• News bulletin

• Pharos user survey results, August 2002, UNIDOScope, UNIDO

• UNIDO Newsletter dedicated to the Integrated Programmes of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Nov.2002 (excerpts)

• Publication about PHAROS Training Programme implementation in the newspaper "El Diario del Otún" on 2 March 2003, Colombia (in Spanish).

Mrs. Claudia Roa Guzman, Vice Manager,

MEC LTDA. MANTENIMIENTO Y MONTAJES ELECTRICOS DE COLOMBIA, Barrncabermeja, Colombia

Participant of the UNIDO Continuous improvement Programme 2002-2003, Metal processing industrial sector.

   1. Interview about participation in the UNIDO Programme, TV Broadcast, Regional channel on economic developments, 20/03/03, Barrancabermeja, Santander, Colombia

   2. Results of our company work with Pharos and participation in PHAROS continuous improvement programme by UNIDO, Testimony (in Spanish). 

Mr. Cesar Augusto Herrera Murillo, Administrative Manager,

Integrando Limitada, Eje-Cafetero, Colombia,

Participant of the UNIDO Continuous improvement Programme 2002-2003, Metal processing industrial sector.

Answers to the questionnaire regarding results of the participation in the Programme and use of the Pharos software (in English).

• Original document in in Spanish

Evaluation of the preliminary results of the UNIDO Pharos Programme by Mr. Dario Echeverri Serrano, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce of Barrancabermeja. (in Spanish)

• Translation into English

Letter of entrepreneurs from participating enterprises to Mr. Carlos Alberto Zarruk, Ministry of Commerce, Industries and Tourism of Colombia

(in Spanish) 

The Results of the industrialists' survey made after the implementation of Programme for Small and Medium - sized Enterprises to improve quality, productivity, competitiveness in four industrial sectors of four regions in Colombia: Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Eje-Cafetero, Ibague.

Overview of the UNIDO Integrated Programme, Component II

News from Colombia: First results of UNIDO Integrated Programme, Component II 

News from Colombia: The UNIDO Integrated Programme, Component II starts

Outline of the results obtained in the PHAROS Training Programme 2002-2003

(extracts from reports by UNIDO National and International Consultants)

... "The experience available after already implemented programmes provides for the outstanding results. Among some measured indications of the improvements achieved by participating enterprises after 9 months period there were as follows:

• Average measured increase in profits - 24%

• Increase in invoicing - 200%

• Acceleration of business development - 6 to 7 years saved

These results allow for making evaluation of overall Training Program for SME efficiency which can be achieved at the enterprise, industry and governmental levels (click here to download).

Comparison of average entrepreneurs' knowledge gain in Performance Management (PM)

In addition to these evident results there were the following observations:

"Most of enterprises had few or almost no idea about enterprise management mechanisms before joining the Programme. Most of management attitudes were empirical and it was difficult to managers even to understand and to use Pharos in an adequate way.

Based on this verification and simultaneous Pharos implementation, the managers had been introduced to the most important and relevant managing tools to permit them to enter in a continuous improvement process, aiming at need to address a word class demand for good manufacturing and managing behavior.

The results are explosive. The managers improved their real results which is confirmed by Pharos benchmarking, in a very mature way. They started knowing what they are doing and where are getting. They began measuring and controlling their companies very well.

Most of companies are now continuing business in a solid, stabilized situation, even those that had been ready to close business in the past. Some others have specific problems and are not so solid but problems are clearly known now and are observed by using Pharos, could be interpreted and solved. There are some exceptions based on natural inefficiency of some managers but when detected by their staffs it would permit finding possible future solutions in a continuous improvement process.

Pharos and the continuous improvement methodology are playing together an excellent game to increase real efficiency, productivity and the capacity to compete for these participating companies."

"We found PHAROS via WEB site www.win2biz.com and purchased educational versions for evaluating its applicability to our management training courses in August 2000. After analysis we found it as an excellent training aid in strategic business management education which we run in our university. Recently we had purchased 20 licenses to implement a computer laboratory to teach the theory of management (Strategy planning and control) by using Pharos with ours students and SME managers. It is valuable and unique software for both education and business improvement very well answering the needs of the small and medium enterprise management. With new version being planned and based on the existing experience we hope to have UNIDO PHAROS ideally suiting this practically free niche of IT tools for entrepreneurs.".

Pharos user survey, August 2002

Sharing experiences after 3 years of using Pharos in vocational training:

.... "I have taught business strategies to small entrepreneurs with very good outcomes, after the lecture, all enterprises implemented some Pharos' ideas in their business. Last autumn (2005), I had 31 students in my course, 29 of them were mid-level managers of big corporations (energy and telecommunications companies) and two small enterprise's owners, one entrepreneur said “this course and Pharos taught me very useful concepts. Last year my business was near bankruptcy, now I know how to make better decisions." This semester I have 45 students working with Pharos' newest version and hope to have an interesting report."

read full overview by Prof. Cravero, Nov. 2005    here >>

Mr. S.D.SARDESAI, General Manager
VIR Rubber, Mumbai, Automobile components production.

"We really appreciate ‘PHAROS’ as a concept & as a Business Performance tool and the way of presentation of its output (Indicators).".

Pharos user survey, August 2002

Mr. Peter Balasov, General Manager
Melli - Slovakia s.r.o, Bratislava, Furniture production factory.

Customer feedback regarding using of Pharos software since pilot installation in 1999:

"Nothing similar is known to us since we had installed it in 1999. We still use PHAROS for monitoring of the company performance, ... we gradually improved our internal procedures for measuring business processes, evaluating major results and overall business performance. Looking back I must say that important consequences of PHAROS installation besides these were not only in the possibility to view the company performance easily at a glance but in the introduction of systematic approach to improvement of our business, overall quality of both production and management as a routine working procedure. We look forward to get new version of PHAROS with its enhanced features".

Pharos user survey, August 2002

The Produce Plus software has been used by the UK Government, Department of Trade and Industry’s Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) as their Diagnostic tool since April 2002 to perform approx 800 diagnostics. It has been used to help identify areas for improving business efficiency and productivity and recommending solutions for how they can be achieved. In addition to the diagnostic capabilities of the tool, Produce Plus has been used in several Manufacturing Improvement Projects to assist with :

• Product costing

• Production performance monitoring

• Estimating throughput capacities

• Calculating labour performance

• Setting work rates

Case Studies 2004

Disposables UK (MAS Project)

Disposables UK is the Paper division of the Meltham based Disposables UK Group which markets both the Optimum and Bay West brands to the independent sector. Disposables UK manufactures a complete range of high quality branded paper disposables products designed to build profitable long term relationships with customers.

Produce Plus has been fully implemented and is being utilised for product costing through to labour performance. The company previously used a spreadsheet system to calculate product cost, but no accurate costings were being used for labour. Data collection sheets have been improved so that all necessary information can be collected and entered into the software. It is now possible for the factory to produce performance reports including those based upon efficiencies and also raw material usage.

Normandy Caravans (MAS Project) Based in Hull, Normandy caravans have been producing well designed and premium quality holiday home caravans for over 20 years. A testimony to the high regard that the brand of Normandy Caravans commands is that although the workforce number is relatively small, a number of original craftsmen who joined the business in the early eighties are continuing to satisfy the order fulfilment requirements of long standing customers. Normandy Caravans are currently using Produce Plus to help them accurately cost all of their custom built vans. They are using the tool to create unique costings based upon a standard model that is entered into the software. Components are added to or removed from the standard to produce the specific costing. Produce Plus was chosen over more conventional accounting based systems for its ease of operation and its focus on real factory production costing.

Vickers Laboratories (MAS Project)

Vickers Laboratories, Pudsey, have been manufacturing chemicals for over thirty years and specialises in four key areas; Laboratory Reagents, Specialised monomers – for use in the contact lens and medical industries, Precision solutions and liquids for industry, On-line monitoring for the water industry.

Vickers Laboratories have a vast catalogue of products and their current system is able to produce satisfactory costings for them. However, the company was concerned that it was not as efficient as it could be and wanted to adopt “lean Manufacturing” techniques. Produce Plus is being used to measure the performance and work rates of the different production lines.

Graftons Bakery (MAS Project)

Based in Rotherham, Graftons Bakery manufacture bread, cakes and savouries to supply their 13 shops and also for wholesale. The company had no way of measuring its manufacturing performance or its true capacity.

Produce Plus is being introduced to provide the bakery with accurate costing for their products and to monitor the Labour Performance of the batches and also efficiencies of the production lines.

Yorkshire Farm Bakery (MAS Project)

The Bakery has been manufacturing bakery goods in Hull for the past 30 years. Alongside more traditional bread and cakes, the ranges produced there include products for special diets such as gluten-free, low-fat and sugar-free. The company had recognised the need to measure their manufacturing performance.

Yorkshire Farm Bakery were not using computers when the project started and training was provided so performance and costing calculations could be completed by hand. The complexity of obtaining accurate results by hand was soon realised and Produce Plus has been installed to make the process quicker and easier.

Riverside Food Services

As the exclusive UK distributor of value added chicken products for one of the largest poultry producers in Europe, the company now needs to expand its UK facilities to include on-site manufacturing, cold storage and distribution.

Produce Plus is being used with Riverside Food Services to develop capacity estimates for the new factory and to provide accurate product costings to monitor the manufacturing performance of the products, lines and factory as a whole.

Wensleydale Creamery

Wensleydale Creamery are the makers of Hawes Wensleydale real cheese made from Wensleydale milk. They are distributors of speciality English and continental cheeses, dairy products and chilled foods.

Under the UK Government Business Link programme, Produce Plus is currently being introduced to the factory so it can be used to calculate standard cost of production for the batches of cheese and to monitor Labour performance.

Case Studies  2001 - 2003

1. A Grimsby area fish processing business, Sealord, have featured both in the Grimsby Business Telegraph under the heading, “Some top class advice helps fish firm to net big growth in success”,  and also on the DTI website for manufacturing. The article can be reviewed by the link.

2. Robin Keates, The Humber Food CoVE, The Humber Institute of Food and Fisheries Westside Road, Alexandra Dock Grimsby N E Lincolnshire DN31 3TD UK

"Innovative Training Approach Designed For The Food Manufacturing Sector" (press link to review)

Hull University MSc Food Standards Science

Training was run in production engineering methods and also in the production management software Produce Plus. Attendees on the course included local manufacturing business and also international students from government departments in Tanzania and Uganda. The Software was perceived as being a very useful tool and has since been taken by several of the students companies and organisations.

On-Site Degree Training

In addition to the classroom based training, the University of Hull used the course material and software within companies for internal training. Companies who took up this training included:

• Smales Fish Merchants

• Regal Fish

• Kwoks

• Healthfresh

Business Link North Yorkshire

Produce Plus was used as part of an initiative to encourage businesses to improve their manufacturing process design, companies using this service included.

• Bleikers Smokehouse

• Food Design

• Shepherds Purse

University of Wales Institute, Cardiff

A project was run from the University to benchmark local businesses. The software, Produce Plus, was used to assist in this project.

Yorkshire Post 13/11/2001: A North Yorkshire fish-smoking business is using chips of the silicon kind to work out how it can operate more effectively.

Produce Plus software, developed by food industry consultants Mike Dillon Associates Ltd, will carry out a production analysis for Bleikers Smoke House at Glasshouses, which smokes fish and meat for sale in delicatessens, restaurants and to wholesalers.

Owners Jane and Jurg Bleiker said the Produce Plus software, which examines details ranging from the price of raw fish to overhead costs, had enabled them to identify the most profitable areas of the business, which has a turnover of £300,000 and employs seven staff.

“It has given us, for the first time, a means of introducing a product development strategy based on real facts and figures, rather than our gut feelings”, said Jane Bleiker.

Bleiker’s was introduced to the production management tool by Business Link York and North Yorkshire as part of a programme to help small to medium-sized businesses in the food industry expand.

"Although USA is considered a highly advanced and developed country, ... the business failure rate is still on average about 70% in the first two years. Some of the most important causes for business failure are the lack of cash flow, too late or not recognizing failing business trends within the organization, caused by procrastination or pure arrogance". Bearing this in mind, with respect to UNIDO's activities in developing countries, he said "... it would be good if UNIDO could and would emphasize the importance of business planning in general and strategic planning in particular. Industrial Development starts with business planning and understanding basic business skills. PHAROS especially, is a great monitoring and/or educational tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners to avoid costly mistakes".

Good points of PHAROS and/or FIT:

 Overall Status at one glance. No need to examine a number of screens in order to get the overall status.  Quick insight of business status  Simple to use  Simple to learn  Low cost  Requires very little support  Makes business owners very conscience about their business  Good options  Good report writing features  Good graphs and general features  In case of a Red lighthouse, it is relatively easy to determine the culprit 

Pharos user survey, August 2002

Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Equator, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kenya, India, Italy, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Nicaragua, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sri-Lanka, Slovakia, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Automotive components, Chemicals, Fish processing, Food, Electro-technical, Electronics, Leather, Machinery, Metal processing, Oil and Gas, Furniture production, Wood processing, Textile.

The inquiries and comments can be made by user feedback form. 

 

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