Noritake Lanka Porcelain (Pvt) Limited entered the New Year on a winning note by being awarded the National Quality Award in the Large Manufacturing Category at the National Quality Awards at the Colombo Hilton recently.
Noritake’s Senior Director T.C Tennakoon and Technical Director Mr. Y. Ando received the award from H.E. President Maithripala Sirisena.
Minister of Technology and Research Hon. Susil Premajayantha and State Minister of Science, Technology and Research Hon. Lakshman Senevirathna were also present at the ceremony.
“Last year was a very good year and we’re thus doubly happy to continue our winning streak into this year too”, said an elated Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Noritake Lanka Porcelain (Pvt) Ltd (NLPL) Yoshinari Shimaya. “We are constantly humbled by the continued support and confidence placed in us by our ever-growing customer base both locally and overseas. Spurred on by our laurels, we always endeavour to out-do ourselves. This is a new year and the targets ahead are very challenging. We’re rejuvenated and motivated and look forward to taking them head on”, he said.
“This National Quality Award is once again yet another endorsement of the excellence of our product and our performance. This is also a shared honour and credit thus goes to every member of the Noritake family in Sri Lanka spread across our Matale factory, Pannala, our main showroom in Colombo 07 and at our other showrooms in Wattala, Matale, Odel and Pepiliyana”, Shimaya added.
Established in 1972 as a joint venture company between the Ceylon Ceramic Corporation and the one hundred year old Noritake Co., Limited of Japan, NLPL today enjoys iconic status as Sri Lanka’s pioneer porcelain tableware manufacturing company. The Company’s production facility is located in Matale where rich minerals such as quartz, feldspar and dolomite deposits are located.
Noritake Lanka Porcelain (Pvt) Limited currently exports more than 6 million pieces of porcelain ware valued at over Rs. 2,500 Mn. They are marketed in 100 countries across all five continents. NLPL is the major supplier of porcelain ware to leading hotels in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka National Quality Awards (SLNQA) is a national level award which annually recognises organisations for Performance Excellence. Applications are called annually and the organisations applying are assessed against well-defined criteria in the final selection process.
The award is based upon performance excellence criteria created through a public-private partnership. The criteria used are similar to the criteria used for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality award in USA. Leadership, strategy, customer focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce, operations and overall results are evaluated in the SLNQA when considering the performance excellence by the respective applicants.
Photo caption: (Above) Noritake’s Senior Director T.C. Tennakoon receives the award from President Maithripala Sirisena. At extreme right is Noritake’s Technical Director Mr. Y. Ando
The Noritake team with the Award