PRASHANTHAKUMARA K R
Quality Management
Mangaluru,Karnataka
Summary
Results-oriented professional with a proven track record of leading teams to enhance automotive Quality Management Systems (QMS) and drive continuous improvement. Skilled in leveraging Lean Methodologies and Problem-Solving skills to refine processes and achieve long-term organizational goals. Collaborative approach to root cause analysis has resulted in significant process refinements, upholding exceptional quality standards. Committed to empowering employees through interactive training, ensuring BASF's position as a leader in quality excellence. Ph.D. (Polymer) with 17+ years of experience across Quality Management, Leadership, Trainer (for QMS & problem-solving process), and Project Management. Currently spearheading as Deputy Manager, Quality Management & Quality Assurance, as well as Management Representative (MR-Q) for automotive QMS at BASF India Limited, Coatings Solutions. Adept at contributing to short and long-term organizational planning and strategy to achieve long-term objectives in Quality Management.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
12
12
years of post-secondary education
8
8
Certificates
4
4
Languages
Work History
Dy. Manager, QM & QA
BASF India Coatings Private Limited
Mangaluru
01.2025 - Current
Dy. Manager, QM & QA
BASF India Limited
Mangaluru
08.2017 - 12.2024
- Playing a significant role in achieving long-term objectives, including initiatives gearing towards Quality Management, contributing to short and long-term organizational planning and strategy
- Leadership in driving continuous improvement
- Responsible for continual improvement of QMS in EC business along with sharing expert knowledge in auto quality clusters, BASF India
- IRCA certified ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor
- Functioning as an internal auditor for EMS (ISO 14001:2015), QMS (ISO 9001:2015 & IATF 16949:2016) and EnMS (ISO 50001:2015)
- Lead of QM module in the project 'NGBA S4 HANA' for India & co-leader for Asia Pacific countries
- Responsible for periodical update of the quality management system APEX manual in order to formulate the accurate guidelines for all relevant staff
- Responsible for Vendor audit
- Supplier development through sharing knowledge, awareness & proper handling of NCM process
- Responsible for management of customer audit, 3rd party audit, internal audit & supplier audit
- Responsible for Management Review as per IATF 16949, Clause 9.3
- Interactive training: train all employees for continual improvement of QMS
- Managing audit programs (internal audit, customer audit & certification body audit)
- Review of quality objectives of processes in the organization
- Evaluating competency of internal auditors & taking appropriate action to ensure continual improvement of auditor's competency
- Analyzing, taking action & reporting COPQ and QM cost with final aim to deliver goods and services as per Customer expectation
- Ensure Zero major NC in IATF 16949:2016 audit
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): tracking and taking action to improve customer satisfaction
- Digital transformation: 1) Digital document management platform for all sites in Asia Pacific, 2) digital platform to integrate all processes
- Tracking of all 'KPI's' of the organization on regular basis and reviewing in MRM involving top management
- Developing and executing the best practices and standard operating procedures targeted at the organization level
- LEAN champion certificate & LEAN Master candidate
- Good knowledge on tools like SPAGHETTI diagram, SWIM LANE, ECRS, Visual management, Value Stream Mapping, MAKIGAMI
- Certified VDA 6.3 process auditor for new version (year 2023)
- Leadership: Skilled in collaborating with workforce teams, influencing skills without authority
- Engages management through collaboration and building relationships, in the execution of the process optimization strategy to further ensure function-wide acceptance and compliance with the plan
- Expertise knowledge sharing with Auto Quality Council members of other business units
- Coordinator of Asia Pacific EC Quality Council comprise different countries like Japan, China, Thailand & India
- Expertise knowledge sharing with EC Asia Quality Cluster of abroad sites
- Gemstone member at Asia Pacific program
- Interactive training: Training on problem solving process, ISO 9001, IATF 16949 and IMS basic awareness to all employees of the organization, outside Business unit, business partners, different sites across India and abroad colleagues
- Interactive training: Training for internal auditor with guideline from ISO 19011 to all qualified internal auditors in Business Unit, abroad within organization, outside Business Unit, business partners, different sites across India
- Proficient in prompt resolution of customer, internal complaints by using various tools like G8D, Ishikawa, why-why analysis etc
- Proficient in SAP QM module to handle NCM of customers, internal & vendors
- Proficient in improving the operational systems, processes and policies aligned with organization's mission
- Proficient in quality core tools for automotive sector & 7 QC tools
- Proficient in verifying the process through process and product audits
- Multitasking credentials with excellent planning, execution, monitoring and resource-balancing skills, as well as the ability to handle multiple tasks in high-pressure environments and under tight deadlines
- Implementation of strategic vision and direction to operations so as to meet the medium and long term objectives of the organization
- Collaborating with cross functional team
- Good experience in SAP and business warehouse
- Drastic improvement in NCM process
- Proficient in MS excel, word, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, etc
- Successful project of Packaging material optimization considering quality, cost & carbon neutrality. Project has been taken as passion which is out of the scope of current profile
- Successful transition of ISO/TS 16949 standard to IATF 16949: New APEX Quality manual designed & collaborated with each process owners & coordinators for compliance to IATF 16949 requirements & successfully received IATF 16949:2016 certification after clearing 3rd party audit
- Success in crater project to end up with almost zero crater
- Certificate of appreciation from VP, BASF South Asia: for extending the support to other business units by sharing knowledge with members of Auto Quality Council
- Continual improvement of QMS in Coatings Solutions business unit: for sustainable development
- Best performance award: among 7 business units for successful reduction of COPQ return/net sale
- Identified areas for improvement within the department, implementing strategic initiatives to address gaps in performance or resources.
Asst. Manager, Operational Excellence
BASF India Limited
Mangaluru
01.2014 - 07.2017
- Milling optimization project leader, Paint Plant
- Paint process expert certificate (Module 1: Dissolving & milling) from BASF, Germany
- Proficient in improving the operational systems, processes and policies aligned with organization's mission
- Multitasking credentials with excellent planning, execution, monitoring and resource-balancing skills, as well as the ability to handle multiple tasks in high-pressure environments and under tight deadlines
- OpEx built on a balanced approach for processes, assets and culture and overall productivity changes
- Implementation of strategic vision and direction to operations so as to meet the medium and long term objectives of the organization
- Managed and motivated employees to be productive and engaged in work.
- Accomplished multiple tasks within established timeframes.
Shift Team Leader
BASF India Limited
Mangaluru
01.2007 - 12.2013
- Lead production team as shift leader and handled cross functional activities along with projects from year 2007 to 2014
- Adherence to safety and quality standards and as auditee for EMS and QMS
- Collaborating with cross functional team
- Training/awareness about production statistics and improvement potential
- Good experience in SAP and business warehouse
Education
Ph.D. - Polymer
National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK)
Surathkal 08.2008 - 01.2015
M.Sc. - Chemistry
Kuvempu University
Shivamogga (D) 06.2005 - 07.2007
Bachelor of Science - Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics
Sahyadri Science College, Kuvempu University
Shivamogga, Karnataka 05.2002 - 05.2005
Skills
Leadership
Teamwork
Trainer
Problem Solving & Global 8 Discipline
Lead Auditor of ISO 9001
Licensed VDA 63 process auditor
Paint Process Expert
Quality tools
LEAN management
PDCA Approach
PQ analysis, Makigami
Value Stream Mapping
Performance improvements
Task delegation
Process and procedure development
Cost analysis and savings
Certification
IRCA certified ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor
Accomplishments
- Successful project of Packaging material optimization considering quality, cost & carbon neutrality.
- NCM procedure inter link to SAP QM module has been developed, trained to end users & implemented at EC India.
- Successful transition of ISO/TS 16949 standard to IATF 16949: New APEX Quality manual designed & collaborated with each process owners & coordinators for compliance to IATF 16949 requirements & successfully received IATF 16949:2016 certification after clearing 3rd party audit.
- Success in crater project to end up with almost zero crater.
- Certificate of appreciation from VP, BASF South Asia: for extending the support to other business units by sharing knowledge with members of Auto Quality Council.
- Continual improvement of QMS in Coatings Solutions business unit: for sustainable development.
- Best performance award: among 7 business units for successful reduction of COPQ return/net sale.
Socialactivities
- Founder & managing Trustee, Avashya Charitable Trust (R)
- President, Kannada Janapada Parishath (R), Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka
Researchpapers
Prashanth Kumar K.R., Murali M.G. and Udayakumar D., Synthesis and study of optical properties of donor-acceptor conjugated polymers containing 3,4-didecyloxythiophene, 1,3,4-oxadiazole and triphenylamine units., Designed Monomers and Polymers, 17, 7-18, 2013, Prashanth Kumar K.R., Udayakumar D., Siji Narendran N.K. and Chandrasekharan K., Synthesis and evaluation of optical and electrochemical properties of a new conjugated polymer containing substituted thiophene and non-conjugation linkers., AIP Conf. Proc., 1620, 371-378, 2014, Prashanth Kumar K.R., Udayakumar D., Siji Narendran N.K. and Chandrasekharan K., D-A conjugated polymers containing substituted thiophene, 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole and non-conjugation linkers: Synthesis and study of optical and electrochemical properties., Journal of Chemical Sciences, 128, 9, 1423-1433, 2016, Prashanth Kumar K.R., Vijayakrishna and Udayakumar D., Synthesis and evaluation of optical and electrochemical properties of a new conjugated polymer containing substituted thiophene, 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole and phenothiazine units., APA-2009, Indian institute of technology Delhi, 12/17-12/20/2009, Prashanth Kumar K.R. and Udayakumar D., Synthesis and evaluation of optical and electrochemical properties of a new conjugated polymer containing substituted thiophene, 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole and triphenylamine units., International conference on recent trends in materials science and technology (ICMST-2010), Indian institute of space science and technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, 10/29-10/31/2010, Prashanth Kumar K.R. and Udayakumar D., Synthesis of new conjugated polymer containing 3, 4-didodecyloxy thiophene, 1,3,4-oxadiazole and triphenylamine units: optical, electrochemical properties., International conference on Synthetic and Structural Chemistry (ICSSC), Mangaluru University, Mangaluru, 12/08-12/10/2011, Prashanth Kumar K.R., Udayakumar D., Siji Narendran N.K and Chandrasekharan K., Synthesis and evaluation of optical and electrochemical properties of a new conjugated polymer containing substituted thiophene and non-conjugation linkers., International conference on OPTICS 14, National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC), Calicut, 03/19-03/21/2014
Research
- Multistep synthesis of novel heterocyclic molecules as well as Polymers via Knoevenagel condensation, Wittig reaction etc.
- Purification of synthesized molecules by column chromatography and characterization by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR techniques and elemental analysis.
- Structural analysis of synthesized molecules, monomers and polymers.
- Study the linear optical as well as non-linear optical properties of the synthesized conjugated molecules and polymers using various spectroscopic methods.
- Study of structure-property relation of synthesized polymers.
- Use of various instruments like gel permeation chromatography (GPC), UV-visible, Fluorescence-emission, FT-IR, Cyclic voltammetry and soft skills like Chemdraw, Chemsketch for further analysis.
Timeline
Dy. Manager, QM & QA
BASF India Coatings Private Limited
01.2025 - Current
VDA 6.3 process auditor
03-2023
Internal auditor of Integrated Management System (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 & ISO 50001:2015)
02-2021
LEAN champion
12-2020
IRCA certified ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor
10-2020
Global 8 Discipline for problem solving
10-2020
Automotive Core tools
03-2020
Dy. Manager, QM & QA
BASF India Limited
08.2017 - 12.2024
Internal auditor of IATF 16949
04-2017
Asst. Manager, Operational Excellence
BASF India Limited
01.2014 - 07.2017
Paint Process Expert certificate (Module: Dissolving & Milling) from BASF, Germany
03-2013
Ph.D. - Polymer
National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK)
08.2008 - 01.2015
Shift Team Leader
BASF India Limited
01.2007 - 12.2013
M.Sc. - Chemistry
Kuvempu University
06.2005 - 07.2007
Bachelor of Science - Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics
Sahyadri Science College, Kuvempu University
05.2002 - 05.2005