Dankotuwa’s ‘Quality Week’ focuses on employee participation

Under the theme ‘Productivity and Quality through Continual Improvement,’ Dankotuwa launched several employee-focused activities to create an interest and involvement in and to further educate employees and their families on quality and productivity aspects.

Sri Lanka’s National Quality Week is from 11-17 October 2010 and it is usually the week during which the World Standards Day falls. Dankotuwa has been in the practice of organising activities every year to coincide with National Quality Week.

This year the programme was launched by raising the ‘Quality’ flag, which was held on Monday, 11 October 2010, where the Chairman addressed the entire workforce of 1,000 employees and urged them to be even more passionate about quality since it was the high quality and service standards of Dankotuwa Porcelain that enabled the company to survive during the global recession when many international giants in the industry got into serious difficulty as a result of the drop in demand. To further promote employee involvement, the ‘Quality’ flag was raised by the most senior factory worker.

The competition for employees included poster, slogan, essay, poem, nisadas and cartoon competition, all on the theme of ‘Quality Week’. The poster, slogan and cartoon entries were judged by the popular cartoonist Winnie Hettigoda and were completed on Saturday, 9 October 2010.

There was a separate competition on posters, essays and poems for the children of employees in two categories; A/L group and O/L and below; 175 entries have been received from employees while 65 entries have been received from children of employees.

During the week there will also be a guest lecture on leadership as well as a quiz programme. Activities will also be conducted to promote 5S implementation in homes of employees.

This is based on the ‘Sonduru Nivasa’ programme launched by the National Productivity Secretariat.

Videos of model schools which have implemented 5S will also be shown to groups of children in nearby schools. The awards ceremony will be on 15 October 2010.

Dankotuwa employees, most of whom have served the company since the formative years, have always been very passionate about producing a good quality product and have been proud of the achievements of the company which has won many export awards. ‘Quality Week’ activities help to keep this passion alive and enables the entire workforce to remain focused on quality and productivity.

Japan was the first country to commence a ‘Quality Month,’ which was launched in the early 1960s and many activities were held during the month in connection with quality. Japan’s obsession with quality arose as a result of this company wide and intensive programme.

Subsequently the United States too commenced a ‘Quality Month’ in November of every year and many companies have comprehensive programmes, including a ‘Quality Declaration’ which is signed and taken ownership of by all employees.