Key members of the teams from the CEAT plants in Kelaniya and Kalutara who were involved in securing the IATF certification

Three manufacturing plants of CEAT Kelani Holdings have been awarded IATF 16949 that verifies that their products meet exceptionally high quality standards and supply chain efficiency, making CEAT Sri Lanka the first tyre manufacturing group in the country to qualify for this international certification.

The certification covers CEAT Kelani International Tyres (Private) Limited, CEAT Kelani Radials (Private) Limited and Associated CEAT (Private) Limited as well as the CEAT Kelani Head Office and CEAT R&D India as the remote supportive locations for the three manufacturing plants.

Awarded by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF), IATF 16949 is an automotive quality management system standard that certifies that CEAT Sri Lanka has met the extensive requirements to create high standard quality products with a process of continuous improvement that focuses on defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.

Applicable to automotive production and service part organisations, the certification also defines how an organisation could meet the requirements of its customers and other stakeholders. To qualify for this certification, CEAT Sri Lanka had to comply with ISO 9001:2015 and IATF 16949:2016 quality management system requirements and implement five core tools, including Advance Product Quality Planning (APQP), Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA)to ensure potential problems are considered and addressed throughout product and process development with the help of control plans, and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) that ensures products consistently meet customer engineering specification requirements.

Commenting on achieving the IATF 16949 certification, CEAT Sri Lanka Managing Director Ravi Dadlani said, “The IATF journey for CEAT Sri Lanka entailed a well-crafted integration of existing and new auto industry-specific requirements while maintaining customer satisfaction and continuous improvement, which have always been our top priorities. Obtaining this certification demonstrates CEAT Sri Lanka’s ability to cater to automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the world.”