29th June 1997

Identifying productivity priorities

By D.S. Thoradeniya

Prior to 1993, the year the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) launched Sri Lanka's Productivity Campaign in its capacity as the National Productivity Organisation (NPO) of Sri Lanka, hardly anybody talked about productivity.

Since 1993 the NIBM conceived, planned, designed and conducted a number of productivity programmes that brought about an awareness of productivity from school children to practising managers and professionals. NIBM's experiences in the three years prior to the NPY (1993,1994 and 1995) showed that one organization having different major functions cannot cope with the activities of a national dimension and priority.

Declaration of a National Productivity Year gave the productivity movement of Sri Lanka much needed support of the Government or in other words direction at the national level. The Government provided funds for productivity enhancement and this will be continued throughout the Productivity Decade.

When the Government provides support and plays a leading role in productivity the productivity movement has a better chance of sustainability. A Productivity Steering Committee under the aegis of the Ministry of Industrial Development headed by the Secretary to the Ministry, was set up to liaise with other ministries and organizations which have a stake in productivity improvement and to monitor productivity improvement work of similar organizations and institutions. Different ministries and departments had designed their own productivity programmes. On the whole, a massive productivity awareness and promotion campaign was launched.

Many people began to talk about productivity. Cynics attacked as usually the concept and practice and the productivity agenda, adding more misconceptions to this simple concept. So, productivity became one of the most talked about subjects in 1996. The NIBM continued to carry out its usual productivity programmes. The culmination of it was the National Productivity Convention held for the forth successive year, under the patronage of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. Presenting National Productivity Awards the NIBM gave national recognition to the organizations which excelled in productivity improvement in 1996 too.

Government policies

The drive to productivity improvement in a developing country like Sri Lanka, requires strategic support, direction, policies and incentives directed at national and industry levels. The present restructuring of organizations, investments, sectoral and infrastructure development should be coupled with productivity improvement. All these activities should be done in an effective and efficient manner, from resource allocation to implementation improving productivity of all such activities and taking into account their productivity gains.

The Government should determine the content and direction of the productivity movement to suit short term, medium term and long term plans. Here the Government's leadership and commitment in the productivity drive is a prerequisite. A consensus should be reached among Government, industry and employers' representatives and trade unions and others concerned, on productivity improvement and the direction it should take.

Curbing inflation, reforms in certain legislation which hinder productivity improvement, improving efficiency in the public sector, upgrading of skills, stimulating technology absorption, improving physical and social infrastructural facilities and providing basic amenities are needed as Government interventions in productivity improvement.

One can argue that any government provides all these facilities to its people. Facilities should be provided not for the sake of providing facilities and to please certain groups in the society, or with parochial interests. Bribery, corruption, embezzlement or aggrandizement have no place in productivity improvement.

In providing facilities the productivity improvement in all spheres of economic activities, whether it is in industries, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, transport, banking or any other service or sector should be the guiding principle.

Sri Lanka should determine the priority sectors and industries to enhance productivity initially in commodities and services in which Sri Lanka has a competitive advantage and specialisation.

The writer does not want to add a national productivity policy to the long list of national policies. What the writer suggests is every industry, firm, would identify its productivity priorities, such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, banking, transport, hospitality, trade, offices, schools, universities and other services. The priorities each industry or sector identifies can be integrated as a national policy and a plan. This can be easily done by a monitoring organization. Objectives, policies and plans are being formulated concurrently with the intended improvements. Different development programmes, launched recently, must incorporate an element of productivity improvement into such programmes.

Monitoring agency

A Productivity Monitoring Agency should be set up to support and spearhead the movement, coordinating with various sectors and agencies directly supporting the movement. The best organization for this is the National Productivity Organization (NPO) of Sri Lanka which can act as the Secretariat and the hub of activities of the productivity campaign.

The National Productivity Organization of a country is the best organization to map out the key productivity policies, priorities, strategies and directions governing the Productivity Drive. Having a country-specific productivity approach we must establish our productivity priorities as well as the targets we are going to achieve in a stipulated time period, appropriate productivity themes or slogans for each period of time, may be on an yearly basis.

We must be able to quantify our achievements in creating awareness, labour-management relations, training and skills upgradation, participation, quality assurance, productivity models and Productivity Improvement Programmes (PIPs) and Productivity Improvements Teams (PITs) etc. at the end of each period.

These productivity slogans or the themes should be appropriate to our current level of productivity, easily understood and practised by the whole nation and the improvements that will be made taking the slogans as the clarion call should be tangible and the accomplishments be quantified. Otherwise, having inappropriate themes or slogans may hamper the Movement rather than helping the people to rally round.

Singapore has classified the stages of its Productivity Campaign into three stages since the launching of the campaign in 1981, as Awareness Stage, Action Stage, and Ownership Stage. Ownership Stage began in 1989 and continues to this day. It had different Productivity Campaign slogans beginning with "Together We Work Better". Their current slogan "Innovation and Quality" will remain until year 2000.

Productivity priorities

Efficient resource allocation and qualitative improvements, are vital for productivity improvement. Sri Lanka will face intensified competition in this decade from developed countries, newly industrialized countries and those who are entering the international arena from behind.

Technological changes and method changes are also necessary in the Productivity Drive. It is wrong to say that companies rely only on human resource development for productivity improvement which is a gross misconception. It is wrong to say that a company improves its productivity by developing human resources alone. It is a misconception as one equates productivity only to labour productivity. Labour is only one type of inputs. We must have a total approach to improve Total Factor Productivity which is a combination of productivity of capital, energy, materials and labour.

Some companies boast about the human resource development programmes they carry out or designed as it has become fashionable nowadays, and to say that they have shed all archaic and authoritarian management styles and practices. It is a fallacy to say that when you develop human resources, utilization of other resources like capital, material, energy, machinery and land become efficient automatically as it is the people who handle these resources. All resources are valuable to the organization, not only the human resource. There are many human resource development strategies improving productivity. Although a company develops human resources, with flaws in managing capital, material handling, transportation, energy utilization, and with obsolete systems, methods and technology productivity improvements cannot be made. One cannot arrange resources on an hierarchical order.

Companies should not feel shy to talk and exchange information on improving productivity of all resources without limiting it to human resource development interventions. HRD interventions are savoury and somewhat vague not specific as systems, methods or technology.

In the Productivity Decade following areas receive our attention as priority areas in which the Government, NPO, other Ministries and Institutions, trade and industry chambers, and companies has a role to play.

Strengthening and developing the NPO of Sri Lanka and networking is the initial step to implement productivity improvement assistance for industries and other sectors. The NIBM which has strong links with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) which has its headquarters in Japan and the NPOs of member countries of the APO, amended its Act of Incorporation in 1991, providing for the setting up of a Productivity Centre at the NIBM for productivity promotion and enhancement. But still a Productivity Centre has not been set up except the establishment of a Productivity Division at the NIBM making Productivity Enhancement and Facilitation another function of the NIBM. Manpower capability of the Centre should be strengthened having an adequate compensation system. In setting up a Productivity Centre at the NIBM there are other models Sri Lanka can study from among the APO member countries such as the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).

Industry, trade and business associations and chambers, employers, employees, trade unions, professional associations, tertiary education institutes should play a leading role sharing the productivity vision. In Singapore the Private Sector took the leading role in the Campaign since 1992. Thus, Singapore National Employers' Federation (SNEF), Singapore Manufacturers' Associations (SMA), Singapore Retailers' Association (SRA) spearheaded the Campaign at different times.

Creating productivity awareness and productivity promotion will continue throughout the Productivity Decade. Company-wide productivity improvement, developing models for productivity improvement, and Productivity Improvement Teams and Productivity Activists to lead, organize and impact other members of the workforce through productivity development activities, to serve as models for the rest of the industry to emulate and exchange experiences, is another important activity. Identifying the areas for improvement and implementation, developing manpower capability for productivity training, consultancy and research, inter-firm comparisons to improve competitiveness, measuring productivity and establishing a productivity data base for the country and industry and giving national recognition to productivity efforts of organizations, teams and individuals would continue as our priorities.

Just because there was an awareness campaign in the National Productivity Year, one cannot say that we have passed that phase. As long as the Productivity Campaign continues creating awareness also continues. When new slogans are set, new programmes established and with a shift of emphasis, creating awareness plays a major role.

Another important aspect is sustaining the enthusiasm of model factories and Productivity Award Winners. With the recognition of productivity efforts of organizations, teams and individuals, we have a critical mass of organizations and individuals who can play a catalytic role in productivity improvement. They should be proud to be associated with productivity improvement, willing and ready to exchange knowledge and expertise and help productivity habits to become a part of work ethic.

In conclusion the recent statements made by the President of Sri Lanka augur the productivity campaign and provide the much needed political support.

*The writer is the Acting Director of the Productivity Division of the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM)

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