SLAAQP national convention from March 23-24

The Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Quality Productivity (SLAAQP) will hold its National Convention(NCQP 2012) from March 23-24 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo 7. It is being organised after a lapse of a few years.

The event is organised as a contribution of the Association to improve competitiveness; Improving quality and productivity on a national scale will deliver many benefits including better quality and higher reliability, improving competitiveness, reducing costs of production and service, thereby reducing the cost-of-living and improving service quality.

In many countries including Japan voluntary and non-governmental organisations similar to the SLAAQP have made important contributions to develop quality and productivity. The SLAAQP is a member of the Co-ordination Committee of the International Convention on QC Circles.

Quality Circles or QC Circles is a concept that originated in Japan to involve non-executive employees to use a prescribed methodology (after being trained in problem-solving tools) to tackle quality and productivity issues. The concept first spread throughout Japan in the 1960s and then to service industries, and South Korea and Taiwan and by 1980 it was a worldwide phenomenon.

Even today the concept is very popular judging by the participation of over a thousand delegates at the Internal Convention. Kaizen too is a method which originated in Japan and is credited as being a major factor that improved the competitiveness of Japanese industry. Today QC Circles and Kaizen is popular in many organisations including government organisations.

SLAAQP believes that the non-executives workers in the country have tremendous enthusiasm and knowledge and can make a significant contribution to the country.

This convention is the only national convention in Sri Lanka that provides an opportunity for such non-executive employees to demonstrate their skills. The speakers for the technical papers will be announced soon.