Projects under the Institutional Strengthening of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) by the Development of Productivity Practitioners Program are conducted annually by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in individual member countries. They provide facilitators and consultants from NPOs and SMEs with firsthand exposure to updated tools and techniques for productivity improvement, thereby building up a critical mass of practitioners.

As part of the initiative, the APO in cooperation with China Productivity Center (CPC) organized a training course on Customer-oriented Business Excellence (BE) Management, 30 June–4 July in Taipei. Addressing the inaugural session, Chief Guest Acting Deputy Director Yu Kuo, Small & Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, highlighted the importance of customer-oriented BE management in the context of increasing productivity. CPC President Dr. Pao-Cheng Chang thanked the APO for selecting the ROC to host the course, which would meet the specific needs of its SMEs and CPC consultants, particularly in the era of Industry 4.0, and pledged continuing support for APO activities.

Two hundred and fifty participants attended the open conference on the first day, representing government agencies and the public and private sectors. On the second day of the course, Resource Person from Singapore Harnek Singh gave presentations providing an overview of the BE concept and how to manage customer-oriented BE initiatives for organizational productivity improvement, which were then discussed by the 35 attendees from SMEs and the CPC.

The training course then introduced innovative customer-oriented BE systems to the participants, comprising trainers/consultants, engineers, and production managers in the ROC, using practical approaches and hands-on workshops, while giving them a comprehensive view of the related concepts and methodologies, approaches to lean applications, and management consulting techniques. They also had opportunities to draft recommendations for practical improvement in a production or service process.

During the training course, two best-practice SMEs, Ko Da Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Li Kang Biotechnical Co., Ltd., hosted site visits to illustrate their BE journeys to achieve greater customer satisfaction. The resource person and trainees collaborated in drafting a practical manual for customer-oriented management under the BE framework. All participants planned to use the manual when assisting their own or client organizations apply the BE framework to ensure that customers were satisfied with products and services.