Sri Lanka, 70 years after independence, is still struggling to meet a range of basic challenges including unemployment and under-employment, and poverty with a large number of the people earning less than $ 40 per month.
Many countries which received Independence have bypassed Sri Lanka, and the economic and industrial progress in Sri Lanka is far below these newly industrialised countries in the Asian region.
Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike, in issuing the first ‘national quality policy’ (NQP) in 1995, stated that slow and insufficient development is basically due to low productivity and inadequate quality of Sri Lankan products and services and she had attributed this situation to a complete absence of an integrated national quality and productivity policy framework and suitable infrastructure to implement such a policy.
After the approval of the NQP, only the establishment of the National Accreditation Board was effected and implementation of the rest of the NQP was put on hold for over 20 years.
The root cause, is the lack of an agency directly responsible for taking the message of quality forward, as the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) has standard formulation and promotion and also developing the product mark as its core functions.
Today, standards formulation had really failed and the SLS mark covers only about 750 products, including those for which the mark is mandatory.
There was no mechanism to follow up and the status quo remains, while the national quality movement has been put on hold.
This situation required the establishment of the Sri Lanka Quality Federation (SLQF), which brings all private and state sector interest groups and serve as the apex body for quality and productivity. The SLQF has the responsibility to look into all issues related to quality and productivity and recommend the most appropriate measures to change the situation and take the country forward.
Ancient history describes a vast range of paddy varieties that was cultivated. But today, even the excess rice cannot be exported as the international market prefers different varieties of rice.
Some areas the country needs considering are policies on education, health, environment and energy, transport, agriculture, industry, fisheries becoming top priority while other national policies also need to be considered.
Quality Management
Till recently, quality was linked to product quality and today it has been gradually extended to services. The quality of services, education, health, transport, communication even though it shows technological improvements, the quality remains low.
The government must show its commitment to quality by approving a national quality policy (NQP) and develop all other activities to meet the goals identified in the NQP. Other national policies could be developed through the NQP.
Building the institutional infrastructure, Involvement of the private sector, education and training are the key areas to be considered.
Four main agencies are to be established by legislation to administer the NQP. These have been identified as; The National Accreditation Board (NAB) responsible for accreditation of ; a). Testing laboratories; b). Calibration and Metrology Laboratories; c). Product and System Certification Bodies; d). Inspection Agencies; e). Bodies operating certification of personnel; and f). Training programs on quality and productivity.
The Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) to be responsible for standardization and promotion activity;
Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department (MSSD) to be responsible for the National Measurement Systems; and Regulatory Authorities for exercising control on technical regulations and standards related to health, safety and environment.
These include National Food safety Authority (NFSA), National Occupational Health and Safety Authority (NOHSA) and the National Environment Protection Authority (NEPA); Organizations to established for providing testing, calibration, and metrology, product and system certification and inspection services; and
Organizations to be established for providing education, training, promotion and technological services related to quality and productivity.
Thinking quality broadly it requires individuals to demonstrate quality in terms of leadership, discipline, honesty, responsibilty and teamwork.
Accreditation of services
The National Accreditation Board (NAB) which was established under the national quality and productivity program in 1995, is one of the key strategies on the national quality infrastructure but so far failed to make any impact on the quality campaign as so far only private sector laboratories are accredited to carry out many other requirements still to be addressed. There is a poor response from the State sector laboratories for accreditation.
NAB is responsible for accreditation of Laboratories, Product and System Certification bodies, Inspection agencies, bodies operating certification of personnel and training programs.
This service is expected to revive many failures in the current quality and productivity program.
NAB should market their services and ensure their existence is justified. And the progress should be monitored by independent organizations such as the Federation of Quality.
It is well known the system certification is a total failure, and NAB should address this issue positively.
National Quality Council
The Cabinet of Ministers and top management of organizations should provide the leadership to create a quality culture in the country.
For this purpose the appointment of an advisory committee with representatives of chambers of Industry and Commerce, trade and quality associations, State organizations and any other interested party to be contacted for their views and agreement.
The Sri Lanka Quality Federation provides this forum, and will meet the obligations of the missing link in introducing the national quality movement in the country. The Council of SLFQ includes all these relevant organizations and parties to meet this challenge.
Quality Federation
Considering this situation, the Sri Lanka Federation of Quality (SLFQ) proposes promoting the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI), with the support of all State and private agencies.
The SLFQ will report either to the President or the Prime Minister to ensure the decisions are implemented without delay.
For the present, SLFQ should focus on the NQP and promoting the national quality infrastructure where Regulatory authorities are established to enforce quality specially NFSA, NOHSA and NEPA and related inspection agencies are proposed, which will also require re-structuring of SLSI to promote standardization activity and the product mark (SLS Mark) to serve the industry as well as consumers in the country. Development of NQP is a priority and the consensus of all chambers, quality and trade associations, and the public will be consulted to the maximum possible under the current situation. One of the key activities of SLFQ will be to initiate a change in society and bring up a quality culture in the country.
SLFQ will form a national quality net through establishing a minimum of 34 new quality associations covering the nine provinces and 25 districts in the country. These will link with the schools in the district and form school quality societies thereby taking the message of quality to the grassroots. The Provincial Quality Associations (PQA) will link with universities, technical colleges, trade associations and other technical institutes (Vocational Training Institutions etc.), to promote technical knowledge in addition to quality and productivity in the Province.
The SLFQ will work through many Working Groups (WGs) to address specific issues related to different areas and the proposals submitted by these WGs will be reviewed by the Core Council of SLFQ and take it up with the relevant authorities for necessary action. WGs should be developed industry wise, such as for tea, fisheries etc. and sector wise such as education, environment, transport, health, communication etc, assist the SLFQ core council to focus into many areas and broaden the scope of SLFQ. The vital areas such as training and education, private sector contributions especially media should be encouraged to participate in taking the message of quality to all quarters of society. The SLFQ will bring in all media both print and electronic into the quality promotion campaign to bring in educating the masses in the country.