An MBA student of Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, Vignesh Viswanathan, Class of 2017, won the second place under ‘Best Presentation-Manufacturing’ category, for his presentation “Process Design for Reducing Customer Returns of Castings” at a workshop organized by Indian Statistical Institute, Coimbatore. Titled “Smart Solutions to Wicked Problems”, the workshop focused on statistical techniques for business process improvements and was held at Codissia Trade Fair Complex, Coimbatore.

Vignesh Viswanathan also underwent the training for Six Sigma Black Belt and completed the course. Prof. A. Rajagopal, Head of SQC & OR Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Coimbatore, was his mentor in the industry.

Commenting on his achievement, Vignesh said, “It is a lifetime experience. I am so happy and proud. I extend my sincere gratitude to my industry mentor Prof. Rajagopal, faculty mentors at ASB – Prof. Hemamala (Assistant Professor-Operations), Dr. Suresh. M (Assistant Professor – Operations), and Chairman Dr. R. Raghu Raman for supporting me.”

“Prof. Hemamala assisted me in getting an opportunity to intern at Ammarun Foundries, Coimbatore. Dr. Suresh helped me in arranging the permission to attend the classes during weekends. Chairman supported me to prepone my summer poster presentation so that I could attend this statistical conference. Moreover, thanks to my parents, without whom anything would have been impossible,” he added.

The workshop held at Codissia focused on a combination of a systems theory, six sigma, lean sigma, and quantitative techniques to bring in significant benefits in terms of quality improvement and the waste of reduction. There were live case studies and sessions presented by the corporate executives in the workshop. Vignesh was the only student among the participants who attended the program.