Enterprise Productivity
and
Quality Management Solutions
1.0
INTRODUCTION
Enterprise Productivity and Quality Management Systems (EPQMS) consist of Business Performance Measurement Tools and Applications. The measurement of business performance keeps organisations aligned with their objectives of achieving competitiveness and business sustainability. Performance measurement and systems applications have been recognized as important factors for business success. They provide an avenue to enable companies to meet their overall objectives.
An organisation’s ability to leverage productivity growth is critical to its competitive. Much of an enterprise’s competitive advantage must come from its ability to analyse and facilitate the repositioning of itself on a continuous basis. The way we manage people and their requisite behaviors and habits must be re-enforced with skills and competencies developed through constant orientation, training, and diagnostic applications.
The thrust of EPQMS is to create impact through:
Training workshops;
Establishing productivity measurement and measures as competitive tools;
Implementing performance management solutions as a mechanism for improving the competitiveness and sustainability of national enterprises. These include process analysis, programme implementation and management for improved profitability;
Promoting benchmarking and Best practices.
2.0
OVERVIEW
The Productivity Council is a tripartite institution, which for more than a decade has had the mandate of promoting and monitoring all aspects of productivity growth; advising, designing and conducting productivity-related education programmes and providing advice and technical assistance within the realm of productivity measurement and performance management.
As the Productivity Council endeavors to improve performance within an increasingly competitive business environment, it is offering more customer-centred and progressive interventions to Barbadian institutions and employees. It is against such a backdrop that the implementation of the Enterprise Productivity and Quality Management Services is being introduced.
This programme will be specifically geared to allow the Council “to assist in the development of improved methods of work organisation geared to the enhancement of productivity levels” (as outlined in objective (e) of the National Productivity Council Act, 1996-19), change behaviors and establish appropriate habits.
2.1 Enterprise Productivity and Quality Management Services
EPMQS is an Inter-American Development Bank-sponsored Productivity Enhancement Project, which sought to facilitate an increase in the productivity, service quality and competitiveness of the public and private sectors of Barbados, thereby resulting in the following recommendations for the enterprises:
• Establishment of a formal and modern employee performance management system that focuses on results;
• Implementation of a continuous improvement methodology that optimizes internal processes;
• Development of a formal strategic planning and goal setting process based on the Balanced Score Card approach;
• Review of customer delivery processes, identification and implementation of optimization opportunities and integration of technology;
The EPQMS project facilitates greater productivity growth and the harmonization among the corporate strategy, departmental/team/individual objectives, resource allocation, performance evaluation and corrective actions of the clients. It seeks to utilize a systematic approach to productivity improvement, with a focus on productivity diagnostics, that inludes:
• Data collection and aggregation
• Data analysis
• Strategy development
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Corrective actions
A fundamentally facilitative factor within the execution of this intervention is the fact that the technical staff of the Council has been extensively trained in the above-mentioned disciplines under a continuous training programme.
The programme offers the following benefits:
• Improved enterprise productivity/performance tools;
• Greater understanding of productivity and its importance;
• Better service delivery programme; and
• Stronger and more mutually rewarding business relationships between The Council and its clients.
3.1
Objectives
The main objective of the Enterprise Productivity Quality Management Service project is not only to build public awareness for productivity growth but to provide improved methods of work organization and quality services. It will also allow the companies to consolidate existing tools
The project consists of two components which are:
1. Continuous Training and development for the internal staff and promotion and advocacy within the private sector and stakeholder groups;
2. Technology acquisition and leasing to facilitate information collection and analysis; and technical assistance and guidance to private and public enterprises.
The technical assistance component comprises of technical assistance and guidance to private enterprises. The major business application for companies under the programme consists of the following six solutions to improve productivity and quality:
1. Best Practices and Benchmarking
This application will support business clients in their effort to more appropriately pursue international competitiveness by establishing metrics and best practices.
2. Performance Score Carding (Balanced Scorecard)
This solution will establish measures to improve accountability and responsibility within companies, whilst aligning strategic goals to operational achievements. Measures will focus on financial, productivity, quality, customer, innovation/learning, internal business and employee satisfaction.
3. System Modeling – Compensation and Customer Service
This activity specifically relates to the development and implementation of applications such as Performance-Based Incentive Plans, Total Customer Service applications, Performance Appraisal applications to support business clients in their ongoing efforts to ensure increased employee commitment, quality of service and products and customer satisfaction towards the pursuit of more sustainable financial results.
4. Enterprise Intelligence System
This application will use the technology purchased under component 3 to support business clients in their effort to more efficiently capture and strategically utilize operational data. The Council will take responsibility for the analysis and the presentation of the information to the enlisted clients.
5. Process Analysis and Design
This aspect of the programme will conduct analyses of the processes within companies to ensure that they promote the most efficient utilization of the available resources and effectively meet customer expectations.
6. Productivity Analysis
This area will support business clients in their effort to ascertain how efficiently they are performing in relation to particular metrics, such as partial/multi-factor productivity ratios, cycle/response times etc.
