National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) Mauritius

Productivity Tools

5S, 7W, QC, ESS, IE, commonly known as KAIZEN tools, are foundations for productivity improvement. With these basic tools a company can become both effective and efficient. Kaizen means continuous improvement in quality, technology, process, company culture, productivity and leadership. It comes from the Japanese word “Kai” which means “change” or to “correct” and “zen” which means “good”. The word Kaizen means “continuous improvement”.

5S: Quality Environment

5S is a basic, fundamental, systematic approach for productivity, quality and safety improvement in all types of business. It is a system to reduce waste and optimize productivity through maintaining an orderly, clean and disciplined workplace and using visual cues to achieve more consistent operational results.

learn more ›

7W: 7 Wastes

7W or 7 Wastes, is an approach to increase productivity by identifying and eliminating different type of waste in the environment.

learn more ›

QC: Quality Circle

Quality circle is a permanent group of 4 to 10 employees from the same department having common objective to solve work-related problems by applying simple problem-solving tools. Problems can be either assigned or identified by the team themselves.

learn more ›

ESS: Employee Suggestion Scheme

Employee Suggestion Scheme is a systematic approach to solicit creative ideas for improvement. The objectives of suggestion scheme are to establish a strong flow of two-way communication between management and employees and to improve productivity and quality of products and services of the organisation.

learn more ›

IE: Industrial Engineering

Industrial Engineering (IE) is concerned with design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to predict and evaluate result to be obtained from such systems.

learn more ›

ISO 9001:2015

ISO 9000 is a series of standards, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that define, establish, and maintain an effective quality assurance system for manufacturing and service industries.

learn more ›

QRS: Quick Response System

QR is a management concept created to increase consumer satisfaction and survive increasing competition from new competitors. It intends to shorten the lead time from receiving an order to delivery of the products and increase the cash flow.

learn more ›

JIT: Just In Time

JIT is a management philosophy of continuous improvement and forced problem solving. Supplies and components in the production line are ‘pulled’ through the system to arrive where they are need when they are needed.

learn more ›

TPM: Total Productive Maintenance

TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is a holistic approach to equipment maintenance that strives to achieve perfect production.

learn more ›

TQM: Total Quality Management

Total quality management can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused organization that involves all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization.

learn more ›

GP: Green Productivity

Green Productivity (GP) is a strategy for simultaneously enhancing productivity and environmental performance for overall socio-economic development that leads to sustained improvement in the quality of human life.

learn more ›

ECO Efficiency

Eco-efficiency is based on the withstanding principles of the use of high efficiency production technology and methods, the use of less natural resources and energy for the same amount of production and the production of less waste.

learn more ›

ISO 14000

ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e., cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); comply with applicable laws, regulations...

learn more ›

Lean Management

Lean Management helps organization to achieve targeted productivity and more by introduction of easy-to-apply and maintainable techniques and tools.

learn more ›

E2: Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is "using less energy to provide the same service". There are other definitions, but this is a good operational one.

learn more ›

P2: Pollution Prevention

In contrast to most pollution control strategies, which seek to manage a pollutant after it is formed and reduce its impact upon the environment, the pollution prevention approach seeks to increase the efficiency of a process, thereby reducing the amount of pollution generated at its source.

learn more ›

Productivity Analysis Questionnaire

Productivity measurement is basically a process of identifying the appropriate measures or metrics to be used, and the computation of their results to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the resources used. Basically, productivity = output / input. Thus, measurement of both the output and input, using the productivity levers, are keys to enhancing productivity.

learn more ›