April 29, 2002	Monday	Safar 15, 1423

OWING to healthy competition and globalization, customers and clients have become even more vocal and critical. Often they can vote with their feet.

If one item performs poorly then the customer is unlikely to buy it again. To be in line for their needs and to retain them requires adoption of new technologies.

In this respect, our prime motive should be to switch over from internal concerns and development of professional disciplines in isolation towards openness.

Our experience highlights that R & D activities were largely carried out in isolation from real world of the production which cause industry failures.

The focus to concentrate on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for these technological advancement is for basis that the SMEs are more flexible and responsive to new changes as well as the main generators of new jobs.

While large industries reduce their workforce and many advancements in information and process technology of the past few decades have been the product of the SMEs, larger companies need successful SMEs that can turn out a quality product or service.

Such a technology change in the SMEs will further help in fostering economic growth and societal welfare.

Technology: Our SMEs lack these advancements; this is more glaring in surgical instruments manufacturing for greater value addition in processes like heat treatment, milling, polishing, etc.

Our share of world market in sports goods has also become reduced as a result of the emergence of machine-stitched balls from Korea and China and the demand for composite hockey sticks after its approval from International Hockey Federation, in place of wooden hockey sticks from Sialkot.

The leather industry is also suffering due to export of raw hides and skins needed for finished goods.

New technology creates an competitive advantage and a gap is built between the adaptor and its competitor.

This technological competitive advantage has four broad attributes; factor condition, demand condition, related and supporting industries, firm strategy, structure and rivalry.

These attributes form a mutually reinforcing system in which the effect of the one depends on the state of others.

The right factor condition and right supporting industries will be necessary if rivalry is to drive the system forward. These advantage and knowledge gaps go on increasing until urgent measures are taken to meet these.

Information technology: Apart from these process and product technologies our SMEs and individual craftspeople should go for information and communication technology as to employ the Internet to market their products locally and internationally, and to source their inputs from home and abroad.

One of the most exciting examples presented at the Global Knowledge Conference was the PEOPLink Project.

This highlights that products of various regional craftspeople, are marketed through the Internet directly to consumers, complete with information on the lives of the people who make the products, how they are made, and the cultural and aesthetic significance of the products to the communities concerned.

The premise is that more money will go to the producers because consumers will better appreciate the amount of work involved and the difference that fair prices will make to the lives of the producers; middlemen are also cut out.

Linkage: The SMEs may confront added barriers to technology adoption because of language differences or a lack of scientific and technical training on the part of their personnel. Even though much of the current stock of technical knowledge is available in the open scientific and engineering literature but this is not easily accessible to all the SMEs.

Apart from that, the SMEs’ pool of skilled personnel and ability to attract skilled R&D staff are still comparatively weak and must be strengthened. One potential remedy to address this is academia-industry linkage that target the SMEs.

This has not found place in most of the countries in our region. An important factor for success coming from this linkage would be the result that how the SMEs receive and use information on technologies and product process as used in other regions and how they respond to new changes.

This linkage suits best to initiate R&D in all trade of production and service SMEs due to its cost effectiveness and precise findings to help related industries.

At this foundation stage of development efforts for SMEs universities should be engaged for better domino effect.

Strategy: To manage these technological changes effectively involves the ability to create a new synthesis of people, resources, ideas, opportunities and demands.

The change agents need skills like those of an orchestral conductor. Vision is essential and creativity paramount.

Yet the capacity to create systematic plans to provide for the logistics of resources, support, training and people is central to any change programme.

Threat to closure and redundancy, encouraging understanding of the current technological problems, developing new ideas for future new products, search of new markets and business (including subcontracting), open the way to negotiations and communication— full involvement of employees.

This reality will require a strategy for new attitudes and structures to work and to change, training for new technology and to deal with this new situation of re-organization and contraction will result in our achievements for new technology introduced in manufacturing and in materials, in quality control systems, in new products and in labour flexibility.

Future: In order to utilize to best advantage the potential for flexibility inherent in new technology, we will need a flexible, multi-skilled, well qualified workforce which is to be furnished by the cooperation of trade/industry in association with concerned official organizations.

As the product technology and machinery become more complex and personnel become more highly qualified, there will also be very specific new skills required of SMEs.