the next year to achieve 4x4 vision.
Which kind of product testing is high in demand at

present?
Since we work with Bureau Of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of
Power, Government of India, energy efficiency of ACs and refrigerators is in demand. Apart from this, school uniform testing and water
testing by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is high in demand. We
are also foraying into LED and battery testing in addition to IT/AV
product testing that we currently do.
How Intertek builds its trust amongst the perspective consumers especially in relation to electrical
products?
In terms of our responsibility towards consumers as well as government, we actively take part in all the development initiatives that
are being launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi from time
to time. One of the examples is Charging Bharat concept which has
been showcased in our offices and portrays how Interteks quality
services are impacting the life of consumers, whether they are at
home, office or village. This enables heavy industries to grow along
the lines of renewable energy and also helps in assisting various
original equipment manufacturers (OEM) with diverse technologies.
Interteks quality service gives trust and assurance to the end
customers that they are using the best quality products as per the
industry standards
Any other information you would like to share?

We are a committed corporate social responsible employer. Having been in India for the last 22 years, we are keen on making Make
in India initiative launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi
successful. We are working with Quality Council of India and are an
active part of Mr. Modis Zero Defect- Zero Effect programme. We
are also working on skill enhancement initiative and development
as well as Digital India campaign
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
43
IRCTC firm in taking the

performance levels Higher
R N Kalita
ince its incorporation on September 27, 1999

as an extended arm of the Indian Railways
to upgrade, professionalise and manage
the catering and hospitality services at
stations, on trains and other locations and to
promote domestic and international tourism through
development of budget hotels, special tour packages,
information and commercial publicity and global
reservation systems, IRCTC have been playing a very
major role in eliminating the loopholes in the Indian
Railways.
It has taken many steps from time to time so as to
provide the travellers with a comfortable journey. A
toll free no. 1800-111-139 was also launched for swift
redressal of complaints and suggestions conveyed by
passengers on the phone. In order to facilitate another
option of lodging a complaint/suggestion by the
46
Amitabh Nigam
passenger, facility of receipt of complaint through SMS

on phone number 9971-111-139 was also started; this
enabled the travelling passengers to have easy access
to the complaints redressal system without any other
charges.
On-line Complaint Management System was also
introduced to facilitate the passengers for lodging
their online complaint by logging on to their website
at www.irctc.com. Indian Railways became the first
company in the country to provide customer complaint
services on a mobile app besides providing the facility
online by launching a complaint management system
(Coms). The Coms comprises the mobile app, an online
portal backed by a centralised grievance redressal
monitoring system and a mobile network messaging
facility.
IRCTC is managing currently 19 Rajdhani, 13
Shatabdi, 16 Jan Shatabdi, 6 Duronto Express , 9 Garib

Raths, 205 Mail/Express trains and 118 trains have train
side vending facility. It has countrys largest catering
and e-commerce firm, the corporation caterers roughly
10 lakh meals in 255 trains and sells over two lakh
tickets through its websites daily.
In order to ensure the quality of food being served
in the Indian railways, IRCTC is getting the customer
satisfaction surveys done on all trains through third
party agencies. These customer satisfaction surveys
are done twice in a year. So far, Customer Satisfaction
Survey has been conducted on 530 trains. There has
been an improvement in the performance of the
catering department as per the surveys conducted in
Duronto, Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express.
Mobile kitchens in three Rajdhani trains have
received highest food safety certification, FSMS ISO
22000:2005. The mobile kitchens thus accredited and
certified include Mumbai Central New Delhi Rajdhani
Express; Ahmedabad- New Delhi Swarnajayanti
Rajdhani Express; and August Kranti Rajdhani Express
between Nizamuddin and Mumbai Central. This is the
first time IRCTCs mobile catering units have been
audited and certified by a third party certification
company. The certification is provided under the
accreditation of National Accreditation Board for
Certification Bodies (NABCB). Apart from this, 10 NRC
units and a total of 32 units, including food plazas,
FFUs and Food courts got Hazard Analysis and Critical
Points system (HACCP) or ISO 22000:2005 accreditation.
A leading market research Agency has been
engaged to measure the degree of satisfaction of
rail travellers on various aspects such as Food &
refreshment, Bed rolls and linen, Staff Behaviour &
Compartment related aspects to identify the areas
for improvement. This parameterisation of the
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
47
Complaint Handling system has been done to get

more specific details of complaint which will further
help in improving the system. The factors responsible
for deriving the overall on-board experience for the
travellers have been classified into the following four
broad aspects:
i) Compartment Related Aspects
ii) Food & Refreshment Related Aspects
iii) Staff Behaviour Related Aspects
iv) Linen & Bedroll Related Aspects
To check the quality of Food & Service, Customer
Satisfaction Surveys through third party professional
agencies were introduced and was segregated as a
completely different section to analyse the complaint
redressal system every minute.
Over all improvement of 4 per cent has been
observed in IRCTC related aspects which include
cleaning and sanitation, food storage, personal
hygiene, personal practices, presentation, etc. In
order to maintain the quality of services on-board
trains, control rooms have been set up in New Delhi,
Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad. These
Zonal Controls have been strengthened and equipped
with phone, fax and PC with broadband connectivity,
and are operational round the clock, seven days a
week. Central Control office at New Delhi regularly
coordinates with all the five zonal offices for effective
monitoring of the complaints & catering activities.
48
Enjoy the delicious KFC food delivery services in IRCTC

Going a step ahead in its catering tourism in Indian
Railways, IRCTC and KFC have partnered and this partnership has enabled the delivery of finger licking KFC food at
passengers seat in the railways.
In action since 20th July, at present, this facility is available only on 12 trains passing through New Delhi railway
station. However, it will be expanded to Vishakhapatnam,
Hyderabad (Kacheguda) and Bangalore (Yeshwantpur)
stations over few days very soon. Consumers can visit the
IRCTC website or call on 18001034139 (Toll Free) to place
their order. A password will then be sent by KFC to the
consumers mobile phone which will have to be mentioned
at the time of delivery.
KFC is the second fast food chain to tie up with IRCTC
after Dominos Pizza. Dominos began experimenting with
train deliveries earlier this year and now they offers deliveries on more than 200 train services.
To ease tatkal pressure, Railways to divide

AC and non-AC class booking
New Delhi: To ease pressure, Railways has decided to
stagger booking of tatkal tickets by allowing reservations in
AC class from 10 am to 11 am and non-AC class from 11 am.
The new tatkal booking schedule will come into effect in
the next couple of days, a senior Railways official said.
Preventive and punitive actions have been taken

based on the nature and seriousness of the complaint.
All the complaints were addressed and methods such
as penalizing licensees, D&AR action against staff,
counselling and warning were adopted at appropriate
levels. Hygiene laboratory in Central kitchen in Noida
has been upgraded to include more parameters and
techniques for testing raw and cooked food in static
and mobile catering units. The microbiological
tests for the cooked food, raw material as well as
equipment/utensils and hand swabs are conducted
regularly in lab to ensure the highest possible hygiene
standards in food being supplied from the kitchen.
Keeping in view the impact of food safety
on public health, food safety audits are also being
conducted in IRCTC by third party agencies. The
performance in case of trains came out to be around
80 per cent and in case of Static units 70
per cent. In case of non-railway outlets, the
food safety and hygiene audit came out to be 85.5 per
cent.
As far as IRCTC is concerned, observing the
evaluation of the steps taken by it, it is very keen
to improve the quality of services being offered in
the Indian Railways. But at the same time it is not
responsible for any kind of illegal catering that takes
place on Indian the railway system.
The Railways is also toying with the idea of giving refund

on cancellation of confirmed tatkal tickets, the percentage
of which would be calculated based on a time frame.
The public transporter has decided to rechristen premium trains as Suvidha trains with an overhaul in the fare
structure, and cancellations and bookings facilities, Railway
Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla said.
Announcing the changes in timing of tatkal bookings
for AC and non-AC classes, he said the measures were taken
to ensure fast service while booking online and reducing
passenger rush at the counters.
Talking to reporters, Sharma said the IRCTC website had
recently registered three crore hits in a day, slowing the
server in the process.
Besides, he said plans are a foot to refund a percentage
of fare on cancellation of confirmed tatkal tickets, which is
hitherto unavailable.
We are considering to refund certain percentage. We
will have a time frame and if a passenger cancels (a tatkal
ticket) within the time frame, he will be refunded accordingly, he said.
Refunds will also be available on cancellations of tickets
of premium trains and such refunds would go up to 50
per cent, he said. At present, no such facility is available,
making such services unpopular among a segment of the
customers.
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
49
New paradigms to support

the spread of air traffic
In the forthcoming years in India, the growth
of aviation is expected to be staggering and
to serve that growth, the capacity of airports,
both in absolute numbers and also the capacity
of individual airports, has to speed up.
By | Robey Lal
he continuously increasing volume of air traffic, numbers

of aircraft and the users desire for affordable comfort
will drive the expansion of the aviation network. To
satisfy these demands the issues to be addressed must
concurrently focus on safety and affordable convenience.
But for the moment, let us home in on the issues related to
increasing capacity at, and of, the airports.
The initial step is a call for greater collaboration between the
carriers, the airport planners and operators, and the government. The
roles of the three could well start with the role that the government
has to play. An important factor, which needs to be recognized as
it defines the operation of the aviation industry more than that of
many others. The interventions include:
n The tariffs that may be set by the airports, whether in the
public or the private domain, are detailed by the regulations of
the government. In India there are a wide variety of tariff regime
mechanisms for a comparatively small number of airports. The tariff
structure ought to progress from one to another, from minor to
major airports regardless of ownership, harmoniously, so that the
stakeholders can foresee a stable financial regimen ahead.
n Secondly, there are two authorities, civil and military, which
prescribe the aeronautical standards of planning and/or operation
of Indian airports. The levels followed by the two oft-times differ.
I hasten to add that there are also inconsistencies in prescription;
implementation and regulatory oversight of the standards
observed between airports, and especially between civil and
defense controlled ones. These variances need to be addressed
and a uniform pattern, which enhances safety, based on the civil
regulations, must be enforced at airports serving the public.
n A similar situation exists regarding operational performance
standards, i.e. the quality of service, provided by the airport
operators. Only a few of our airports set their standards of
performance and strive to achieve them. The Ministry and AERA
must approve and introduce measureable standards of performance
for all airports. Presently, a sample survey of passengers is used to
judge how a few, select airports fare vs. others around the world.
Though useful, at best these are subjective reactions of users. What
will help users throughout India is that the regulators set measurable
levels of service to be provided at all airports, for passenger and
54
cargo terminals, and hold the operators, AAI and private parties,
accountable to achieve them.
Secondly, the current approach in airport planning is to prepare
a traffic forecast for 15 to 25 years and then develop terminal and
support facilities at the airport to match that forecast. The rest of
the land is then considered for commercial exploitation. However,
experience has shown that such forecasts, in a volatile aviation
market, can be wide off the mark. The end result is that airport
facilities are playing catch up with the traffic volumes rather than
preceding the demand. Therefore, a planning paradigm used for
planning of airports to ensure that a longer-term view is taken is
required.
The priority ought to be to maximize the capacity of aeronautical
services provided at the airport for the long-term on the land
available. The land at an airport is the most precious of resources
and its use for operational purposes must be top priority. Only after
it is ensured the operational needs over an extended period of time
can be served then one must allow the rest of the airport land, and
in its near vicinity, for commercial development and increasing nonaeronautical revenues.
Such planning ought to be related to the economic benefits
that the airport brings to the region and the city that it serves.
Present economic analysis seems to consider airports and facilities as
standalone commercial entities and the development proposals have

to be justified on their financial returns. This is done despite the fact
that the economic gains are felt far and wide. So airports must be a
part of regional planning, and their operators ought to get economic
and financial benefits for providing the service. Thus, a model, which
balances the service that an airport provides to the community with
the financial returns to the operator from the community it serves,
ought to be introduced. While the development of airports in the
future are likely to increasing invite participation of private players,
the profits the private parties will gain will need to be balanced with
the public good.
There are always interested parties in the development of large
airports, where traffic is assured and communities and operators
look upon their airports and terminals as iconic designs in the
urban landscape. But the discussions of major airports and their
development are not touched upon here. As a large number of
comparatively small airports are to be developed across the country,
the issues of planning en-masse must be based on a new paradigm.
Greater coordination between the major stakeholders in planning
the development of airport facilities needs to be introduced. This
is especially valid for now, since there is discussion of 50 or so new
airports to be developed in a short period of time. The development
plans will have to take into consideration innovative and proactive
plans to deal with the high costs of providing security, and Air Traffic
Control and even the specialized Airport Fire & Rescue services.
Currently, each airport developer wants a unique design, iconic
terminal to make their mark in the industry. But examples now
exist abroad where a client developing and operating airports,
es-The floor areas of the terminals, the facilities in terms of security
procedures and equipment, the specifications for information
systems, the baggage handling systems, signages etc. are to similar
specifications, and the demands for utilities are quite comparable
throughout the range of terminal designs. The items that have
to be adjusted to local conditions in each terminal are the HVAC
56
system to deal with environmental variances, structural needs for soil

conditions, and aesthetic needs reflecting local material and design
compulsions. Such detailing facilities can be undertaken relatively
quickly. Subsequently, if airports are bundled, then acquiring
equipment can be centralised resulting in financial savings during
capital expenditure and in maintenance.
Similarly the needs for the supporting infrastructure, including
aprons, car-parking area, ARFF building and equipment are quite
standard, and the airport terminal complex layout and land-use plan
can be adjusted to site conditions.
The carriers, which in India apparently want to operate A320
and B737 and rarely anything smaller, even like ATR 72, have to
be a party to such long term plans, to define possible aircraft
introductions. The regulators have to set planning and operating
standards, and the tariffs must be controlled, for the good of the
airlines and users, and maybe even result in prescribing a range
within which costs of development have to be maintained. Such
actions cannot be taken only by calling tenders, but the industry
must meet to develop the broad guidelines on which to develop
consumer and user driven plans for the industry.
Therefore, it is my view that when dealing with large numbers
of small airports, with basically similar needs, these issues ought
to be considered and uniform requirements leading to a uniform
base plan allowing for variations in detailing for local conditions,
be undertaken. The result will be quick development of airports,
savings in preparatory time and capital expenses and also long term
operational and maintenance savings. Such work is being provided
to clients abroad where
air traffic is growing. Increasing numbers
of communities are asking for air services, and private and public
agencies are cooperating in developing the infrastructure. Some
of this work is with major inputs provided by Indian consultants.
Thus, it is time to get away from individualistic facilities to consumer
oriented airport facilities across India.
Kaoru Ishikawa
A Great Practical Philosopher
By | Kiran Deshmukh
Managing Director of Sona Skill Development Centre Ltd,
President of Indian Society for Quality
3th July this year was the birth centenary of

Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, who is credited with
the idea of Total Quality Control (TQC), a system
of company-wide quality control in which all
company members-from top management to
operators on the shop floor-participate. Before the World
War II, products exported from Japan had a well-earned
reputation for being cheap and shoddy. Immediately
after the war, Ishikawa worked along with like-minded
colleagues and quality experts of his time to develop and
disseminate the concepts of quality control to Japanese
industry. Through his research he brought an innovative
change to business management principles and style of
operation: broad involvement in quality, not only top to
bottom within the organisation, but also from start to
finish in the product lifecycle. By mid 1970s and early
1980s, Japanese quality superiority was a major reason
for a dramatic shift in share of market from the West to
Japan for a wide range of products such as colour TV sets,
automobiles, and large scale integrated circuits. Today,
Japan is a nation of industrial might and technological
prowess Ishikawa can surely be considered to be a key
contributor in the quality revolution that took place in
Japan, a major reason behind that countrys post-war
economic miracle.
After the War, the Economic Stability Board got
together to improve competitiveness of Japanese industry.
In the autumn of 1948, the Board asked the union
of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to begin
investigation and research into statistical two quality
control. JUSE in turn set up an experts group, which came
to be known as Quality Control Research Group (QCRG).
The group began work on how to reconstruct Japanese
industry through the practice of quality control. It decided
that quality control should be researched more deeply,
analysed and presented in such a way as to disseminate
it throughout the Japanese industry. Ishikawa became a
member of QCRG, investigating and researching statistical
quality control that was introduce from the United States
of America. He soon realised that corporate quality
control activities should be undertaken by all ranks and
departments of a company, not just by a small group of
specialists, as was the case then. Thus was born what Dr.
A. V. Feigenbaum called Total Quality Control (TQC) in his
58
1951 book of the same name, which was later renamed in

1990s as Total Quality Management, or TQM.
Ishikawa cooperated in administrating and lecturing
diverse seminars on quality control, for business
executives, engineers, factory foremen, workers, marketing
departments, purchasing departments and others. He
not only ensured realization of these seminars, but also
served as organizing committee chairman or member or
as a speaker for a majority of quality control seminars.
JUSE published the Hinshitsu Kanri in March of 1950 as
a journal to provide pertinent information about quality
control. In 1952, Ishikawa became Chairman of the
editing committee of this magazine, position that he held
until 1978.During this period, he worked to ensure that
the journal took the lead in the field of quality control in
Japan. In early 1960s, it professed the famous slogan of
Use quality control to liberalide trade, while promoting
free trade in the face of what seemed a more defensive

stance on the part of industry. Soon thereafter, with
the publishing of the TQC lecture series Quality Control
Carried Out by Everyone, the journal took the initiative
in moving from statistical quality control (SQC) to total
quality control (TQC). Based on the idea that even if
management and engineers know about quality control,
it will not be successful unless workers at the job site also
understand it, Ishikawa aggressively pursued this idea in
the 1960s through the publication of a text aimed at job
sites and articles about round table discussions aimed at
the job site. Upon seeing the strong positive reaction to
these efforts the editing committee members of Hinshitsu
Kanri decided in 1962 to publish a quarterly magazine
called Genba To QC (Quality Control for Foremen),
which is currently called QC Circle. In the foreword of
the first number of this magazine, Ishikawa proposed
the formation of QC circles in order to educate and
disseminate the principles and practice of quality control
to the frontline operators. He served as chief editor to
this magazine until his death, thereby making immense
contribution to the diffusion of TQC.
To honor the achievement of W. E. Deming, who
visited Japan in 1950 and 1951 and strived to guide
Japanese companies in improving quality of their
operations, products, and services, JUSE instituted in
1951 the Deming Prize as an award to honour those
individuals or companies that served to advance quality
control in Japan. Ishikawa was a long-time member of the
committee and was the vice chairman(1962-1985) of the
Deming Application Prize Subcommittee with Professor
Shigeru Mizune (1962-1980), Professor Tetsuichi Asaka
(1981-1984) and Professor Ikuro Kusaba (1984-1985). It
is customary to ask the head of the Agency of Industrial
Science and Technology in the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry (MITI) to take on the position of
Chairman of this sub-committee.
As a result, it is the deputy chairman who carries out
the substantive operation of the committee. Ishikawa,
Mizuno, Asaka and Kusaba played a major role in
establishing a suitable examination system, which led to
honouring companies that had achieved excellent results
in quality control. Thus, their work has had a huge impact
on raising the standard of quality control among Japanese
companies. Since improvement in product quality was not
possible without public understanding, Ishikawa proposed
to celebrate November as Quality Month in order to
appeal the case for the importance of quality and raise
quality awareness among people. This practice of Quality
Month is followed even today in Japan, a custom that has
proliferated outside Japan as well. Ishikawa also engaged
in a wide range of research concerning quality control. He
published his findings in many books and papers, which
have received many awards. In 1952, he was awarded
the Deming Prize for Individuals by the Deming Prize
Committee for his early achievements as a QC Research
Group member.
With his colleagues, Ishikawa endeavoured to promote

the awareness, spread and development of quality control
to support the growth of industry, pouring his unflagging
efforts into the promotion of QC activities. As a result,
he and his colleagues succeeded in creating a unique
Japanese approach to quality control. In the process, he
also developed outstanding, firstrate quality gurus from
among the next generation. His disciples (and disciples
of disciples) include famous names such as Masumasa
Imaizumi, HitoshiKume, Noriaki Kano, Yoshinori Iizuka,
Hiroshi Osada, Kazuyuki Suzuki, and Yukihiro Ando. No
other quality guru in the world can claim to have created
such a big army of followers who have been researching
new methods in quality management, and carrying on
the work of Spreading the knowledge of TQM. Ishikawa
thus was an excellent organizer who developed a national
quality control movement that involved many people
throughout a wide range of disciplines. Ishikawa Diagramalso called the cause-and-effect diagram or the fishbone
diagram-is a well-known and universally adopted method
for problem solving in diverse situations. While many will
know Ishikawa as the man behind this time-tested tool,
his contribution in quality management undoubtedly
extends far beyond. He led an acceleration in theglobal
exchange of quality methods, tools, and operating
philosophies by founding the International Academy for
Quality (IAQ), the International Conference on Quality
Control (ICQC, today called the ICQ), and also by opening
the door for overseas enterprises to challenge the Deming
Prize. He was invited to many countries to advance their
quality efforts, including the United States, Taiwan, China,
the United Kingdom, India and many others, where he
introduced and instructed in the holistic way to apply
Japanese TQM methods. As a member and vice chairman
of the Deming Application Prize Subcommittee, he
advocated the open door policy for the Deming Prize.
His strong leadership resulted in overseas companies
being allowed to challenge Deming Award in 1989. Since
then, as many as 45 overseas companies-over half of
them Indian-have successfully challenged Deming Prize,
improving their global competitiveness.
Professor Kaoru Ishikawas life has many lessons for us
in India: in government, in academia, and in industry. As
we embark on the road to Make In India, it is absolutely
necessary to raise the global competitiveness of the
Indian manufacturing sector. While areas of regulation,
infrastructure, skill development, technology, availability
of finance, exit mechanism and other factors need
policymakers attention, we as a nation must focus on
raising the quality of everything that we do.
In order to bring about that competitiveness. If we want
to realise an Indian Manufacturing Miracle within
the next decade we need to disseminate the already
developed and proven concepts of TQM not only I the
industry, but also throughout the society at large. What
Japan did in its post-war years can be an example for us
to emulate.
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
59
Management Representatives
role in FDIs 9001:2015
What has changed in ISO/FDIS 9001:2014 with
respect of appointment of a Management Representative in organizations?
output. This can be achieved through assignment to one person.

If, however, the range of roles is broader than that of one person,
then, an organisation will need to show how these have been
assigned to appropriate personnel.
FDIS 9001:2014 does not require a person to be specifically

assigned as a Management Representative. Though the explicit
requirement for the appointment of management representative
has been removed, the activities that the MR undertakes are still
required.
In new version there is requirement for top management to

take accountability for the effectiveness of the QMS.
Who will take the role and responsibility of MR

activities?
The responsibilities of those activities are required
to be fulfilled through top management. There is
more emphasis on the top management involvement, implementation and performance on the organizations management
system.
Will the top management also act as MR?

Top management needs to assign the responsibility and
authority for ensuring that the management system conforms to
the requirements, maintains integrity and delivers their intended
60
How does this change help the Management

System?
The change reinforces a need to see the quality management
system embedded into routine business operations, rather than
operating as an independent system in its own right with its own
dedicated management structure.
Top Management quality leadership responsibility is tied
to closer links between the management system and product/
service quality. So there is more emphasis on their direct involvement.
Documented Information
What has changed in ISO/FDIS 9001:2015 in
respect of documentation requirement?
As part of the alignment with other management system
standards a common clause on Documented Information has
been adopted without significant change or addition.
Where ISO 9001:2008 would have referred to documented
procedures (e.g. to define, control or support a process) this is now
expressed as a requirement to maintain documented information.
Where ISO 9001:2008 would have referred to records this is
now expressed as a requirement to retain documented
information.
You mean there are no mandatory procedures

and records required in ISO/FDIS 9001:2015?
Yes, there are no mandatory procedures and records as it was in
ISO 9001:2008. In that, the words such as documented procedure
and records are not used within the standard, except as a note in
the definition of documented information.
What the FDIS says is that the organizations QMS is to include
documented information that are required by the standard, as
well as documented information determined by the organization
as being necessary for the effectiveness of the quality
management system.
So, you may say that there are mandatory documented

information required by the FDIS.
Then what does an organization do with its

existing procedures and formats?
The procedures and formats can be retained as it is, if
required to the extent necessary to support the understanding
and operation of the process. The nature and type of
documented information that an organisation needs to maintain
or retain is dependent on the context and its operating
environment.
Is it true that there is no requirement of a Quality

Manual?
The word Quality Manual has not been used within
the FDIS.
The organization needs to decide whether a Quality Manual
(as in ISO 9001:2008) is required to support the effectiveness of
the quality management system. If the answer is yes, organization
may choose to have a Quality Manual.
Authors: Mr.S.Chattopadhyay-General Manager & Country
Coordinator- LRQA-Mumbai
Mr.Vinay Khator-Assessor- LRQA-Mumbai
JulyAugust 2015 |
quality india
61
Last Note
uality versus
reliability
he everyday usage term quality of a product is loosely taken to mean its inherent
degree of excellence. In industry, this is made more precise by defining quality to be
conformance to requirements at the start of use. Assuming the product specifications
adequately capture customer requirements, the quality level can now be precisely
measured by the fraction of units shipped that meet specifications.
But how many of these units still meet specifications after a week of operation? Or after a
month, or at the end of a one year warranty period? That is where reliability comes in. Quality
is a snapshot at the start of life and reliability is a motion picture of the day-by-day operation.
Time zero defects are manufacturing mistakes that escaped final test. The additional defects
that appear over time are reliability defects or reliability fallout.
The quality level might be described by a single fraction defective. To describe reliability
fallout a probability model that describes the fraction fallout overtime is needed. This is known
as the life distribution model.
Accurate prediction and control of reliability plays an important role in the profitability of a
product. Service costs for products within the warranty period or under a service contract are a
major expense and a significant pricing factor. Proper spare part stocking and support personnel
hiring and training also depend upon good reliability fallout predictions. On the other hand,
missing reliability targets may invoke contractual penalties and cost future business.
Companies that can economically design and market products that meet their customers
reliability expectations have a strong competitive advantage in todays marketplace.
Sometimes equipment failure can have a major impact on human safety and/or health.
Automobiles, planes, life support equipment, and power generating plants are a few
examples.
From the point of view of assessing product reliability, we treat these kinds of catastrophic
failures, no differently from the failure that occurs when a key parameter measured on a
manufacturing tool drifts slightly out of specification, calling for an unscheduled maintenance
action.
It is up to the reliability engineer (and the relevant customer) to define what constitutes a
failure in any reliability study. More resource (test time and test units) should be planned for
when an incorrect reliability assessment could negatively impact the safety and/or health.
Reliability theory developed apart from the mainstream of probability and statistics, and
was used primarily as a tool to help nineteenth century maritime and life insurance companies
compute profitable rates to charge their customers. Even today, the terms failure rate and
hazard rate are often used interchangeably.
62

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quality

Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Quality Council of India

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the 2nd National Quality Conclave

A disciplined man who

quality india | JulyAugust 2015

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Competent . Creative . Cooperative

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