Kelani Cables wins World Class Global Performance Excellence Awards 2017

Leading Sri Lankan electric cable manufacturer Kelani Cables was awarded the World Class Award in the Large Manufacturing category at the World Class Global Performance Excellence Awards 2017 organised by the Asia Pacific Quality Organization (APQO). 

The award ceremony was held in Manila, Philippines on 23 October in conjunction with the 2017 International Quality Conference. 

“We are pleased to announce that 22 organisations from 11 Asian and Pacific Rim countries are being recognised as exemplary companies of world-class quality performance. They have achieved the Global Performance Excellence Award modelled after the U.S. Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Award,” said Charles Aubrey, Chairman of APQO and the Global Performance Excellence Award Executive Committee. 

Dr. Aubrey has held top positions at several Fortune 500 companies and has worked with Dr. Juran at the Juran Institute. He helped draft the original Baldrige Criteria and served as a Senior Examiner for the Baldrige Program for four years. The GPEA is the only formal international recognition of performance and business excellence and is a strategic enabling tool for global performance excellence. 

The GPEA process promotes awareness in performance excellence as an increasingly important tool in competitiveness towards global business success and sustainability. The APQO, which organises GPEA, was founded and organised by National Quality Organizations in Asian and Pacific Rim countries, including the American Society for Quality. It is a primary mover for quality and continuous improvement for goods and services and quality of life in the Asia Pacific region.

Winning the National Quality Award is the eligibility criteria to apply for the World Class Global Performance Excellence Awards. Evaluation of the National Quality Award and the World Class Global Performance Excellence Awards is based on seven criteria. They are Leadership, Strategy, Customers, Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management, Workforce, Operations and Results. 

These criteria are the same for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the US, one of the most stringent sets of quality requirements in the world. An organisation succeeds in achieving sustainable positive results and moves forward in the right direction when it is managed by an ethical leadership with a vision and an understanding of organisational values, complying with relevant rules and regulations and utilising effective two-way communication. 

The sustainable growth of an organisation is based on short-term, medium-term and long-term strategic planning, its implementation and the proper management of its results along with innovation. Customer requirements identification is key while the provision of products that satisfy identified customer requirements at the right time and managing good customer communication, including positive and negative customer feedback, is of utmost importance. The measurement of strategically important parameters and data analysis and making business decisions based on facts, along with the use of information technology, is a characteristic of National Quality award-winners. 

Developing a quality workforce by enhancing its skills and recognising its achievements while also developing an ethical workplace culture produces good results. Identifying vital and supportive processes and managing with better interaction to achieve high productivity operations management is important. An organisation which functions with the aforementioned practices integrated into its core will perform better with more long-term sustainable profits than its counterparts who don’t utilise these practices. 

The enhanced quality of products (goods and services) benefits everyone by consumers getting a high quality and better standard product as a result of increased competitiveness, the creation of better workplaces for employees, achieving recognition for Sri Lankan products in international markets and higher value creation. 

Kelani Cables produces various types of cables including building wires, iron cables, flexible cords, TV down leads/coaxial cables, rosette cables, telephone cables, control cables, speaker cables, screened cables, Aerial Bundled Cables (ABC), All Aluminium Cables (AAC), Aluminium Conductors Steel Reinforced (ACSR), auto cables, submersible pump cables, armoured power cables, unarmoured power cables, welding cables and enamelled winding wires.

Kelani Cables holds five SLS product certifications. Kelani building wires are SLS 733 and SLS 1504 certified products. Kelani auto cables are SLS 412 certified. Aluminium overhead lines are SLS 750 certified and Kelani XLPE insulated four core armoured cables are SLS 1186 certified. Kelani enamelled winding wires are an Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certified product. Kelani Cables are designed, manufactured and tested to Sri Lanka Standards and various international standards including British Standards (BS), European Norms (EN), International Electrotechnical Commission standards (IEC), Japanese Standards (JIS) and American Standards (UL). 

Kelani Cables was founded in 1969 as a manufacturer and distributor of power and telecommunication cables and enamelled winding wires. Having begun operations with just 12 workers, Kelani Cables is a household name today with an over 500-strong workforce and a solid reputation for quality and stability. Kelani Cables are exported to the Maldives, Bangladesh, Australia, Seychelles, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates, India, Vietnam, Qatar, Pakistan and South Africa.

Kelani Cables is an ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ResponsibleCare(R) certified company. Kelani Cables won a National Quality award in 2006. Kelani Cables also received the Industrial Excellence Gold Award three years in succession in 2006, 2007 and 2008, which qualified it for the acclaimed Crystal Award in 2008. Kelani Cables won the Taiki Akimoto 5S Gold Award for the manufacturing sector and overall Gold Award in 2007. In 2010 Kelani Cables won the National Safety Award in the manufacturing and processing sector for being the safest workplace. Kelani Cables won SLITAD People Development Gold Award in 2013. Kelani Cables was also awarded the B2B Brand of the Year Gold Award at SLIM Brand Excellence in 2013. Kelani Cables received the Geo Responsibility Excellence Award for environmental system compliance in 2014. Kelani Cables won the Silver Award at National Green Awards 2015 in the manufacturing sector. 

In 2016 Kelani Cables won the National Quality Award again and was able to win Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award, Best Green Reporter Gold Award in Tier 2 in the National Green Reporting System and Social Dialogue and Workplace Cooperation Gold Award. The company won an award in the National Chamber of Exporters’ Industry Sector Large category and a B2B Brand of the Year Gold Award at SLIM Brand Excellence again in 2017.