SMART Myanmar co-operated with the ILO and Kaizen Institute to develop the SCORE program for garment industries in late 2015 and early 2016. SMART Myanmar is presently the only accredited locally based service provider to teach the ILO’s SCORE program for companies in the garment, footwear and accessories manufacturing industries.
SCORE is a global program developed by the ILO and focuses on boosting company performance through workplace cooperation. It is designed with five modules: Workplace cooperation, managing continuous improvement, productivity through cleaner & leaner production, workforce management for business success and safety & health at work.
Starting in September 2016, SMART Myanmar conducted a second SCORE program round with three locally owned garment factories: Nine Two Nine, Htike Htike and MP Garment. Over 6 months these factories received three days of classroom training. A half-dozen of SMART Myanmar’s ILO SCORE certified trainers delivered this “SCORE II” Program, during both classroom trainings and on-site coaching with the EITs (EIT=Enterprise Improvement Teams: a key part of the SCORE method for achieving common goals).
In February 2017, SMART Myanmar celebrated the successful participation of these companies in the program with certificates of recognition and promoted the SCORE III program for new factories. SCORE III will continue the success of the 6 month on-site training program approach.
During the ceremony, SMART Myanmar’s Team Leader, Jacob Clere, introduced the SMART and the structure of the SCORE program. Two of SMART’s ILO certified SCORE trainers presented details on modules and U Aung Ko Ko Oo, Operations Manager from MP Garment shared his knowledge and experience during the SCORE II program. He said, “Middle management staff like me often get caught between workers and owners but since we started the SCORE program, that problem is gone. With the EIT team, we are now better aware of improper procedures regarding with labor rights, management issues and health and safety issues”. He also encouraged other companies to join the SCORE program, which can be very beneficial to SME factories to help them become competitive & responsible companies.
SMART is currently recruiting new factories for SCORE III, and has capped the maximum company size for this program at 400 employees. Companies larger than this are encouraged to consider the SMART Social Compliance Academy™, a similar project program designed for medium and large garment factories.
