About how this will happen - our conversation with Lyudmila BATENKO, director of the MIB Center for Productivity.
NEW QUALITY OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
- Lyudmila Pavlovna, what is the importance of operations management, and why is it that Ukrainian business representatives are now showing increased interest in it?
- The point is that it is in the operational sphere - whether in direct production or in the provision of services - that real values are created, values that matter to the end consumer and determine the success of an enterprise. Therefore, operations management is the key link in the efficiency of production activity. And its level determines whether that activity is strong or weak. For many decades, issues of production engineering and prospects for production development in Western Europe have been carefully studied and analyzed. In Germany, this work was actively carried out by the German REFA institute jointly with the country's leading companies. The result was a comprehensive concept of operations management with corresponding theoretical foundations, methodology, and practical tools. Today, REFA's techniques and methods are used effectively throughout the world. Since 2002, the International Institute of Business, cooperating with the REFA-International institute, has been actively promoting this methodology in Ukraine, becoming the only educational institution in our country where one can obtain training in this field. And in 2005, together with German partners, we are launching a whole cycle of programs in the area of production management.
- Please tell us in more detail about the educational project itself.
- Based on the main concepts of the REFA methodology and drawing on our consulting experience in this field, we have managed to create a new, expanded format for training specialists in operations management. The program's comprehensiveness and its maximum fit with our business reality have determined its focus on those areas of an enterprise's activity where the key competitive advantages of production are formed: aligning operational strategies with marketing and overall corporate strategies, building an effective quality system, implementing a process approach, project management, production logistics, cost management, and production controlling. All this makes it possible to identify the "bottlenecks" of production activity. And to overcome them, we have developed a detailed toolkit designed for various levels of competence and authority of the enterprise's employees.
- So, does this mean multi-level training is planned?
- One of the significant advantages of our educational project is that it allows us to create a single team at the enterprise, from top management to the lower levels. We offer three-level training. "Strategy and Tactics of Production Management" is a program for top management of enterprises and business owners. The extent to which they can correctly develop an overall production development strategy, determine the main quality criteria, labor productivity, and target level of production costs determines how realistic it will be to implement this action program. The program "Production Management Practice: Modern Technologies and Tools (REFA)" is intended for middle managers: chief engineer and chief technologist departments, quality specialists, production project managers, logistics departments, and specialists in work organization and remuneration. Their tasks are to specify the overall development program, develop and apply in practice specific production management tools. And finally, there is one more level of training - line managers: foremen, rate-setters, and technologists. With our help, they will refine practical skills in the main issues of production and labor organization at their level of competence. Our goal is to teach senior management to adequately formulate strategic goals and objectives primarily for middle managers, who in turn must understand and know the operational ways to achieve them by setting specific tasks for lower-level managers, who will implement them directly at their workplaces using appropriate tools. It is this connection that makes it possible to introduce a system of scientific operations management with maximum benefit for the enterprise.
- What contribution did the German partners make to the development and implementation of this program?
- Our German partner is the world-renowned organization REFA, a recognized expert in organizing work processes, developing production and enterprises as a whole. As I have already said, we have adopted the ideology and core methodological materials of REFA. Participants receive unique methodological material for the entire course. A German consultant, Gerhard Schnekkel, is currently working at our institute as the direct coordinator of the REFA program in Ukraine. MIB's contribution lies in expanding and deepening the basic REFA program and developing a comprehensive educational product with maximum adaptation to the realities of the Ukrainian economy. In addition, we cooperate very successfully with the German company ORTIM, which offers the market hardware and software for work measurement. The seminars given by representatives of the company SDZ (Germany), another of our German partners that offers software for building material flows and logistics systems, are also very successful.
- Do you sense interest among Ukrainian business circles in this area of business training?
- The growth of interest in this area of study is a very gratifying phenomenon. The fact is that at the beginning of economic reforms in our country, issues of product quality and production efficiency were somewhat pushed into the shadows. And only now, when many companies have concluded that it is necessary to build a production strategy on a scientific basis, increase labor productivity, and make products competitive in terms of costs, interest in operations management has sharply increased. Therefore, it is not surprising that for popular services - consulting, IT outsourcing - tariffs are declining as the market fills with such specialists.
Foreign companies were the first to respond to the opportunity to receive REFA education in Ukraine. For example, there is currently long-term cooperation with the German company "Leoni", which built a plant in Stryi and is now engaged in training and professional development of personnel. Interesting fact: the Japanese firm "Yazaki" in Ukraine, which to some extent are competitors of "Leoni", upon learning about this, immediately ordered the same training for their employees. Of course, a number of serious Ukrainian companies are also undergoing training within this educational project. Apparently, our entrepreneurs are well aware that, approaching the European Union space, we must meet world standards.
- How was the teaching staff of this program formed?
- The teaching staff of MIB is one of the main components of our project's success. These are high-level professionals, practicing specialists and, as students claim, extraordinary personalities. All of them have completed a training course and have REFA trainer certificates. We adopted both the substantive part of the course and progressive teaching methods. In addition to theoretical training, there is a very strong practical block. By the way, practical classes are sometimes held directly at the production sites of corporate clients. At the request of clients, in addition to training and consulting, we try to help with direct familiarization with German experience in the field of operations management by traveling to Germany to study on-site the realities of implementing and using the REFA methodology.
- Is it expected that any final documents will be issued upon completion of the training program?
- Of course. This was one of our conditions for cooperation with the REFA-International institute. After successfully passing the final exam, program graduates receive professional business education and the original German certificate of a REFA specialist. We receive these certificates with a full list of courses taken directly from Germany, and they are identical to those issued there. Without passing the exam, the student is issued a certificate from MIB stating that the course has been attended.
- How significant is the REFA certificate in Ukraine and abroad?
- For many foreign companies, the very name of this program immediately reveals the essence of the training and the level of training of a specialist in this field. In Germany, the REFA basic course is considered professional education. For example, we have a specialty such as "rate setter". So in Germany such specialists are simply called "REFA specialist". And I would like to emphasize that the REFA certificate is an indicator of a high professional level of a specialist, which is highly valued on the labor market all over the world.
Today, it is corporate clients who show the greatest interest in this Ukrainian-German educational project, but we are pleased to note that REFA certificates are also held by leading managers of such flagships of the Ukrainian economy as UMC, "Farmak", "Sun-Interbrew Ukraine", "Azovstal", the Dnieper Pipe Rolling Plant, and others.