Steel Authority of India Ltd, adjudged runner-up by the Institute of Cost & Works Accountant of India (ICWAI) for its National Award for Excellence in Cost Management 2004, was presented the prestigious trophy at a function held at Vigyan Bhavan on 12th March 2005. Mr Prem Chand Gupta, the Union Minister of State for Company Affairs (Independent Charge), handed over the award to Mr G.C. Daga, Director (Finance), SAIL. The company was adjudged second best from amongst 24 leading public sector organisations in the country.
This is the second consecutive year when efforts of the company in cost management have been appreciated by the ICWAI. SAIL received the winnerÔÇÖs trophy last year for excellence in cost reduction.
This yearÔÇÖs award is a testimony to the unrelenting efforts made by the company collective over a period of time to set new standards of excellence in the field of cost management. The steel major with a turnover of over Rs 24,000 crore has been laying a thrust on cost reduction measures for several years and a number of innovative steps have been introduced within the organisation resulting in substantial benefits.
A major step in this direction is continuous accent on R&D, which enabled SAIL to reduce cost through process improvement, quality improvement, and introduction of innovative techniques such as auxiliary fuel injection to reduce specific consumption of expensive inputs. SAIL benchmarked various areas like BF productivity, coke rate, energy consumption, power consumption, etc., in its plants for its thrust on exploiting the full potential of the assets.
Simultaneously, the company saved significantly with the success of several other initiatives such as performance-based procurement, consolidating business transactions through e-commerce, competence enhancement through HRD initiatives, enhanced automation, manpower rationalisation and waste management. SAIL also achieved significant reduction in interest cost/finance charges by prepaying/restructuring costlier loans.