Dr. Sunil Thaman - A Leading Global Management Systems Auditor, Trainer, Consultant and an Innovator

 

Dr. Sunil Thaman, Chief Learning and Development Officer, SANTULIT

 

Dr. Sunil Thaman is an internationally accredited Management Systems Lead Auditor, and IRCA-approved Lead Trainer on Quality management systems, Environment management systems, and occupational health & safety management systems. He is also a Life member of the Quality Council of India and a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

 

 

Education

 

A Doctorate in Business Management from Canterbury University, with a specialization in Instrument Technology and Industrial Electronics from a Swiss institute under the Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Govt. of India, Wing of CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), a Govt. of India body. A technocrat turned politician, Virtual Lead Management Systems Trainer, Global Advisor on Management Systems, International Principal Consultant, ISO Lead Auditor on 23 Management Systems Standards, Quality Council of India Ready Mix Concrete Assessor, QCI-ZED (Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India) Assessor, IRCA Lead Trainer, and Internal Auditor for Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB’s).

 

 

Professional Journey

 

He started his career as a Senior Technical Executive at a 100% export-oriented unit, namely Delta Hamlin Limited, engaged in the manufacturing and supply of Mercury wetted switches and relays meant for radar applications.

 

His next unique assignment was in a 100% export unit at MIT-India, which was to manufacture floppy disk magnetic recording heads for 51/4” floppy disk drives. He headed a state-of-the-art “Glass Bonding Process” there.

 

His next landmark was that he was responsible for bringing a floppy disk manufacturing plant from West Germany to India in Rajasthan on a turnkey basis. It was successfully established by him, and he achieved one million floppy disk exports to Electronorgtecnika, USSR, through the Government of India Enterprise (ET&T).

 

Nevertheless, he was also responsible for bringing technology from TEAC Corp. of Japan to manufacture 3.5-inch micro-floppy disks in Hyderabad, India. It was also a successful project where all major computer hardware manufacturers were our clients, namely Compaq, Siva PC, HCL, and HP (Hewlett Packard) U.S.A, etc.

 

After approximately 18 years of industrial expertise in quality and manufacturing, he turned his rudders towards management systems auditing, where his rich industrial experience helped him audit various management systems as a management representative in a 100% export-oriented unit based in Santa Cruz Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) Mumbai efficiently.

 

Till now, he has experience auditing various management systems in 27 countries and more than 8,000 organizations, may they be small, medium, large, private limited, public limited, or multinational organizations across the globe.

 

 

Inspiration: Lok Sabha 2024 Election

 

While he was just toying with the idea of applying management principles to politics to achieve the desired objectives, he thought that this would be an appropriate moment, where he should actually get into politics. So he filled his nomination as a Member of Parliament and had a unique interaction with the citizens during the campaigning period, where, while interacting, they agreed to mostly his strategy of cleaning up politics and bringing about a sea change. Bring measurability, accountability, answerability, transparency, and availability into our political system. In fact, he was inspired by such a system, which is effectively and efficiently working in Singapore at present.

 

 

Roles and Responsibilities: Global Principal Consultant on Management Systems Accreditations

 

Some of the major responsibilities of a global consultant include the following:

 

• Understand the requirements, issues, and needs of the client's short-term or long-term goal.
• Conduct interviews and surveys to collect data and analyze it to identify and understand a problem or issue.
• Present and explain their findings to the management.
• Advice or give suggestions for improvements to achieve the objectives of the organization.
• Formulate plans to implement their recommendations and provide training to the staff to cope with the changes.
• Evaluate the situation periodically and make changes as and when required.
• Discover the most suitable solutions for any problem at hand by applying the nominal group technique.
• Help their client's business become more functional and successful.

 

 

Significant Project Contributions

In the year 2017-18, this was a total quality management system establishment and implementation at Tamkeen in the Kingdom of Bahrain by himself as a project manager. The Labor Fund, or Tamkeen (an Arabic term that means empowerment), is a public authority established as one of the cornerstones of Bahrain's national reform initiatives and Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030 to support the private sector and reinforce its role as a key player in national development. It was a mammoth task to develop the Quality management system, and it was achieved well before time, by him. The organization was certified to International Quality Management Systems Standard ISO 9001 with zero non-conformity. It was a remarkable experience for him, where he understood and handled the perceptions of more than 1,100 employees working in 12 departments and was able to help reinvent their thinking and their mindset about “customer focus” and “customer satisfaction.”

 

 

Staying Ahead of the Latest Trends

 

He stays up-to-date with both existing and upcoming international standards through participation in professional training such as lead auditor programs, attendance at webinars, and active engagement with global forums like the International Auditor Practicing Group (APG)