NPO Pakistan in collaboration with APO Japan organized a five-day International Training of Trainers on Lean Manufacturing for SMEs from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at Islamabad.

28-Feb-2018

The National Productivity Organization (NPO), Ministry of Industries & Production in collaboration with Asian Productivity Organization, Japan (APO) organized a five-day International “Training of Trainers on Lean Manufacturing for SMEs” from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at Islamabad. 24 Participants from 11 different countries have attended this International program including 10 participants from various cities of Pakistan. The objective of thetraining was to equip participants with techniques and tools of lean manufacturing which can be effectively adopted by SMEs to become more competitive. The program developed competent lean trainers who will be able to guide SMEs in improving their organizational performance through effective, innovative lean manufacturing methods leveraging practical approaches and supplementary smart technologies.

CEO NPO Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Khattak was the chief guest of the inaugural session. At opening session he said that development of SMEs has become vital to compete with international players. He added that the success of any lean manufacturing program relies on the ability to change and this is where smaller businesses have the advantage. He emphasized that lean manufacturing is not just about waste reduction, lean is customer value and making that value flow.

Mr. Yasunobu Kakiuchi from Japan and Mr. Shaharum Ashaari from Malaysia were two international experts of this five-day session. During the opening session they told the audience that to remain competitive in today’s global market, small and medium businesses know they need to be flexible and resilient. They also know they must constantly aim for better efficiency and higher quality in all that they do. And that’s what lean manufacturing is all about.

Today concerted efforts are needed to equip our human resource with sufficient productivity knowledge to transform Pakistan into a productivity-driven economy. Similar is the situation with other developing economies of the Asia. In order to develop effective productivity skills we will have to learn evolving productivity concepts and from experiences of those regional countries who have work harder over the decades for improving productivity in their respective economies.

Enhancing productivity to achieve a more sustainable, inclusive, and high rate of economic growth has been considered as an important game changer for these economies. We need to invest in work force, encourage and facilitate the new businesses and SMEs, enhance productivity at enterprise level, change public attitudes to encourage a culture of productivity and quality.

This training helped participants to become an expert trainer on Lean Manufacturing and Management System. During the training they learned various lean tools e.g. Kaizen, PDCA, Takt Time, Autonomation and Value Stream Mapping etc. followed by a field trip to Silver Lake Foods, Hattar, where participants analyzed the processes for implemented lean tools and areas for improvement for waste elimination.

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