School signs industry MoU in India

Academics from Cardiff Business School’s Logistics and Operations Management section have recently returned from India where they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Automotive Components Manufacturer Association of India (ACMA).

Professor Peter Wells, Head of the Logistics and Operations Management section, and Dr Maneesh Kumar, presented at the 2^nd ACMA Centre for Technology Summit, in Pune (9-10 January 2017).

The summit’s theme was ‘Innovations in Manufacturing’ and a wide range of industry, academic and government stakeholders were in attendance, including Anant Geete, Union Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises from the Government of India. Professor Peter Wells was a part of panel that discussed the future of the Indian automotive components sector. He highlighted the need for companies in the sector to look beyond the immediate management issues in order to develop a long-term strategy to cope with the huge changes sweeping through the industry. Dr Maneesh Kumar presented on how organisations can create a culture to support innovative work behaviour development within employees to sustain their Operations Excellence initiatives.

The MoU, signed by Professor Wells and Mr. Dinesh Vedpathak from ACMA, will see Cardiff Business School continue their research collaboration within the Indian Automotive Sector and deliver training and mentoring to ACMA’s senior management, related specifically to lean, quality improvement and productivity, leadership, and innovation.  As a first step, Cardiff Business School plans to develop a one-week executive course for ACMA counsellors and executives from the Indian automotive industry.

Dr Maneesh Kumar has been conducting research within the Indian automotive industry and ACMA for the last three years to understand the application of operations excellence concepts at the operations and supply network level of companies such as Toyota, Tata Motors, and Volkswagen.  He is also conducting a research on understanding how organisations sustain operations excellence. ACMA is supporting this study in India.