Sri Lanka’s top tyre manufacturer CEAT Kelani Holdings has won nine Golds and a Silver at the 2024 International Convention on Quality Control Circles (ICQCC), emphatically reaffirming the company’s obsession with quality improvement.

Significantly, the company presented 10 Quality Improvement Projects (QIPs) targeting Quality, Cost, and Delivery (QCD) outcomes at this international convention, and every one of them won an award, grabbing the limelight at the event. These projects were carried out under the company’s quality-based management philosophy.

In its 49^th year, the International Convention on Quality Control Circles was hosted by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Quality and Productivity (SLAAQP) after a lapse of 10 years. This was the third occasion that this international event was held in Sri Lanka.

“Continuous improvement of quality is one of the main pillars of CEAT’s success in the market as the brand progresses up the value chain in terms of products and service,” CEAT Kelani Chief Operating Officer Mr Shamal Gunawardene said. “This must be accompanied by enhanced efficiencies that benefit all product segments in terms of costs as well as reduced environmental impacts. The work of our Quality Improvement teams is therefore extremely important, and the nine Gold awards we won are a fitting testament to their contribution to our Total Quality Management culture.”

The nine Quality Improvement Projects that won Gold awards for CEAT pertained to Reduction of belt scrap generation in Radial operations; Reduction of rework generation in the Cold Feed Extruder at the Kelaniya Plant; Elimination of motorcycle tyre lamination problem; Optimisation to achieve 2-wheeler tyre weight; Scrap data accuracy improvement; Reduction of engineering spares inventory value; reduction of tyre scrap generation in motorcycle tyre plant; Reduction of shear strip curing costs while increasing throughput; and Reduction of tyre scrap generation in radial plant. The Silver award was won for a project to reduce compound scrap generation.

CEAT Kelani qualified to represent Sri Lanka at the International Convention on Quality Control Circles 2024 after eight Quality Improvement Projects implemented at the company won Gold awards at the National Convention on Quality and Productivity (NCQP) 2024 organised by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Quality and Productivity.

CEAT Kelani Holdings currently manufactures half of Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre requirements, exports about 20 per cent of its production and plays a significant role in helping the national economy conserve foreign exchange by reducing dependence on imported tyres. The joint venture’s cumulative investment in Sri Lanka over the past decade alone exceeds Rs 8.5 billion.

The CEAT brand originated in Italy and is backed by extensive research and testing facilities in India and Germany. The largest domestic manufacturer of cross-ply and radial tyres in Sri Lanka, CEAT’s emergence as the top brand in the country’s tyre sector is the result of substantial investments over several years that have seen not just exponential increases in volumes but expansion of the product range, the deployment of new technology and quantum improvements in quality. The company’s manufacturing operations encompass pneumatic tyres in the radial (passenger cars, vans and SUVs), commercial (Bias-ply and radial), motorcycle, three-wheeler and agricultural vehicle segments.

Photo caption: CEAT Kelani’s award-winning Quality Improvement teams with the awards won at ICQCC 2024