Teaching productivity

Students and teachers tour the exhibition area, where student productivity projects are put on display.

Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line and for the first time mass produced cars, making them affordable to the working class. Production. Productivity. Efficiency! That was 1913. In just a few years, fifty percent of all cars sold in America were Fords because it was the most efficient, and therefore the cheapest, car manufactured. The moving assembly line boosted productivity by reducing the time to make a car from weeks to just 93 minutes.

Thailand Productivity Institute seeks to move this concept of efficiency from the factories to the schools, where it can be taught. "Schools are the main suppliers of the labour force to the industrial sector," says Chantalux Mongkol, productivity promotion department manager at Thailand Productivity Institute.

"Factories, in particular, usually employ graduates of Prathom six or Mathayom six. For competitive reasons, it's too late to start productivity development at the university level or later in the work place," she adds.

Reaching out to schools

The PDCA cycle allows this student to plan her artistic work before taking action.

In 2005, the institute launched "Primary and Secondary Productivity Education Project," in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's Office of Basic Education Commission. Under the project, students from 13 pilot schools learn how to apply such productivity tools as the 5S philosophy, Kaizen, PDCA cycle, and QCDSMEE to increase work efficiency (see box out).

When Chantalux and her team first brought productivity education into schools, most students - and teachers - had little idea what it was and how it could benefit them. One student from Mae Moh Wittaya School in Lampang said that she thought productivity education would teach her how to add values to existing products. Another student from Ban Saeng Sawang School in Udonthani thought the project would teach her about financial savings.

In fact, students and teachers participating in the project soon learned that increasing productivity means managing resources efficiently. When taken out of its business context, productivity could begin at home. Reinforcing students to turn off the electricity and tap water when not in use, for example, are foundations of productivity education.

"In the early stage, we experimented with the schools on the methods and activities that can provoke active learning and result in changes in the behaviors of students," says Chantalux. These changes are measurable by observing the students' attitude toward resources utilisation and approaches to solving problems.

Initially, the institute developed and handed out a set of instructional materials for teachers and textbooks to students in all grade levels. Schools can decide whether to select certain productivity topics and integrate the lessons into various class subjects or set up a separate class that teach all aspects of productivity. The institute recommends schools to adopt this latter method as it allows students to learn more advanced topics as they progress from one grade level to the next.

After applying the 5S philosophy, says a teacher from Nakornluang (Piboonprasertwit) School in Ayutthaya, students stopped doodling on their own desks and organised the desks in an orderly fashion. "These two examples reflect some of the most obvious changes in behaviours among our students," she says.

The 5S philosophy, however, is not about cleaning the physical environment itself. Rather, through performing the cleaning tasks, students actually learn to maintain self-discipline. A cleaner and more orderly environment, says the teacher, are merely by-products of the process.

A mixed result

After implementing the Primary and Secondary Productivity Education Project in schools for one year, however, Chantalux admits that both teachers and students' perception on increasing productivity remains primitive. The end result of increasing productivity exhibits itself as physical products or things that students produce in classrooms, such as decorating items made from recycled goods.

The changes are not yet evident in terms of changes in the students' behaviours, but are more obvious in terms of awareness. "To be able to witness behavioural changes, we have to wait until students complete the full programme, as they move up the grade levels," Chantalux says. This is a long process and makes a long-term commitment from both the Thailand Productivity Institute and the Basic Education Commission Office crucial to the project's sustainability.

A more desirable result, according to the Basic Education Commission Office's deputy secretary-general Areerat Wattanasin, is a student project that reflects a more systematic thinking toward increasing efficiency. One such project, she suggests, could involve a conceptual framework on how to reduce poverty or eliminate the debt cycle within the students' own family or community.

"We would like to see the students' thinking process - the steps they take to solve problems and how they plan to tackle them. And if the result isn't what they were looking for, how do they go about fixing it?" she says.

The most important question of all, she adds, is to ask whether or not the process helps them create a better tomorrow; and if it does, which available resources can the process help to save along the way. Once students can focus on improving the process, productivity education will be half successful.

The other half of success, says Chantalux, is when the institute has extended the concept of productivity into a wider network of schools. This network will then pass on both the knowledge and practice to the families and local communities. If students choose to enter the work force right after graduating from secondary schools, they will be ready to build on the knowledge and continue to work productively in their organisations.

At present, both the long-term commitment and renewable funding on a year-to-year basis, in addition to the initial 20 million baht from the institute's foundation, limit the scope of this project to 13 pilot schools for the next two years. Other schools wishing to join, however, can opt for teacher training packages in which the institute dispatches a trainer to a group of schools within the same educational district.

The focus for the 2006-2007 academic year, says Chantalux, will be on assisting teachers on writing a curriculum plan customises educational materials on productivity to each school community. By doing so, productivity education will become a class subject on its own. In the meantime, the institute will continue to train teachers and school administrators through year-round workshops and activities.

"Increasing productivity, not only in the work place, but also in a person's daily life, leads to a better standard of living," she says. "And increasing people's standard of living is our ultimate goal."

For more information on the project, contact the productivity promotion department of the Thailand Productivity Institute at 02 619 5500 ext. 440, email pr@ftpi.or.th, or visit http://youth.ftpi.or.th. For a more detailed discussion of the 5S Philosophy, visit: http://membres.lycos.fr/hconline/5S/fives.htm. For a full explanation of the Kaizen concept, first launched by the Japanese following World War II, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen .

Productivity Tools 5S philosophy - The Japanese-invented this productivity tool to increase efficiency and simplify the work environment, and to reduce waste, improve quality and safety. In schools, this philosophy translates into keeping the classroom clean and organised. Kaizen concept - A Japanese management concept that refers to the practice of continual change and constant improvement of oneself, so as to make tomorrow a better today. PDCA cycle - A problem solving technique that helps students tackle a task by breaking it down into four stages: Plan, Do, Check, Act. These four stages should continue as a cycle, as students move from one stage of problem solving to the next. QCDSMEE - A productivity tool that uses seven factors that determine how well a company performs in a business. In schools, students learn how these seven factors - quality, cost, delivery, safety, morale, environment and ethics - can help them to become more organised in their personal lives, which should translate into their being more efficient and productive as workers in the workplace.