Four well deserving Eastern Cape companies walked away with the productivity awards at the annual Eastern Cape Regional Productivity Awards held at Summerstrand Hotel in Port Elizabeth last night.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Productivity SA board chairperson, Mr Alwyn Nel, on his welcome speech said the awards are just not an excuse for Productivity SA staff to visit the Eastern Cape but they are the cornerstone of what Productivity SA aims to do, which is:
- To promote productivity within South African industry
- To raise awareness about the potential role of productivity in growing and developing our economy.
- To promote Productivity SA programmes and its outcome based solutions in place to assist ailing companies
- To increase South Africa’s competitiveness
The concepts of the awards is based on the premise that developing productive capacity, in a broader social context, is concerned with how well available resources in South Africa are utilised to generate well-distributed wealth both tangible and intangible.
Nel said the Eastern Cape province similar to its counterparts, faces major challenges such as the creation of employment opportunities; stimulating of economic growth and poverty reduction.
Since the inception of the awards in the early seventies, Productivity SA has recognised and awarded more than a 100 different enterprises both in the public and private sectors for their efforts in improving and sustaining productivity.
The CEO of Eastern Cape Development Corporation, Mr. Mase in his key note address defined Productivity and Competitiveness to say “Productivity is when inputs are converted into output looking at elements like labour, time, efficiency and wastage (even more so, how well can you convert inputs into outputs) and competitiveness is a global benchmark of organisations on their competitiveness based on speed, cost and quality.
Mase says in order for a company to be competitive it naturally needs to be productive
The awards are divided into four categories with all finalists receiving certificates and the winners in all categories also receiving the productivity golden awards. The winners were:
- Emerging Sector – Yenza Manufacturing (Pty) Ltd
- Co-operative Sector – Tinarha Agricultural Tourism Initiative
- Public Sector – The Hope Factory
- Corporate Sector – Continental Tyres SA (Pty) Ltd
The Hope Factory, Yenza Manufacturing, Tinarha Agricultural Tourism Initiative, Continental Tyres
