Best practises adopted by Small & Medium Enterprises in improving productivity and market competitiveness

Today, many Indian SMEs are part of the global industrial supply chain. Globalization has definitely opened up new opportunities for the SMEs in India to grow and create jobs. But it has also resulted in tougher business environment for the survival of the SMEs.

With the increasing global competition and thin margins, the SMEs have to continually upgrade productivity. They have to invest in technology, modernize management practices and develop workforce skills. Often they also have to comply with buyers’ codes of conduct in line with international labour and environmental standards.

Since 2011, ILO in India has been implementing a global programme “Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises” or SCORE to build the technical capacity of the SMEs to increase their productivity and help them to sustain competitiveness. SCORE is a modular training programme and contains of five compact modules – Workplace cooperation, Quality, Productivity through cleaner production, Human resource management and, Occupational health and safety. In India, SCORE is currently focusing on the light engineering sector, witnessing a boom, which is estimated at $ 7 billion and providing employment to around 4 million (both skilled and un-skilled). 29 SMEs in India from Faridabad, Ahmednagar and Chennai have undertaken training on SCORE modules. The participating SMEs have been found to report 30% or more improvement towards industry specific benchmark KPIs such as absenteeism, employee turnover, defects, energy efficiency, waste per month, overtime, accidents and labour productivity.

The success stories of these enterprises will be presented and shared by enterprises implementing SCORE programme in the ILO event organised in partnership with Ahmednagar Auto and Engineering Association (AAEA) on 5th December 2012 in Ahmednagar Gymkhana Club, Ahmednagar. Best practices from the other SCORE participating countries, such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ghana, South Africa and Colombia will be also shared. The event will be attended by the SMEs, Corporates, Media and District Government officials from Nashik, Aurangabad and Ahmednagar.

SCORE counters the myth that better working conditions are too costly for businesses. SCORE training demonstrates that responsible workplace practices such as innovations in work organization, continuous workplace learning, good labour-management relations and respect for worker’s rights are important enablers for adopting new management practices and improving productivity.