Model Company Project  

  Background

The Model Company , a collaborative project of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council and the Japan Productivity Centre for Socio-Economic Development (JPC-SED), aims at showcasing successful Mauritian companies that have applied Japanese management techniques like 5S and kaizen for enterprise productivity improvement to respond to the challenges resulting from globalization, removal of preferential barriers and rising costs of production.

The project is the result of the collaboration between the JPC-SED and the Pan-African Productivity Association (PAPA) under the Technical Cooperation Project on Productivity Improvement to African Nations. Mauritius , being amongst the African countries that have already established its National Productivity Organisation, namely NPCC, is among those that would first benefit from this collaboration.

Implementation

The fact that many local enterprises expressed interest, a selection exercise was conducted by the Japanese consultants whereby five companies were finally chosen as a result of the company commitment to participate in the project, and considering the company size and 5S / Kaizen potential implementation areas . The selected companies were representative of the service sector (two companies), the manufacturing sector (three companies), the private sector (four companies) and the public sector (one company).

		In the course of the project, two JPC-SED consultants have been visiting the selected model companies regularly every two months to discuss and assist in the implementation and follow-up of the application of the Japanese productivity improvement techniques. The NPCC staff also visited the companies on a regular basis to provide training, facilitation, assistance and advice

Company Objectives

For the project, the objectives of the respective participating company were clearly identified. These objectives include:

•  increase of sales by 40%

•  increase daily production by 15%

•  enhance cost effectiveness of operations

•  improve customer service and delivery

•  increase employee satisfaction

•  develop new business areas

•  expand the business to become an international regional player

•  increase profit

•  introduce gainsharing to improve the standard of living of employees

Overall Outcome of the Project

•  Increase in turnover

•  Increase in sales per employee

•  Gainsharing of profits among employees

•  Employee's morale boosted & team spirit fostered

•  Job organisation improvement

•  Process improvement

•  Expected improvement of output per manhour

•  Reduction of operational costs

•  Development of new business areas

Before		After

Store Department before 5S Same Store Department after 5S (35 sq. metres recovered )

More information is available through the case studies

Three manuals, namely a Kaizen textbook and instructor's manual guidebook, a 5S textbook and instructor's manual and a 5S facilitator's manual, have also been produced by the NPCC to facilitate the implementation of 5S / kaizen in enterprises.

Enterprises wishing to introduce 5S / Kaizen activities into their operations are welcome to contact the NPCC at natpro@intnet.mu or by calling on 467 7700.