Deputy Labour Minister Patekile Holomisa has urged South African companies to take advantage of Productivity South Africa’s (SA’s) Enterprise Support Programme to elevate their productive capacity. 
 
Addressing a productivity promotion seminar organised by Productivity SA and the Japan Productivity Center (JPC), on Thursday, he said bolstering and stimulating the sluggish economy to address the challenges of rising unemployment, poverty and inequality, was one of the country’s key priorities.

The seminar was held to highlight how the application of the Japanese Kaizen, or continuous improvement, concept could assist companies in improving their productivity.

“As the country emerges from a technical recession and navigates its journey towards radical socioeconomic transformation, we should understand that the foundation of any productive high-income economy lies in a globally competitive, creative and innovative workforce,” he said. 
 
He called for an integrated approach to nurturing, attracting and retaining a first-world talent base to be implemented, emphasising that the technical cooperation with Japan should be central to any interventions.

“We wish to see more small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) in the productive sectors of our economy participating in the programme and implementing the Kaizen philosophy, with management and workers trained and collaborating to improve the productivity of enterprises.
 
“This is one way for us to ensure optimal productivity . . . and resilient economies that will create more job opportunities and make South Africa and the continent at large take their rightful place among the best economies in the world,” Holomisa said.

He further commended and expressed appreciation of Japan’s commitment to transferring its management philosophy and productivity improvement activities such as Kaizen to the Southern African Development Community.
 
“These best practices and highly acclaimed philosophies have helped Japanese companies across the world to stand head and shoulders above their peers in this regard,” said Holomisa. 
 
South Africa is one of ten Pan Africa Productivity Association member countries that have taken advantage of the offer of help by the government of Japan by entering into a technical cooperation on productivity improvement agreement with the Japan Productivity Centre. 
 
“Japan’s management philosophy and Kaizen methodology is effective as a key source of economic growth and competitiveness and, therefore, worth emulating.

“This methodology, which is internationally acclaimed as a continuous process of quality and productivity improvement in industrial development in particular, can be evidenced by the competitiveness of Japan and other countries in Asia,” Holomisa said. 
 
He added that South African companies, and those in the rest of Africa that have adopted the Kaizen management philosophy, have gained the capacity to develop their own systems, methods, procedures and problem-solving tools. 
 
Holomisa said the technical cooperation with Japan has assisted in empowering over 40 staff members of Productivity SA who had an opportunity to go on study missions; and over 20 South African companies having been assisted by the Japanese experts as model companies in the implementation of the Kaizen philosophy.
 
“Some of these companies have demonstrated incredible productivity improvements and won national productivity awards,” he noted.