BizEx to conduct seminars on productivity and Japanese management techniques

A newly formed consultancy company, BizEx Consulting, promoting business excellence, is to conduct several seminars on productivity techniques and Japanese management techniques. The first two seminars will be on 20 and 21 June 2013, at the Postgraduate Institute of Management.

The seminar presenter will be Sunil G. Wijesinha. Sri Lanka is losing its competitiveness of traditional industries and services vastly.

Two basic approaches are being implemented by companies; the upgrading of the product or service to a higher quality level and with more advanced technology, while the other is to improve labour, material and energy productivity.

While the US and Europe has had a productivity focus for more than a century, Asian countries lagged behind in productivity. It was for this reason that Japan, in 1960, proposed the formation of the inter-governmental Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) to help member countries improve productivity and thereby the standard of living. Japan had a productivity and quality improvement drive from the 1950s, while Singapore and Malaysia launched special productivity initiatives in the early 1980s. However, Sri Lanka’s productivity promotion was lukewarm at most, firstly because of the closed economy, followed by the success of the opening of the economy even without high efficiency and productivity.

With Sri Lanka reaching middle income status, subsidies being gradually dismantled and a shortage of labour, the necessity for productivity improvement is being felt as never before. The approach in many countries is to train everyone in an organisation in basic productivity and quality techniques because a few experts cannot make the same impact as hundreds of trained productivity and quality enthusiasts in the organisation. The modern approach, as a result of higher education of the workforce, is to use every employee as a productivity and quality specialist.

BizEx seminars will impart some useful and practical techniques that can be easily implemented in the workplace. Sunil G. Wijesinha is qualified in productivity and has been a long time practitioner. Having implemented many productivity techniques at his own workplaces, he is regarded as a consultant with practical experience as well. His seminars are always punctuated with many practical anecdotes, and obstacles he has faced, and will provide solutions to implementation issues.

He has been recognised by the APO, for his pioneering efforts in promoting productivity in Sri Lanka and was awarded the ‘National Award 2000’, and subsequently the ‘Regional Award 2005’ for his productivity promotion efforts in the Asia Pacific region. The original ‘National Productivity Award’ models and evaluation schemes for the private sector, Government sector and schools were prepared by him. He was also the initiator of JASTECA Taiki Akimoto 5S Award, and the original evaluation criteria was prepared by him. He is also considered the father of the Japanese style Quality Circles in Sri Lanka.

The first BizEx seminar will be on ‘Measuring and improving productivity’ and is aimed at providing skills to measure and improve productivity in any organisation. The second seminar on ‘Super 5S for a super efficient workplace’ will be aimed at those who wish to implement the advanced version of the Japanese 5S method of improving the organisation and efficiency of the workplace, be it a factory or an office.

Subsequent seminars will be on ‘Quality circles’, ‘Kaizen suggestion schemes’, ‘Formulating and implementing financial incentive schemes’, ‘Time management’, ‘Problem solving techniques’, and ‘Quality management’. BizEx Consulting is committed to disseminating many productivity and quality techniques to enhance the business excellence of Sri Lankan organisations.