Three manufacturing plants of CEAT Kelani Holdings have been awarded IATF 16949 that verifies that their products meet exceptionally high quality standards and supply chain efficiency, making CEAT Sri Lanka the first tyre manufacturing group in the country to qualify for this prestigious international certification.
The certification covers CEAT Kelani International Tyres (Pvt) Limited, CEAT Kelani Radials (Pvt) Limited and Associated CEAT (Pvt) Limited and the CEAT Kelani Head Office and CEAT R&D India as the remote supportive locations for the three manufacturingplants.
Awarded by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), IATF 16949 is anautomotive quality management system standard, that certifiesthat CEAT Sri Lanka has met the extensive requirements to create high standard quality products witha process of continuous improvement thatfocuses on defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.
Applicable to automotive production and service part organisations, the certification also defines how an organisation could meet the requirements of its customers and other stakeholders.
To qualify for this certification, CEAT Sri Lanka had to comply with ISO 9001:2015 and IATF 16949:2016 quality management system requirements and implement five core tools, including Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP), Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA)to ensure potentialproblems are considered and addressed throughout product and process development with the help of control plans, and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) that ensures products consistently meet customer engineering specification requirements.
The Company also launched a series of initiatives such as Quality Based Management, Customer Insighting Approach, lean manufacturing principles, problem solving processes using the seven Quality Control (7 QC) tools, Six Sigma using the‘define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC)’ approach, supplier integration, and corporate policy changes. CEAT Sri Lanka Managing Director Ravi Dadlani said, “The IATF journey for CEAT Sri Lanka entailed a well-crafted integration of existing and new auto industry-specific requirements whilemaintaining customer satisfaction and continuous improvement, which have always been our top priorities.
Obtaining this certification demonstrates CEAT Sri Lanka’s ability to cater to automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the world.”
CEAT Sri Lanka recently conducted a series of track tests at India’s state-of-the-art National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) in Indore and at CEAT India’s corporate R&D facility in Halol, to benchmark six radial tyres and five motorcycle tyres the company manufactures in Sri Lanka against major competitor brands based on multiple key value propositions.
Developed by the International Automotive Task Force, IATF 16949 certification is an industry requirement that aligns automotive quality management systems throughout the world.
The IATF is agroup of automotive manufacturers and their National Automotive Industry Associations.