At Productivity SA, we provide a suite of services designed to elevate your business and enhance productivity.
BT & R is a proven programme, designed to effectively save and retain jobs.
- ABOUT
- HOW IT WORKS
- PROCESS
- Since its inception, Business Turnaround and Recovery has saved 145 495 jobs and created more than 616 new positions.
- As a division of Productivity SA, we are funded by the Department of Labour UIF. We act as the ‘search and rescue’ and ‘crisis management’ agency for any South African company in need of assistance.
- Our mandate is directed by the Declaration of the Presidential Jobs Summit (October1998) ‒to provide proactive solutions that aim to retain jobs through sustainment of companies, actively manage retrenchments, prevent a rise in unemployment, and enhance economic growth.
- Our services are available to all companies across South Africa from our bases in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. To reach as many organisations as possible, we work with a vast network of independent consultants all over the country.
Funded by The Department of Labour UIF, the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme identifies jobs that can be saved, and implements appropriate ‘rescue’ processes. Generally, the programme applies to companies with a minimum o2 20 employees facing large-scale job losses.
The Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme is proven and provides highly effective, specialised and technical assistance to struggling companies, through:
- Assessment of problem areas, crisis management and development of strategies to turn the company around.
- Enhancement of company performance through improvement marketing, operations, HR and financial strategies.
- Education of all employees on basic business principles and operations ‒ to understand how their actions impact the entire operational process.
- Capacity building and staff training to improve and sustain productivity ‒ even after the intervention.
The Business Turnaround and Recovery Process
1. Preliminary Assessment
Prior to any planning or implementation, the turnaround viability of the company is assessed. This identifies immediate issues that require urgent intervention and thorough crisis management procedures.
2. Crisis Management
If the company is already in crisis ‒ due to liquidation, labour action, termination of crucial contracts or possible closure by regulatory bodies ‒ immediate action is taken to avert closure of the business or possible job losses, until the Business Turnaround and Recovery process can take effect.
3. Establishment of Future Forums
A Future Forum is a committee comprised of management, employees and union representatives. It creates a structured, collaborative environment that allows for open discussion between all parties.
Together, stakeholders identify problem areas and devise strategies to save jobs, and the company. Throughout this procedure, Productivity SA consultants provide technical assistance with marketing, financial and operational management. When the organisation is stabilised and vulnerable jobs secured, the Future Forum introduces early warning systems to recognise emerging problems, formulate appropriate responses and develop turnaround or deployment strategies, if necessary.
4. Capacity Building
Building capacity ensures all members of the Future Forum are empowered to contribute meaningfully, with a clear understanding of business operations and what will make the company sustainable and profitable. ‘Productivity Champions’ are identified and trained to lead by example.
5. In-Depth Assessment
During this phase, the organisation and its appointed consultants evaluate the root causes of the company’s problems, and formulate appropriate turnaround or redeployment strategies.
6. Strategy Implementation
Once roles are assigned, agreed strategies are implemented.
7. Productivity Sustainability: Keeping on Track
To ensure improvements are monitored and maintained, in-house ‘Productivity Champions’ are appointed. Their purpose is to drive productivity and quality aspects of production/service delivery. Productivity Champions are meticulously trained and equipped with comprehensive manuals that contain valuable productivity tools and techniques. In addition, they continually monitor and measure relevant activities to report results to the company’s management and Productivity SA.
The programme focusses on creating an enabling environment conducive to entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises that are capable of creating productive employment and decent work.
- ECOSYSTEM
- OFFERINGS
- KEY OUTCOMES
- WPC PROGRAMME
The overarching CIS approach is based on integrated enterprise development ecosystem:
• Driving enterprise competitiveness and sustainability, including enhancing the appropriate capacities of SMMEs and Co-operatives to adopt world-class productivity enhancement best practices, focusing on products, processes and people.
• Target SMMEs and Cooperatives – particularly in the productive sectors with strong growth and employment multipliers within the priority sectors.
• Prioritise the participation of historically disadvantaged people and regions in the economy and thereby support meaningful Broad-Based Black Empowerment (B-BBEE) using instruments such as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Industrial Parks and Black Industrialists interventions.
Emerging Sector – Small and Micro Enterprises:
• Training programmes and solutions including:
o Business Performance Improvement;
o Early Warning Systems; and
o Productivity Champion Training.
• Promoting a productivity culture and mindset through Productivity Awareness.
• Other customised offerings for SMMEs and Cooperatives.
Stable Businesses – Small, Medium and Large:
• Workplace Challenge Programme (Workplace Transformation Toolkits and Kaizen Intervention):
o Focusses on creating a culture of continuous improvement within enterprises;
o Develops and improves workplace collaboration between management and workers;
o Implements strategies of best practice; and
o Facilitates networking/sharing through clustering.
• Competitiveness Enhancement Programme:
o Implementation of productivity and competitiveness enhancement initiatives focusing on operational efficiency within exporting or potential export businesses;
o Focus on productivity and innovation; and
o Value chain efficiency and market access through clustering.
• Consulting:
o Ad-hoc/customised and demand-driven interventions related to productivity and competitiveness improvement.
The Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme is proven and provides highly effective, specialised and technical assistance to struggling companies, through:
- Assessment of problem areas, crisis management and development of strategies to turn the company around.
- Enhancement of company performance through improvement marketing, operations, HR and financial strategies.
- Education of all employees on basic business principles and operations ‒ to understand how their actions impact the entire operational process.
- Capacity building and staff training to improve and sustain productivity ‒ even after the intervention.
• Improves productivity.
• Improves profitability by reducing cost and improving resource utilisation.
• Improves operational efficiency by improving resources utilisation, reducing cost, improving quality, decreasing waste.
• Capacitate Productivity/Kaizen Champions.
• Effective communication between employees and management.
• Sustain and creates jobs.
The Workplace Challenge Programme (WPC) is part of Productivity SA’s Competitive Improvement Services Business Unit. It is a dtic supply-side programme established to meet the competitive challenges presented by South Africa’s re-entry into the global market, a long-term solution to increasing competitiveness and sustainability in companies, implemented through a set of toolkits with the assistance and guidance of a productivity practitioner.
The Workplace Challenge Programme
- ABOUT
- PROCESS
YOUR LOCAL FACILITATOR TOWARDS BECOMING WORLD-CLASS.
WPC operates in the form of Clusters, facilitated by Productivity SA coaches called Productivity Practitioners.
CLUSTERS
Small clusters consisting of between 5 and 7 companies per cluster (group of companies from the same geographic area).
PARTICIPATING COMPANIES
Mainly small and medium companies in the manufacturing, agriculture, agro-processing, mining, and beneficiation sectors; larger enterprises are also welcome. The average number of employees per company ranges between 50 and 250 people. The Clusters provide a more economical self-help option, especially for smaller manufacturing companies.
FACILITATION APPROACH
Productivity SA provides experienced and qualified Productivity Practitioners to assist each cluster and individual member companies with the implementation of Workplace Transformation Toolkits and doing regular audits. The facilitation process focuses on developing the capacity in companies to understand problems and implement solutions by themselves.
THE PROGRAMME ENABLES COMPANIES TO BECOME WORLD-CLASS THROUGH THE FOLLOWING PROCESSES:
STEP 1: PLANNING
• Conduct mapping of regional economic activities; determine constraints and focus areas; revise theory of change for WPC; conclude funding agreement; produce annual business plan; and generate operational plans.
STEP 2: NURTURING
• Prioritise areas for starting clusters/recruiting model companies and applying market system analysis; market and communicate WPC service to area companies; conduct presentation to relevant government entities, potential clients, academia, labour movement; promote interest among potential clients and key stakeholders; conduct in-depth consultations and discuss implementation plans; conclude WPC contracts; organise way-forward workshops and launch the clusters for the areas.
STEP 3: ORIENTATION
• Conduct company-wide WPC sensitisation sessions, facilitate establishment of the Plant Level Committee and selection of members and chair; conduct capacity building workshops; facilitate management system training.
STEP 4: IMPLEMENTATION
• Conduct toolkit training; guide establishment of Mini-business Units(MBUs); facilitate team selection; formulate performance measures for MBU; facilitate audit and coaching review; conduct steering committee meetings; conduct quarterly milestone workshops or user group CoP sessions; write lessons learnt or case studies; produce regional/cluster monthly report; and conduct project close-out report.
STEP 5: ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT
• Requisition of WPC toolkit stocks and materials; invoicing WPC companies for their fees and processing service provider invoices.
STEP 6: AFTERCARE
• Establish aftercare cluster; determine the scope for aftercare support; facilitate WPC aftercare contracts; implement aftercare support; conduct project review; undertake M&E review; generate case studies; and project close-out report.
STEP 7: MONITORING, REPORTING AND EVALUATION
• Collect source documents in line with key performance indicators; collate source documents; verification of performance information; compile WPC monthly performance information report; generate WPC quarterly performance information; produce WPC Annual Report; conduct WPC Mid-Term Review (MTR); undertake WPC End-Term Review (ETR).
These benefits have resulted in a profound impact among WPC Companies as evident from the most recent Impact measurement.
Workplace Transformation Toolkits
Productivity SA provides training materials comprising the basics of World-Class competitiveness in five Toolkit modules:
1. The World-Class Competitiveness Management System
2. Goal Alignment
3. Cleaning and Organising
4. Teamwork
5. Leadership and Green Productivity (Improving carbon, water, chemical, paper and human energy footprint).
IMPLEMENTATION OF WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION TOOLKITS
Implementation takes place over a period of 12 months.
The National Quality and Productivity Network (NQPN) is a network of South African organizations established by an agreement between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (The DTIC), and is promoting quality and productivity improvement (kaizen) activities in South Africa.
- What is NQPN?
- MT & JCC
- What is Kaizen ?
- Creating a mechanism
NQPN (National Quality and Productivity Network) is a network for maximising the impact of Kaizen training delivery.
Founding members :
- The Automotive Industry Development Centre Eastern Cape(AIDC-EC)
- The Automotive Industry Development Centre Gauteng (AIDC-GP)
- Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF).
- Automotive Supply Chain Competitiveness Initiative (ASCCI)
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
- Plastics SA
- Productivity SA
- Production Technologies Association of South Africa (PtSA)
- The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
NQPN is managed by the Management Team (MT), which is made up of representatives from NQPN organizations. In addition, from 2025 onwards, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) will be held once a year, where CEOs and management of NQPN organizations including the dtic and JICA will gather to mainly review the past year's activities and discuss the next year's activity policy and strategy.
Kaizen is a Japanese term that means "change for the better" or "continuous improvement". In corporate activities, Kaizen refers to identifying waste and bottlenecks in the production process, seeking solutions with the participation of everyone from management to production workers, pooling their wisdom, and continually improving the quality and productivity of a company's products and services with small investments.
In the project launched by JICA and the dtic, firstly, Japanese experts will train South African Kaizen Trainers through classroom training and in-company training, and then these Kaizen Trainers will provide similar classroom training and in-company training to Kaizen Consultants, thereby increasing the number of Kaizen Trainers and Kaizen Consultants by South Africans themselves, and building a system for continuous human resource development. In the first Basic Kaizen training held at the Indaba Hotel from 31 July to 3 August in 2023, the benefited 20 companies saw average of 62%productivity improvement, whereas that of the Training of Trainers (TOT) for Basic Kaizen in 2024, was 39.3% for 11 beneficiary companies. The top 10 Basic Kaizen Trainers were selected to attend the JICA study tour on capacity enhancement program in Japan from 15 to 30 June 2024. The overall goal was to deepen the understanding of quality management and productivity improvement through the Japanese Experience.
Newsletters
The Research Innovation & Statistics unit produces and publishes productivity related research and statistics reports.
- TOOLKIT 1
- TOOLKIT 2
- TOOLKIT 3
- TOOLKIT 4
- TOOLKIT 5
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The Management System of the Workplace Transformation Toolkit aims at helping organisations to make a successful transition to a culture of continuous improvement. The Management System teaches participants to plan, to implement according to plan, to review plans, to take corrective actions, to measure, and to celebrate achievements. It also teaches participants about consistent and regular communication and to start off on the right foot by having a purpose and a vision for the transformation of their workplace.
• Objectives of Management System
Outline of the methodology for implementing continuous improvement.
• Set guidelines for this implementation.
• To explain what world-class competitiveness is and why it should be pursued.
• Provide tools that will assist in the journey to world-class.
GOAL ALIGNMENT
Goal achievement is only possible if common goals are owned and pursued by all teams.
Goal alignment can be seen as the starting point for continuous improvement. It is often implemented first.
Objectives: (sequencing)
• To communicate and align goals and targets throughout the organisation, down to first-line team level.
• To align top-down and bottom-up management.
• To create effective organisation structures so that everybody will know where they fit in and what they are responsible for.
• To manage people with a style of improvement, coaching and caring.
CLEANING AND ORGANISING
Cleaning and organising is not just about having a good-looking workplace, but also very much about making work easier and creating a functional, visually organised workplace of which people are proud. Cleaning and organising is one of the most important foundations or pillars for continuous improvement. A sustained, high level of implementation supports high levels of safety, quality and productivity, low cost and fast, on-time delivery. Cleaning and organising is also known as 5S – sort and discard; set in order; shine; standardise and self-discipline.
Objectives:
• Create an understanding of the importance of cleaning and organising, also in terms of the role it plays in providing a foundation for continuous improvement.
• Train people in the approaches and techniques for creating and sustaining high levels of cleaning and organising.
• Create a visually organised workplace.
• Establish an internal benchmarking and review system
TEAMWORK
Teamwork is one of four foundation elements of the Workplace Transformation Toolkit. The foundation elements form the basis for continuous improvement of quality, cost, delivery and morale.
Objectives:
• Create an understanding of the importance and role of teamwork, in workplace and business improvement.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement.
• Equip teams with the knowledge to implement small group activities and Kaizen projects.
• Equip teams with the knowledge to apply basic problem solving techniques.
• Establish an internal benchmarking and review system, based on the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle and is used by first-line teams for continuous improvement of teamwork.
WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION TOOLKIT 5.1:
LEADERSHIP
The aim of Leadership is to strengthen the skills of every first-line manager to:
• Develop, lead and inspire productive teams.
• Ensure that all team members are developed to their full potential.
• The managers of team leaders play an important role in the successful implementation of the Leadership Toolkit. They need to coach, on an ongoing basis, their team leaders on the skills introduced in the Toolkit, as well as provide support for implementation of other elements of the Workplace Transformation Toolkit.
WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION TOOLKIT 5.2:
GREEN PRODUCTIVITY
The programme contains:
• Improving the carbon footprint.
• Improving water footprint.
• Improving chemical footprint.
• Improving paper footprint.
• Improving human energy footprint.
Research
- Description (Role)
- Research focus areas
- Research output
Productivity SA’s research is guided by a research agenda which is coordinated by the Research Department and updated annually. The research agenda sets out priority areas to guide the research outputs in line with Productivity SA’s Strategic Plan. The goal of the Research Department is to position Productivity SA as independent and credible custodian of productivity and competitiveness information while also providing research support to the flagship programmes (CIS, BT&R) of the organisation to deliver on the mandate of the organisation in terms of the Employment Services Act (No 4 of 2014).
The research department conducts research in the productivity of priority economic sectors, with the view to contribute towards national policy strategic objectives. Th research reports provides decision makers in various enterprises with information and knowledge to improve the competitiveness and productivity of economic sectors.
The research output undertaken by the Research Department includes: (i) sector research on productivity and competitiveness (ii) international benchmarking of productivity strategies and impact; (iii) public sector productivity (iv) impact studies on interventions of Productivity SA flagship programmes and (v) facilitating seminars to share best productivity processes. In order to ensure high quality and relevant research is produced, the research output is subjected to the scrutiny of the Research Reference Team (RRT). The RRT is a mechanism of peer review for the research work produced. The RRT is a panel of Productivity SA staff with various skills and experience (including an external expert) chosen to review research projects in order to ensure alignment and consistency with organisation strategic objectives.
• Users
Policy makers, business leaders, labour federations and industry chambers use productivity research in decision making as it provides them with evidence-based analysis on the productivity and competitiveness performance of different sectors of the economy. Productivity research assists with knowledge and information making the country to be productive and competitive, to contribute to wealth creation, job creation, and reduction of income inequality and poverty. The research produced by Productivity SA is in accordance with the strategic objectives of its stakeholders, which include: Government, Business and Labour.
- INNOVATION
- INFO CENTRE
Knowledge & Innovation management is mandated by the provisions of Employment Service Act 4 of 2014 section 32 (e) to maintain a database of productivity and competitiveness systems and to publicise these systems internally and externally
Productivity SA as knowledge organisation foster knowledge sharing culture by encouraging its employees to interact with one another by subscribing to SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization) model linking it to Knowledge Management processes. Knowledge is created and applied, and this then leads to innovation, products, and services.
Knowledge & Innovation management therefore manages the total knowledge assets of the Productivity SA for easy storage, retrieval, reuse, and continuous improvement of the assets.
Productivity SA Information Centre has a comprehensive collection of books, reports and articles on productivity and management related subject areas.
The Information Centre stock comprises of the following:
• Books and journals
• Productivity related Articles
• Productivity SA Research Reports
• A small collection of tapes and audio-visual material
• Variety of reference works.
The Information Centre is intended for use by Productivity SA staff and external users. External users can only use the material in the Information Centre, or they may request information through email and telephone
For more information please contact: info@productivitysa.co.za
Statistics
- Description
- Variables
- Users
Productivity statistics report is an annual statistical publication of productivity trends. It is compiled by Productivity SA and is designed to be a reference document for everyone interested in the economic sector and industry productivity trends. The annual productivity measurement initiative of Productivity SA it’s in accordance with the strategic objectives of its stakeholders, which include: Government, Business and Labour. The detailed productivity measurement report also highlights the overall impact of productivity changes on sustainability and competitiveness of companies within all the economic sectors of South Africa. The report makes use of information and aggregate data mainly provided by Statistics SA (Stats SA) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). The methodology used in the calculation of the productivity indices are in line with those that are recommended by the internationally recognised institutions, such as the Organisation for Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Manual: Measuring Productivity (2015).
Productivity statistics report constitutes a descriptive statistical analysis measuring the productivity performance of total economy, the 3 main sectors, the 10 main industries as well as the 8 selected manufacturing sub sectors in South Africa. Productivity measures the ability of the economy to produce output, i.e. goods and services, using inputs, i.e. Labour input and Capital input. An increase in productivity means that, among others, more output is produced using similar amounts of inputs. The increase in Productivity that is not due to Labour and Capital inputs arise from technological progress and innovation, or multifactor productivity. The following are the Productivity measures of interest in this publication, Labour productivity, Capital productivity, Multifactor productivity, Capital Labour ratio as well as Unit labour cost.
Policy makers, business leaders, labour federations and academics use the productivity statistics to determine the changes in efficiency, the effects of technological improvements, changes in production costs and competitiveness, predict employment and prices in different industries, negotiate wages as well as for research purposes. Productivity statistics ultimately enables the policy makers, business leaders and academics to recognise the factors that affect business performance in terms of the efficient resource allocation and hence the ability of business to contribute to employment, income and the country’s prosperity.