| ORGANIZATION: | Bulgarian Quality and Productivity Centre (BQPC) |
| ADDRESS: | 3A 165 Street BG-Sofia 1797 Tel: (+359 2) 70 40 02 Fax: (+359 2) 971 1122 E - mail: bqpc@cablebg.net |
| MISSION: | To work for creation of awareness among the general public that productivity improvement is the result of collective and conscious human effort, from which all members of the society can benefit. The Japanese experience shows such benefits of productivity are not achieved by deploying more staff to quality control section at the end of the assembly line, but through active staff participation in the drive for productivity and quality excellence. To understand the concept of productivity, there is a need for a broader interpretation of its strategic significance and a new perspective on the output and input elements. |
Bulgarian Quality and Productivity Centre (BQPC) was established in 1985 as a nonprofit corporation of governmental and public organizations with the support of Japan Bulgarian Economic Comittee. Its purpose is to transfer knowledge, expertise and technologies aiming at improving quality, productivity, efficiency and company management by means of training (open and in-company), consultancy, information dissemination (it publishes a dozen titles annually).
The founders of BQPC are Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education & Science, Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Bulgarian Industrial Association, Federation of Scientific Technical Unions in Bulgaria, and Union for Private Economic Enterprise.
During the period 1991 - 2001 twenty companies got consultancies on productivity with the help of experts, sent on short-term missions to Bulgaria by Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (JPC-SED).
From 1996, in the Japanese Management Departament at BQPC are working Quality Management, Productivity Improvement and Human Resources Development consultants, sent by JICA. Together with the team of Bulgarian specialists they help Bulgarian enterprises to implement modern Quality Management and Productivity Improvement Systems and Methods. Through the service of these JICA experts BQPC is developing its own consulting capacities drawing on a Model-company Approach.
BQPC brings in methodologies from the Japanese company management practice, adapts them to the Bulgarian culture and industrial context and makes them applicable to the Bulgarian companies. Recently, with the help of the JICA experts, BQPC designed an in-company training course on problem solving, which develops and expands to the entire organization the required skills to identify concrete current problems, the “know-how” to solve them, the attitude and the necessary ability to ensure continuous improvement (Kaizen).
The unique role of BQPC makes it a small but important part of the technological exchange between Japan and Bulgaria. Whenever experts from BQPC visit Bulgarian companies, along with main discussions company people are always asking questions about possibilities to sell to Japanese market, or how to become subcontractors or OEM suppliers to Japanese companies, or want to find Japanese partners for joint production in Bulgaria, etc. This proves that a keen need for dissemination and exchange of information between companies from both countries exists on the Bulgarian side. As this need is not satisfied sufficiently at the present moment, BQPC is considering addressing it through the use of Internet and IT application.
BQPC has 5 staff (plus 2 part-time) working as counterparts to the Japanese experts. It has 5 rented rooms, 140 sqm in total. 100% of the costs are covered by income from training, consultancy and the sale of publications.