The Department of Trade and Industry is eyeing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as large corporations in Calabarzon to join its two quality programs: Philippine Quality Challenge (PQC) and Philippine Quality Award (PQA) in a bid to promote organizational competitiveness in the local businesses.
The DTI- Competitiveness Bureau (CB) recently conducted its PQA/PQC Roadshow at Lucena, Quezon Ptrovince to orient local businesses and organizations about the two performance excellence programs.
CB Executive Director Virgilio Fulgencio stated that SMEs will benefit in joining Philippine Quality Challenge since they can improve their organizations and become comparable with world-class firms.
“As we push our SMEs to become globally competitive, we are putting them at the center of our efforts to improve and attain performance excellence. In this way, they could compete with other firms within and outside the ASEAN region.” Fulgencio explained.
To be able to join both programs, organizations should first undergo Applicants’ Training and comply with the Eligibility Requirements before they enter the assessment phase. After completing the requirements, the team of assessors will do an independent review and present their findings to the Board of Judges. The whole assessment cycle usually takes a year, from application to awarding rites.
PQA is the highest level of recognition given to organizations based on a global standard. It was established to assist local companies/organizations achieve world-class performance excellence. It is the Philippine version of the US Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and National Quality Awards abroad.
PQC,on the other hand is the simplified version of the PQA criteria, focusing on companies interested to start their quality initiatives towards organizational excellence. Both the PQA and PQC serves as framework for competitiveness based on the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM).
To date, there are 14 PQA recipients from CALABARZON which include Yazaki-Torres Manufacturing Incorporated (1998), Sutherland Global Services (2008), First Philippine Industrial Corp. (2008), RCM Manufacturing Inc. (2010), Mariwasa Siam Ceramics Inc. (2010), Sunpower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd. (2010), Automotive Air-conditioning Technology Phils. Inc. (2011), Optodev, Inc. (2012), Lyceum of the Philippines University Batangas, Inc. (2012), Lyceum of the Philippines – Laguna (2014), San Miguel Yamamura Asia Corporation (2012), STMicroelectronics, Inc. (2014), SMC Yamamura Fuso Molds Corporation (2014) and ROHM Electronics Philippines, Inc. (2014).