Czech manufacturer awarded EU grant for company management project

The Czech manufacturer of traditional household appliances, ETA a.s., located in the town of Hlinsko in the centre of the Czech Republic, has been awarded a subsidy from the European Social Fund (ESF) for one of its projects. The project, entitled ‘Introduction of a process management system and subsequent implementation of the Balanced Score Card (BSC) method at ETA a.s.’, aims to increase the potential of the workforce and ensure a more efficient company management. The project will be implemented over the two-year period 2007-2008.

Nature of the project

In a successful application to the European Social Fund (ESF), the traditional household appliances manufacturer ETA a.s., situated in the eastern Bohemia region of the Czech Republic, has secured a subsidy for one of its projects under the grant scheme ‘Adaptability and promoting competitiveness of undertakings and organisations’. The ESF subsidy obtained by the company amounts to CZK 9,264,084 (approximately €330,372 as at 28 March 2007). If implemented successfully, the project aims to meet the following objectives:

• increase the qualifications of employees and thus improve their employability;

• boost the value of human resources (HR) at ETA, as well as the company’s capability to offer the required quality in all manufacturing areas and in new markets;

• create extensive corporate administrative, management and strategic documentation for further use within ETA (manuals, process maps, topology of corporate issues, etc);

• improve the ability of ETA’s management to efficiently manage the company’s extensive organisational structure through the use of high-performance and modern management tools, including an immediate feedback mechanism;

• bring about a new corporate cultural identity, which includes certain irreplaceable attributes and the comprehensive sharing of information flows and decision-making blocks within the entire corporate structure.

Vice-chair of the Board of Directors and Finance Manager of ETA, Miloš Mrva, commented:

With the help of these tools, we aim to develop a completely new layer of information society and a new quality of corporate culture, with an emphasis on quality and possibilities of the management system. The process management system and the BSC [Balanced Score Card ] method would facilitate an active approach to management and the performance of managerial functions within the organisation, under which the management will measure and evaluate a number of factors selected by it.’

As part of the project, the particular target group of employees at ETA will participate in educational and instructional processes, which will include the modelling of realistic situations, concurrent testing, in addition to the application of the BSC management system in practical operations. The project targets technical staff, foremen in the manufacturing field, blue-collar workers in certain professions and internal quality auditors. Altogether, approximately 550 workers are due to be trained under this project.

Earlier project on training

The project relating to process management and the implementation of the BSC management system is not the first project of its kind to be implemented by ETA and financed by the ESF. In 2005, ETA decided to manufacture - as part of a restructuring venture - certain components for the automobile industry, in addition to its traditional household appliances. The development of such a manufacturing project was conditional, however, on the preparation of additional capacities, particularly instruction and education for the company’s employees. As a result, a project entitled ‘Instruction and training of employees of ETA a.s. in support of restructuring and innovative modifications in manufacturing’ was developed. In view of the fact that the scope of the project exceeded the financial capacity of the company, ETA applied to the ESF for funding. The application was successful and, as a result, the company secured total funding of CZK 2.4 million (about €85,582) for the project’s purposes.

Commentary

ETA serves as an example of a Czech company that is capable of securing funding from the ESF, thus increasing its competitiveness and further developing the tradition of a successful business.

Jaroslav Hála and Soňa Veverková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs