Employers see SME productivity as sustainable competitive edge

Nineteen big companies are helping small and medium enterprises under the big-brother small-brother scheme of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to develop the skills of their workforce as sustainable competitive advantage

ECOP president Rene Y. Soriano said that the scheme, the ECOP Big-Enterprise Small-Enterprise (EBESE) is the industry’s contribution to the SME Development Framework of the President to upgrade the productivity performance of SMEs in the local and international markets.

EBESE, Soriano said, also contributes to the President’s goal of providing an average of one million jobs a year for the next six years.

Productive SMEs are the economy’s main engine of job creation, he said. Further, high productivity is the basis for increased wages.

The initial 19 big partners in EBESE are Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing, San Miguel Corp., Toyota Motors Philippines, On-Semiconductor, YKK Philippines, Philippine Batteries, Nestle Philippines, Unilever, Smart, IMI, Jollibee, Ford Philippines, Express Commissary, Fujitsu Ten, Philippine Auto Component, Fujitsu, Yutaka Manufacturing, Philippines Carpet Manufacturing and Takanichi Philippines.

As of March 2005, more than 150 owners, managers and supervisors of 50 SME-beneficiaries have participated in a three-day training on productivity.

Soriano said big manufacturers are exercising their social leadership in their communities by attaching high priority to human-resource development.

"The small firms are vulnerable unless they are assisted in improving the level of productivity of their managers, supervisors and workers," he said.

"In the global market where buyers have a wide choice of sourcing goods from the best producers, the highly productive workers are the main source of sustainable comparative advantage."

A majority of SMEs, he said, have no productivity programs.

EBESE will make a presentation before the President addresses the 26th National Conference of Employers at the Manila Hotel on May 18, 2005. EBESE is a program of the ECOP Institute for Productivity and Competitiveness led by Yazaki-Torres president, Feliciano L. Torres.

Various industries represented in EBESE are automotive, printing, food, furniture and design, metal fabrication, plastic, semiconductor, packaging and garments. EBESE initially covers the National Capital Region and Southern Tagalog provinces (Calabarzon).

EBESE seeks the commitment of SMEs to institutionalize productivity in their operations. This approach includes advocacy, implementation, monitoring and continual improvement with the 5S good Housekeeping and Process Flow and Plan Layout as productivity tools.

Exemplifying brotherhood in the business community, the big enterprises provide assistance to participants by sponsoring training and providing other logistical support.

EBESE is a partnership by ECOP with the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (TAPI) of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) of the Department of Labor and Employment.