Improvement Methods for the Operational Organisation of SME’s: An Ecuadorian Case Study
Francisco Vera
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Improvement Methods for the Operational Organisation of SME’s: An Ecuadorian Case Study | ||
| Published in: | Engineering for a Smarter Planet: Innovation, ITC, and Computational Tools for Sustainable Development: Proceedings of the 9th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology | |
| Date of Conference: | August 3-5, 2011 | |
| Location of Conference: | Medellin, Colombia | |
| Authors: | Denise Rodríguez Francisco Vera | |
| Refereed Paper: | #147 | |
Abstract | ||
| The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) represent an important sector for the growth of the world economy. In Ecuador the SMEs represent the 16% of the gross internal product and the 84% of the manufacturing companies. Unfortunately this sector has been suffering from competitiveness problems as poor quality, high production costs, etc. This article presents the application of an improvement method adapted to the characteristics of the Ecuadorian SMEs in a SME from the plastics industry. The results from the implementation reflect improvements in the operational performance measured by scrap, complaints, returns and sales per employee. | ||