WHAT IS WPC ABOUT?
Goal of the WPC
The Workplace Challenge (WPC) programme is a world-class manufacturing, or Best Operating Practice, programme aimed at helping manufacturing companies in South Africa to become more competitive.
The Workplace Challenge (WPC) programme is one of government’s measures to improve the productivity of South African companies and by doing this, improve their competitiveness. This initiative represents a combined investment in which government support is dovetailed with company initiative and labour co-operation.
The WPC is a joint initiative of the National Economic Development Labour Council (Nedlac) and the Department of Trade and Industry (dti). This initiative, which focuses greatly on workplace relations, is managed by Productivity SA (formerly the National Productivity Institute).
Aims of the WPC
The aims of the WPC are to actively encourage and support change in the workplace to improve company performance, productivity and job creation. This is achieved through a process of building worker participation, thereby empowering them to upgrade their skills and perform better.
Through the sponsorship of its stakeholders, the Workplace Challenge aims to add value to the South African manufacturing sector. It promotes four characteristics of South African manufacturing companies:
- It involves those on the shop-floor in the improvement of company performance from the start
- It focuses on the simultaneous improvement of quality, speed, cost and morale
- It facilitates sharing of the lessons that companies learn as they apply Best Operating Practices
- It exposes small companies to World Class Competitiveness Principles in a way that they could not otherwise afford by involving them in a User Group / Cluster with large companies
How is the WPC structured?
By grouping manufacturing companies from the same geographical area, lessons learned in one company can be transferred to the other participants.
The WPC facilitates learning about Best Operating Practice in the form of geographical Clusters/ and User Groups serviced by external Best Operating Practice Consultants and / or Productivity SA Change Facilitators.
The main emphasis of the User Groups will initially be in Gauteng/North West, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape until the WPC could set up operational infrastructures in the other provinces.
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The Clusters and User Groups consist of six to eight companies from the same geographic areas sharing knowledge about applying world-class competitiveness principles.
The profile of participants is mainly small and medium companies in the manufacturing sector within the same industrial area. |
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How does the WPC operate?
The WPC programme facilitates the sharing of information and the spreading of lessons learned.
• Productivity SA Change Facilitators or external service providers provide training and mini-business materials in the form of Workplace Transformation Toolkits or Best Operating Practice modules.
• The WPC Change Facilitators coach individual companies in the User Group context to apply the Toolkits/modules and to do regular audits to measure their progress on the journey to world-class. By doing this, companies get to understand their own problems and the knowledge to apply solutions.
• To share experiences and lessons, monthly Steering Committee meetings, site visits and Milestone Workshops are held. At these occasions, member companies can see how a particular enterprise has implemented world-class competitiveness principles in practice.
• At Milestone Workshops, Member Companies send employees as members of their sections (called mini-businesses) to share lessons learned with regards to the implementation of the Workplace Challenge Programme, with members of the other companies in the same Cluster or User Group.
• The mini-business members also get a morale-boosting opportunity to present their results. At Steering Committee Meetings, Member Companies send their Champions (Internal project managers) and employee representatives to a meeting of all the Champions and Representatives of all the companies participating in a Cluster or User Group to discuss and learn lessons about implementing World-class Manufacturing/Best Operating Practice from one another.
• Productivity SA maintains a dedicated Website and Information Hub to ensure accessibility and sharing of best operating practice or world-class competitiveness knowledge.
The WPC does carry certain direct costs, such as manuals, mini-business materials (posters and work sheets) and trainers’ time. Staff also has to be released from their normal duties to undergo training. However, these costs are minor when one considers that many of the WPC-targeted companies would never afford this type and quality of training.
To ensure success the WPC requires the unconditional commitment of top management.
Results of the programme
Through the WPC, workers learn about how their company operates. They also learn about the pressures their company faces. In turn, management learns more about the people that work for them and how to work with their strengths and weaknesses.
Most of the participating companies report real, measurable improvements in quality, cost, delivery and employee morale.
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