NEW DELHI, July 6: Maruti Udyog Ltd has decided to reduce the number of vendors which supply components to the company as a part of its strategy to implement strict quality control measures.

The company has about 400 vendors supplying over 2000 types of components at present.

Company sources said that a series of measures were being taken up to improve the quality of components supplied by the vendors. The number of vendors is being reduced from the present four to five per component to a maximum of three vendors.

Vendors were also being penalised for supplying defective components. MUL has asked Sona Steering to pay Rs 40 lakhs as cost incurred for replacing the defective steering in the 50,000-odd cars recalled from the market recently.

MUL's executive director (marketing), Jagdish Khattar told The Financial Express that Maruti sourced 75 per cent of its component requirement from vendors. "The quality of Maruti car is not upto the international standards," admits Khattar.

Maruti's component defect rate is as high as 30,000 parts per million (PPM) as compared to 200 (PPM) for the developed countries. The company does only random checks (one out of 30 components supplied). The company has developed a failure monitor mechanism for each of the 2000 types of components which go in the manufacture of each car.

However, Khattar stressed that a car manufacturing company could not be held responsible for substandard components supplied by vendors.

"The defect rate of Indian component suppliers is 100 times more than the world standards. Unless the quality of components supplied by the vendor increases, the quality of cars produced in India would be substandard," Khattar pointed out.

MUL is, nevertheless, tightening its belts on quality front, especially after the recent embarassment suffered due to recall of about 50,000 cars.

MUL has decided to make internal and external audits of vendors and suppliers more stringent and regular in future. This would ensure that vendors adhere to quality norms. Company executives said interaction with vendors and suppliers was also being stepped up to know their needs and the sources of their raw materials. This would also help in up gradation of vendor technology and their production facilities.

A better way of detecting faults in components is by putting stickers along with the batch number so that the faulty components can be easily detected.Maruti has a vendor consultancy cell which look into problems of vendors and advises them on modernisation and upgradation.

Maruti Udyog Limited is also trying to get ISO-9000 certification for vendors. This will help in setting up a procedure for manufacturing standardised products. However, company executives admit that ISO-9000 certification does not ensure quality since it is only a set of systems and procedures for manufacturing.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.