Ecuador: Productivity for improving woodworking and metalworking companies

(Quito, August 21, 2006.-) The Esmeraldas Salon at the J.W. Marriot Hotel was the venue for celebrating the closure of the Productivity, Measurement, Identification, and Improvement project implemented between 2005 and 2006, an event attended by more than 15 Ecuadorian businessmen

Eighteen woodworking and metalworking companies from Quito, Ambato and Cuenca benefited from the project, which started up in September 2005 and was funded through an alliance between Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Trade, Industrialization, Fisheries and Competitiveness (MICIP), the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF), Pichincha Forestry and Small Timber Industry Foundation (Fundepim), and Tungurahua Chamber of Small Industries (CAPIT).

This training program consisted of three theoretical-practical components and its aim was to increase the productivity of the companies taking part: Value Added Productivity Measurement (VAPM); Work Improvement in Small Enterprises (WISE); and Entrepreneurship Intervention for improving inventory turnover, cycle time, and client satisfaction indicators.

The companies that benefited from the training project were from the woodworking and metalworking sectors, namely: Acopiomadel, DW Decoraciones, Consertec, Moducon, Parquet Caamaño, Scanfort, Squadra Diseño, Technoswiss, IMCE, Varma, Muebles León, Tugalt, Vanderbilt, Ideal Alambrec, Novacero, Acero de los Andes and Carvhal.

The courses, which were extensive and intensive, were designed and imparted by the Antioquia Science and Technology Center, a Colombian applied research institute with considerable experience in advising companies on productivity matters, and whose headquarters is in Medellín, Colombia. The center assigned a seven-man team of experts to train more than 35 businessmen and, at the same time, a group of ten people who work in those companies as trainers in the WISE method.

At the event to celebrate the closure of the project, the results obtained during the project were made public. Three of the businessmen who took part described their main achievements and showed the positive changes in their indicators.