Missing Feedback Loop and Disjointed Organizational Structure: Barriers to Quality Certification of Vehicular Emissions

The effectiveness of vehicular emission certification is critically dependent on the operations carried out at PUC which needs to be compliant of Motor Vehicle Regulations 1989. Under the I&M (Inspection & Maintenance) program of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), PUC emission testing and Vehicle fitness testing are run but managed separately. This fragmentation of structure creates hampering PUC performance. PUC centers have persistently underperformed in terms of quality certification of vehicular emissions as brought out by different studies and audit reports. Despite the regulatory framework in place, empirical evidence suggests that PUC centers have persistently underperformed in terms of quality certification. This research study pertains to tri-city area of Chandigarh, India. When defects, errors or excessive costs occur, the causes of these can be found somewhere in the activities or in the gaps in communications. This paper investigates the systematic causes and thereupon comes to identifying the absence of a (1) structured feedback loop and (ii) organization structure unclear of relative authority levels, roles & responsibilities and reporting lines, which are the means to manage across it. Through the regulations review, interaction with operators and thereupon the consequent data, this study reveals deficiency in performance monitoring, the feedback loop and accountability mechanisms across the PUC organization network. The feedback loop, at all, is not there. Without feedback loop there is no quality control. Quality control is fundamental to maintain control of every process-Juran. The existing org structure for PUC, disjointed from safety/fitness part, depicts informative only to vehicle owners (commercial or private). It requires having minimal alignment with quality system, portraying reporting lines, coordination and managing across functions. Furthermore, regulatory enforcement is observed to be reactive, contributing to inconsistent certification standards and limited corrective actions The absence of a structured feedback system prevents timely corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), while weak enforcement of SOPs results in procedural inconsistencies and poor data integrity. Over to that, the current organizational structure lacks clearly defined roles, technical oversight, and accountability, making regulatory compliance difficult to enforce uniformly. Through this study, we emphasize that formalized feedback loop-integrating real time PUC data, audit findings and stakeholder’s inputs- are essential to drive PUC towards continual improvement in emission certification. Restructuring PUC organization, it needs to be defined with roles, reporting lines and QA/QC, so as to attain sustainable compliance. As the topic deals with vehicular pollution effecting environment and society, there is a need of policy level intervention so as to help attain SDGs.