AMMAN - Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the industrial and services sectors in Jordan can apply as of next week to benefit from a Japan-funded project to implement the Japanese concept of Kaizen, a system of continuous quality improvement.
Under the $2 million project for Dissemination of Quality/Productivity Improvement (Kaizen), launched Monday, practices SMEs and application forms to benefit from the project will be posted on the website of the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) at www.jedco.gov.jo as of December 25.
At the launch of the two-year-and-a-half project, JEDCO Chief Executive Officer Yarub Qudah said the scheme, implemented by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with JEDCO, will help enhance the competitiveness of the Jordanian economy.
Stressing that the project will motivate the private sector to enhance productivity and competitiveness, he said the project is a low-cost approach for enhancing quality, productivity and efficiency of entrepreneurs.
Kaizen, which was created in Japan following World War II, is a system of continuous improvement in quality, technology, processes, company culture, productivity, safety and leadership.
It involves every employee as each is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. The system involves every employee in making change - in most cases small and incremental.
Tetsuo Inooka, leader of JICA team for the implementation of the project, said Monday the project, which will be implemented over three stages, including the promotion of Kaizen at individual company level and conducting training programmes for 10 local consultants that will be trained to train on the practices to ensure the sustainability of the programme.
In addition, the project includes training of staff at relevant public entities, organisation and institutes on Kaizen practices, said Inooka, adding that the project entails building a mechanism to disseminate, promote and upgrade the Kaizen practices in the Kingdom.
According to Inooka, from December 2010 until March 2011, enterprises and consultants will have the chance to submit applications to benefit from the programme and by the end of March next year the participants will be selected. He added that a total of 10 local consultants and 20 enterprises will be selected to benefit from the project.
The actual implementation of the project will start from April 2011 until March 2012, while follow-up on the project will start from April 2012 until March 2013, when the project concludes, according to a statement by JICA.
Nazzal Armouti, vice chairman of the Jordan Chamber of Industry, stressed the importance of the project in developing the country's industrial sector, which he said contributed about 24.4 per cent to the gross domestic products in 2009.
Armouti added that the industrial sector's exports account for more than 90 per cent of the country's overall exports.
The project, Armouti said, will help Jordanian industrialists share expertise with the Japanese experts and enhance their facilities' productivity and quality of their products.
"Nowadays, Kaizen is widely recognised and accepted by many companies worldwide even by non-Japanese companies as an approach to reform the management and operation of the company," Yasuhiro Morimoto, senior representative of JICA office in Jordan said at the ceremony to launch the project.
© Jordan Times 2010
