Munchee triumphs at inaugural NBES 2014

Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Munchee, the flagship brand of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL), the country’s fastest growing and largest biscuit and confectionary manufacturer won Gold at the maiden National Business Excellence Summit 2014 (NBES) organised by the National Chamber of Commerce. Held recently at the BMICH, the event’s theme highlighted ‘Business Excellence for Global Competitiveness’ with an objective to encourage and enhance the level of excellence in Sri Lankan organisations. Day two of the summit was dedicated to ‘Team Excellence’ where successful projects and case studies on Quality Circles and Continuous Improvement Teams received awards. Munchee’s unique ‘Swarna Shakthi’ Quality Circle secured the Gold award for the ‘Quality and Productivity Excellence Stream’ category.

CBL received further kudos at the Chamber’s first National Awards which recognises worker participation, with subsidiary companies Convenience Foods (Lanka) PLC and CBL Exports Ltd winning the Silver and Bronze awards respectively. Commenting on this achievement CEO Imal Fonseka said, “Following our Chairman’s mantra where ‘Quality is a Habit’ we are also driven by the astute leadership capabilities of our Board of Directors and the talent of our Senior Executives. These awards presented at operational level motivate all our employees from the factory level to the senior management and endorse CBL as a great place to work.” Spearheading CBL’s efforts towards continuous quality improvements and resource sustainability is their distinct Munchee Production System (MPS), encompassing worker best practices for employees to go beyond given targets and achieve continuous improvement through proper resource allocation and enhancing productivity. The winning ‘Swarna Shakthi’ Quality Circle was chosen through an internal competition to mark ‘World Standards Day’ where cross functional teams throughout the Group participated in production and quality improvement projects. Through certificates, ongoing training opportunities and cash awards the workers were continuously encouraged and empowered. According to Chief Lady Supervisor Nilanthi Ekanayake, “The team was formed voluntarily and engaged in brainstorming and concluded ‘wrapper waste’ as a recurrent problem at factory level. Over a period of six months quality tools were employed and sufficient data collected to formulate solutions. Through their untiring efforts cost reduction was achieved.” Operational staff looked at both practical and proactive ways, their job involvement, available environmental resources and applied tools and techniques such as TQM, TPM, TPS methods for appropriate solutions. “We looked at different parameters, identified the problems and set tasks to overcome them. Information kiosks are freely available throughout the factory. We understood the level of discarded items and realised through participation we can affect change,” said Packing Leader of the winning Quality Circle Ramisha Sewwandi, commenting on their continuous involvement. “We gave our time voluntarily, not in anticipation of an award but realised the need to stop excesses and save our company resources. Throughout this journey our moral has increased, we feel empowered and are proud of our achievements in helping the company’s goals towards quality innovation,” she added. CBL exports its premier Munchee brands to over 50 countries and is the recipient of certification from globally recognised bodies for maintaining consistent international quality standards and taste. CBL is also the recipient of National Export Awards twice whilst having been awarded the Global Performance Award.