The training course on "Productivity Awareness and Understanding and Practical Management for Productivity Improvement has been organized on 15 December 2006 at Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion and Development Office (SMEPDO), Vientiane Municipality. The training course is joinly organized by SMEPDO, Japanese Producticity Center for Socio-Economic Development (JPC-SED) and Asian Productivity Organisation (APO). The training course started yesterday and will run for three days, with 38 participants which are from both government and private sectors involved in industry.

Mr Somdy spoke about the 'Five S' system of management, which has been introduced to Laos from the Japanese Kaizen method: "Sort, straighten, shine, systemise and sustain." However, the first thing the course will need to explain is exactly what productivity is, and how it is measured.

Productivity measures how well an organisation converts its inputs or resources (such as labour, materials and machines) into outputs (such as goods and services). This is usually expressed in ratios of inputs to outputs, such as throught calculating the total cost (including all inputs and resources) for each unit produced. Productivity alone does not measure how efficient the conversion process is. At the seminar, participants will learn to look at productivity in thier businesses or organisation in terms of a productivity model.