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A productivity specialist always strives to achieve high productivity and quality. To be able to do this, he/she must have the knowledge and competencies in different productivity and quality (P&Q) tools which will help in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization. P&Q tools are grouped into two major groups – basic and advanced. Basic tools help an organization to identify procedures, ideas, cause and effect, and other issues relevant in improving its performance, while advanced tools involves more complex processes such as measurement techniques, statistical data analysis, lean concepts, and the business excellence frameworks.

Basic

1. 5S – A systematized approach to organize work areas, keep rules and standards, and maintain discipline. It utilizes workplace organization and work simplification techniques.

• • Seiri (Sort) – Take out unnecessary items and dispose
  • Seiton (Sytematize) – Arrange necessary items in good order
  • Seiso (Sweep) – Clean your workplace
  • Seiketsu (Sanitize) – Maintain high standard of housekeeping
  • Shitsuke (Self-discipline) – Do things without being told or ordered

5. Quality Circle– involves a small group of employees from the same workplace organized to identify problems and suggest solutions to work-related issues. A quality circle, also known as Work Improvement Team, Synergy Team, and Support Team, has seven basic features: voluntary in nature; small in size; homogenous in membership; projects within control; systematic and scientific in approach, continuing in activity and universal in application.
6. Suggestion Scheme – A systematic approach to solicit innovative ideas for improvement. It promotes two-way communication between management and employees wherein good ideas are recognized and rewarded to encourage active participation. However, grievance, bargaining and policy issues are not part of the themes for suggestions.
7. Practical IE – offers simple but systematic techniques to analyze operations, processes and integrated systems with a view to improving efficiency, effectiveness and economy, and makes inefficiencies visible. Among the practical IE techniques are:
   • Method study – systematic examination of doing work in order to develop and apply easier and more effective methods and reduce costs
   • Work measurement – used to obtain time data for method study and establish standard time to perform tasks
8. Quality Management – An approach to ensure that the desired quality of a good or service is delivered. It covers quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. ISO 9000 standards provide guidelines on how to establish QM systems.
9. Inventory Management – Approach to oversee and control the ordering, storage and use of supplies, materials, components and other items that the organization will use for the production of goods and services.
10. Energy Conservation – Reducing energy consumption through using less of an energy service.
11. Value Analysis/Value Engineering – An approach to improve the value of an item or process by first understanding the functions of the item and their value, then by identifying its constituent components and their associated costs. It then seeks to find improvements to the components by either reducing their cost or increasing the value of their functions.
12. Productive Maintenance – A maintenance management approach that looks at maintenance as a productive function, and considers that it should be the concern of every unit in the organization. It aims to eliminate big losses on equipment effectiveness e.g. setup time, breakdown, speed losses, waiting time, etc. All levels in the organization must cooperate in ensuring the productive functioning of equipment and physical facilities.
13. Knowledge Management – An integrated approach of creating, sharing, and applying knowledge to enhance productivity, profitability and growth.
14. Ergonomics – Making better use of human capacities (economize motions) and protect workers from hazards and other poor work conditions that negatively affect worker’s occupation health and productivity. Principles: – Safety – Comfort – Ease of use – Productivity – Aesthetics
15. Green Procurement- Purchasing products and services that cause minimal adverse environmental impacts. It incorporates human health and environmental concerns into the search for high quality products and services at competitive prices.

Advanced

13. ICT/ Digital Era Government/ E-Government – Involves the use of computer technology and conversion of manual records into computer files to automate data and transaction processing thus minimizing or removing manual work and intervention that is susceptible to corruption
14. Shared Services – A strategy to “move out” major support processes out of individual units by “concentrating them” in order to improve cost efficiencies, service levels, and responsiveness.
15. Re-engineering –Strategic review, analysis, and redesign of structure, workflows, and processes to achieve higher efficiency, effectiveness and economy.
16. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence – A managerial approach centered on quality based on participation of all members and aimed at continually improving performance over the long term by focusing on customers while addressing the needs of all stakeholders.
17. Lean Management – A management philosophy that seeks to maximize value to customers, both internal and external while simultaneously removing wasteful activities and practices.
18. Operations Research – Employing scientific and mathematical techniques to determine optimal or near-optimal solutions to complex decision making:

• • Mathematical optimization
  • Queuing studies
  • Simulation
  • Econometric analysis
  • Data envelopmental analysis

Public sector organization faces a lot of challenges such as meeting the citizen’s expectations, managing workforce transition, reducing risks in implementing new technologies, and financial limitations. Lean management, one of the major buzzwords within management today, addresses these challenges. Lean in English lexicon denotes thin and well-trimmed. Thus, an organization that is aiming to be lean cuts away its excesses in all aspects of work wherein repeated processes take place. To be lean, an organization may need to cut down the number of its employees, although this should not always be the case. The organization, through lean management, has to listen more to its stakeholders and in the case of the public sector – to the citizens. Lean Management is a system that refers to a collection of principles and methods that is focused on the identification and elimination of waste in any process. Its origins can be traced in industrial production and now the concept of Lean has swept across the private and public sectors. Lean has five basic principles – identifying customer value, creating value streams, creating flow without stops, introducing new guiding principles and practicing Kaizen every day. Lean also practices eliminating waste or “muda” in Japanese. These eight wastes are:

1. Inventory (backlog of work, excess materials and information, obsolete databases and folders)
2. Defects (data errors, missing information, typos, confusing requirements)
3. Overproduction (unnecessary reports and copies, excess email messages)
4. Complexity (too many steps in a process, too many signature levels, unclear job descriptions)
5. Waiting (long time to wait for approvals or decisions, waiting for information)
6. Excess Motion (travels to meetings, trips to printer and copier)
7. Moving Items (transport of documents, document storage)
8. Environmental Resources (excess use of energy, paper, and water)

To implement Lean, an organization must first analyze the steps of a process and determine which steps add value and which do not. Next, it needs to calculate the cost associated in removing steps that have no value-added and comparing its cost versus the expected benefits. It also has to determine the resources required to support the value-added steps while eliminating those without added value. However, many organizations encounter these typical pitfalls which lead to failure of implementing Lean.

1. Management loses focus on Lean – There are times when management, despite good results, lose their focus and later on, backslide in implementing lean. What must be understood is that Lean is not a band-aid solution and should be implemented in a long term.
2. Lean is treated as a project – As mentioned above, for Lean to be effective, it must involve the whole organization and its future. It should not have a start and end date. It should be inculcated all aspects of operations as well.
3. Lean does not involve all employees- Lean must be sufficiently anchored to all the employees. The implementation should also consider the ideas of the employees and not just of the management.
4. Insufficient internal anchoring of Lean knowledge and competencies – In starting Lean, an organization may seek the help of external consultants on Lean management to train its employees and to later on, build its own competencies to be able to continue working with Lean.
5. Insufficient performance management – Performance management is one of the core aspects of Lean. An organization must ensure that there is continuous improvement by measuring results in a regular basis.
6. Lack of management power – As with other productivity and quality tools, management’s commitment is critical. The management must be able to motivate and engage its employees to practice Lean.

It is normal for an organization to encounter one or more of these pitfalls. However, it should not discourage it from continuing with Lean. Lean entails a simple mindset, and not too shocking changes, and delivers results in a few months.

Workplace ergonomics is often associated with placing and design of equipment and furniture in a workplace, however it is much more than that. Ergonomics involves everything that involves people. It is making better use of human capacities (economize motions) and protect workers from hazards and other poor work conditions that negatively affect worker’s occupation health and productivity. The concept of ergonomics has a major role to play in providing a comfortable working environment to promote productivity and efficiency. According to the Asian Productivity Organization, comfort and productivity are interrelated. Employees who worked in a noisy environment and congested areas are more likely to feel dissatisfied and unmotivated to do their tasks. Other common ergonomics issues include wrong heights for table and chair, no back support, no elbow support, banging the knees in keyboard tray, and cradling the phone while using the computer. An office should be designed based on the specific nature of the jobs and the employees working there. Flexibility, comfort, communication, lighting, temperature, air quality and spatial arrangements should be considered to further improve productivity in the workplace. Benefits of Ergonomics

1. Ergonomics reduces costs – Sprains and strains results to lost productivity, and at the same time, this costs money for an organization in the form of compensation benefits. Implementing ergonomics in the workplace reduces ergonomic risk factors such as musculoskeletal disorders.
2. Ergonomics improve productivity – Working in an awkward posture is not an efficient way to get things done. An efficient workstation encourages good posture, less exertion and fewer motions, and better heights and reaches.

   

3. Ergonomics contributes to higher working capacity – Poorly designed workstations are frustrating and may cause employees to feel tired and strained. With ergonomics, employees are not distracted by discomfort and are likely to feel inspired, solve more problems, and think of new ideas.
4. Ergonomics make the employees feel more engaged – An organization that provides an ergonomic workplace takes the health and wellbeing of their employees seriously. A comfortable workspace can reduce turnovers, decrease absenteeism, and increase employee involvement.

Organizations feel that implementing ergonomics is a luxury but it is not. The initial cost may be higher but compared to conventional and traditional workspaces, ergonomics offers more benefits not only for the employees but for the organization as well. For an organization that is limited financially, an option of procuring second-hand ergonomic equipment and furniture may be explored.

Measuring public sector productivity has proved to be a challenging and daunting task. For one, the very definition of the term ‘productivity’ varies and depending on the definition you stick to, the variables are different too. Compounding this issue is the perceived complexity of measuring government outputs. In addition, available public sector productivity data is, more often than not, of questionable validity and reliability. So how is it done? The OECD simply defines productivity as to “how much output is produced for each unit of input, calculated as the ration of a volume measure of output to a volume measure of input used”. Simply put, good productivity means higher efficiency. You do more and better and less.

The Atkinson Review. The United Kingdom has been consistently enhancing its public sector productivity measurement since 1993. Beginning 1998, it already shifted from the traditional means of measuring public sector productivity (output = input) and has incorporated direct measures of the volume of government output in the national accounts. The Atkinson Review made a major step forward by recommending that to measure outputs, the total number of each of the activities performed by a given organization must be taken into account. Atkinson further recommended that these activities should then be weighed against each other according to the unit costs involved in producing them. In this step, the unit costs are used as proxies for the value of each of the different outputs produced, given that these are non-market outputs and thus do not have a price.

For national statistics purposes, where the level of analysis is often highly aggregated, Atkinson also recommended that output volumes should be adjusted by quality factors – a controversial and difficult to implement suggestion. The Atkinson Review included the following principles in measuring the output, input and productivity.

Output

• Output should be measured by incremental contribution to individual or collective welfare i.e. the added value by service concerned.
• Start from services provided, and seek indicators that give full coverage.
• Value should be seen as adjusted for quality.
• Formal criteria should be established for extending direct output measures to further services.

Input and Productivity

• Measures of inputs should be as comprehensive as possible, and should include capital services
• Consideration should be given to the split between current and capital spending.
• Criteria should be established for price deflators applied to input spending series.
• Independent corroborative evidence should be sought on government productivity, as part of a process of “triangulation”.

The most important general conclusion of the Atkinson Review is that it is no longer possible and desirable to revert to an output = input perspective. This traditional perspective assumes zero productivity and in reality, this is unlikely to be true. Perhaps, the Atkinson Review’s most tangible role is giving information on the state of public services and the effects of reform and technological advancement in providing these services. In adopting the recommendations made by the Atkinson Review, the UK has made significant progress in measuring the output and productivity of their health, education, social care and social security services. While it is true that the Atkinson Review offers not a perfect method in measurement, it is a straightforward, consistent and mutually understood way of determining public sector productivity.

Both the private and public sector have one goal in terms of procurement and that is to get the most “bang for the buck”. The private sector always aims for the best value to maximize profits to shareholders, while the public sector seeks the best value because of the increasingly limited resources available.

The public sector spends about 45 to 65 percent of its budget on procurement. Given this volume, public procurement is one of the key drivers of international trade, creating value chains that span around the world. If governments make an effort to purchase environmentally and socially preferred goods, it can have a huge impact on green economic transformation. Green public procurement is defined as “a process whereby public and semi-public authorities meet their needs for goods, services, works, and utilities by choosing solutions that have a reduced impact on the environment throughout their life cycle, as compared to alternative products and solutions”. While a relatively new concept, GPP has been gaining popularity as citizens demand their governments to do so. An important aspect of GPP is the lifecycle costing, which is defined in the International Organization for Standardization standard, Buildings and Constructed Assets, Service-Life Planning, Part 5: Life-Cycle Costing (ISO 15686-5) as an ―economic assessment considering all agreed projected significant and relevant cost flows over a period of analysis expressed in monetary value. The projected costs are those needed to achieve defined levels of performance, including reliability, safety and availability”. The use of LCC demonstrates that the price of goods and services does not reflect the financial and non-financial gains that are offered by environmentally and socially preferable goods and services. Simply put, despite being costlier, green goods and services are better options than their alternatives. Public organizations should also consider that additional costs will be largely offset through efficiency gains, cost savings, and lowered risk during the product lifetime. Several countries in the Asian region have already adopted the concept of GPP. In 2000, Japan passed a law on “Promoting Green Purchasing” which requires government agencies to implement GPP. To date, all central government ministries practice green procurement; 47 prefectures and 12 designated cities are engaged in green procurement, and two-thirds of the 700 cities systematically implement green procurement. In South Korea, the government has instituted the “Act on Encouragement of the Purchase of Green Products” which aims to reduce environmental pollution and wasteful use of resources. Local and national government agencies are required to submit their annual plans with specific number of green products to be purchased. Since the implementation of the act in 2005, South Korea’s public green market has expanded to USD 1.6 billion in 2009. It has also created more jobs and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. China’s central government, meanwhile, came up with a list of green products that are environmentally friendly and energy efficient. The list is handed to public procurement centers that are responsible in implementing public procurement plans with the instruction that these products be given priority in procurement. The list includes lists include products ranging from cars to construction materials, office equipment and other consumer goods. Malaysia incorporated GPP in its “Eleventh Malaysia Plan” and “National Sustainable and Consumption Blueprint” which highlights GPP becoming mandatory in all government agencies, both national and local, by 2030. The target is to increase Malaysia’s green purchasing volume by 100 percent. Ministries of Finance, Energy, Green Technology, and Water are in charge of promoting and implementing GPP which is also aimed to increase Malaysia’s competitiveness. GPP continues to be accepted and adopted because of the benefits associated in implementing it.

• GPP drives innovation and provides the public sector with incentives to switch to environmentally friendly and energy efficient goods, products, works and services.
• GPP promotes savings for public sector agencies, particularly if you consider the life-cycle cost and not just the purchase price.
• Governments implementing GPP are better equipped to meet the evolving environmental challenges.

In developing a functional GPP program, governments are advised to build on existing good procurement practices such as transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and competitiveness. Governments should also consider including GPP in their national action plans roadmap to send a strong signal to other sectors to venture into green enterprise. Through the implementation of GPP, governments take the lead role in shifting the entire market to green.

In 2014, Deloitte published a study entitled “The Overworked Employee” which highlighted the fact that employees have too much access to information and how this negatively impacts work productivity. One way to address this growing problem is to simplify work processes and HR systems.

Work simplification means thinking about the best ways to do the task in order to save time, energy and resources. It also means accomplishing more tasks within a given amount of time. The concept of work simplification was introduced in the 1930s and it advocates for people who are actually doing the job to recommend ways on how to improve it. The management, on the other hand, must demonstrate commitment to work simplification and trust their employees. For specialists in time study, work measurement and methods analysis, the best way to encourage employees to think creatively is to give them incentives to make improvements. To ensure the success of work simplification method, it is important to involve as many employees in all levels of the organization. There should also be a session that will motivate the employees to be fully engaged and committed in implementing work simplification. The employees must be given training in improvement methods and tools. Work simplification involves the following steps:

• Selecting a task/tasks to improve.
• Getting all the facts.
• Making a process chart.
• Challenging every detail, asking all possible questions; listing possibilities and improving necessary details.
• Developing the preferred method.
• Introducing it.
• Checking results.

Work simplification has been implemented in many companies and organizations across the world and most of them have been successful in delivering cost-reducing and profit-increasing innovations. In the public sector context, work simplification involves clarifying and simplifying regulations internal to the government. One of the realities of working in and within the government is the cumbersome paperwork it entails. While some procedures are necessary and justified, some are simply redundant, bureaucratic, and excessive. Red tape in the government often involves filing out unnecessary paperwork, and complying with too many administrative procedures such as in starting a business. Simplification strategies in the government should be promoted to reduce regulatory complexity and uncertainty, and at the same time, to cut the red tape in the bureaucracy.  Implementing simplification strategies in the public sector benefits the employees, the agencies, and ultimately the citizens transacting with the government.  For employees, simplification would reduce time and resources allocated doing the paperwork and this will give them more time to do their actual work. For the agencies, simplification would make the delivery of services more effective and efficient. For the citizens, it would mean having a more accessible public services.

Work simplification, like most productivity and quality tools, must be adopted for the long-term and should fit the whole-of-government perspective. Some of the things to consider in implementing simplification efforts in the public sector are the measurable objectives, resources, timing, outcomes, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) came up with a list of good practices that will ensure the success of simplification in the public sector.

1. Long term and high political support;
2. There should be an institution specialized on administrative simplification at the center of government overseeing and running the administrative simplification strategy;
3. The strategy should have clear objectives with reasonable deadlines;
4. There should be a multidisciplinary team working on administrative simplification trained with a vision for change, who are creative, assertive and who have strong analytical capacities;
5. The administrative simplification strategy toolkit should include: i) the use of better regulation, ii) organizational reengineering, iii) the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) tools, iv) better information and service to citizens and business, and v) the creation of synergies between administrative requirements.
6. Incentive mechanisms should be used to promote a “reform” approach to administrative simplification;
7. The public administration as well as other stakeholders should be included in a three-fold communication action plan: i) general communication, ii) training and iii) consultation processes;

There should be a monitoring system in place that systematically reports to higher authorities and to the general public.

One of the goals of the Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity is to develop a critical mass of productivity and quality (P&Q) practitioners. These practitioners can influence P&Q implementation by building partnerships with the local government units, non-governmental organizations, industries, and other stakeholders. A P&Q practitioner is “one who is accountable for the institutionalization of productivity and quality improvement through the practice and application of various P&Q approaches and tools through promotion, training and consulting”.  He/she plays different roles.

As a promoter – The P&Q practitioner is responsible in creating awareness on P&Q by applying P&Q tools and approaches in an organization. He/she is also responsible for steering, monitoring, evaluating and sustaining P&Q improvement programs in an organization.

As a consultant – The P&Q practitioner provides her expertise in applying P&Q tools and techniques to organizations. He/she also provides guidance in conducting P&Q climate diagnosis to determine current issues, problems, and opportunities for improvement (OFI).

As a trainer – The P&Q practitioner delivers trainings and learning solutions to organizations. At the same time, he/she shares his/her knowledge and skills in applying P&Q concepts, tools, and techniques. According to the APO Productivity Education & Training Accredited Learning Systems (PETALS) 2006-2007, a P&Q practitioner must have the following core competencies:

1. Ability to diagnose and identify productivity issues
2. Ability to work out productivity solutions
3. Ability to convince stakeholders including employees and management to adopt solutions
4. Ability to implement solutions
5. Ability to evaluate results
6. Ability to sustain improvements

On top of this, the P&Q practitioner must also have the specific clusters of competencies.

Interpersonal

• Building Trust
• Communicating Effectively
• Influencing Stakeholders
• Leveraging Diversity
• Networking and Partnering

Business/Management

• Analyzing  Productivity Improvement Needs and Proposing Solutions
• Applying “Business” Acumen
• Planning and Implementing Assignments
• Thinking  P&Q Strategically
• Driving  Results

Personal

• Modelling Personal Development
• Demonstrating Adaptability

These core and specific competencies are required to be able to fulfil the roles and responsibilities of a P&Q practitioner. After developing and specializing in specific P&Q areas, a P&Q practitioner can later become a productivity specialist. A specialist is someone who only does productivity measurement at firm/organization level. He/she can be a 5S specialist, or a training specialist, or a productivity measurement specialist.