Central Electronics Ltd(CEL) is a PSU under the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, which has pioneered Solar Photovoltaics in the country and has the distinction of having manufactured India’s First Solar Cell in 1977 and India’s First Solar Panel in 1978 and installed India’s first solar power plant in 1992. More recently, CEL developed India’s first indigenous flexible solar panel for use on the Science Express in 2015.
Manoj Sharma PRO said that CEL took up “Manufacturing Excellence” programme under “Good to Great” (GtG) project of CII in September, 2014 in its new Automated Module Manufacturing Line. Under this project, CII task force has worked with CEL team for putting in place modern quality management processes and continuously improving quality and reducing wastages.
Phase II of this project was completed in September, 2016 and CEL achieve remarkable results including:
labor productivity increased by 50%, power expense decreased by 41%; 5S score (representing shop floor improvement) is going up every year. Employee suggestions (Kaizens) increased from 5 (2015-16) to 78 (2016-17) average Solar panel production cost decreased by about 10%.
These achievements by CEL team were highly appreciated by the CII “Good to Great” (GtG) task force at its meeting held at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi recently.