In 2019, 69 enterprises of the Perm Krai should already become participants in the programme "Increasing Productivity and Supporting Employment in the Perm Krai". Today, this programme represents a comprehensive approach to improving the work of enterprises. The programme has been operating in the region since 2017. It is expected that by 2025, labour productivity will increase by 30%.

The priority federal programme "Increasing Labour Productivity and Supporting Employment in the Perm Krai" has been implemented in the region since 2017. Last year, the programme received the status of a national project. The programme is supported by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Perm Krai, the Federal Competence Centre, the Regional Competence Centre and groups formed at pilot enterprises. Expected results: a 30% increase in labor productivity by 2025 at the enterprises participating in the regional program; the organization of advanced training of employees at risk of release, as well as advanced training of employees of enterprises participating in the program, including through subsidies; attraction of loans from the Federal District for the implementation of corporate programs.

30 enterprises have already taken part in the program "Labor productivity improvement and employment support in the Perm Krai", including Inkab LLC, JSC "Perm flour mill", Uralbumaga LLC, and Sveza Uralsky LLC, PJSC "Metafrax", JSC "Sorbent", JSC "Sibur-Khimprom", CJSC "Lysvensky Metallurgical Plant", JSC "Reducer-PM", JSC "ODK - Perm Motors", LLC "Perm Chemical Company", branch of JSC "Gazprom household systems", PJSC "Perm Research and Production Instrument-making Company", PJSC "Proton PM", PJSC "Research and Production Association "Iskra", JSC "ODK-Star", JSC "Suksun Optical and Mechanical Plant", LLC "Soda-Chlorat", JSC "Medisorb", LLC "Navigator - New Machine Building", LLC "Krasnokamsk Repair and Mechanical Plant", OJSC "Krasnokamsk Metal Mesh Factory", LLC "Krasnokamsk Wooden Toy Factory", LLC "ZNGA Anode", LLC "Inversion-Sensor".

The results and prospects of the programme were discussed by government representatives, participants and experts as part of a business breakfast entitled "An Integrated Approach to the Implementation of Lean Production at the Enterprises of the Perm Region", organized by the Kommersant-Prikamye newspaper.

According to Elena Degtyareva, First Deputy Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade of the Perm Krai, this year the number of participants in the programme should increase to 69 enterprises of the region. By early autumn, 55 agreements have already been signed. Only enterprises with the annual revenue of at least 400 million rubles, but not more than 30 billion rubles can become participants of the program. However, the Ministry stresses that it is ready to help both small and medium businesses by providing training outside the programme. "We really assess the picture of our Perm enterprises, and what we see is that the growth of production volumes does not correspond to the capacities that the enterprise has today. The demand was exactly the same: how to do more at the facilities that we have. Today we have 72 investment projects in our piggy bank for the volume of investment of approximately 1.5 trillion roubles. And most of these projects are aimed at modernizing and increasing technological capacities. But right now the problem is as follows: we have orders and technological capacities do not allow. That is why the role of the labour productivity improvement program is first of all to help enterprises of all business levels: small, medium and large. To build up production chains in such a way to fulfill existing orders", says Elena Degtyaryeva. Besides, one of the tasks of the program is to work on the quality of the products they produce. Mrs. Degtyareva noted that the productivity program is aimed at increasing the revenue of the enterprise itself, increasing its competence, capacities and potential of the company to increase the market and export. She stressed that the authorities are ready to help build logistic ties, assist in renovation of production capacities, reduce administrative barriers to enter export markets.

Personal approach One of the key challenges in the work of the program, voiced by specialists, is staff involvement. "People are the most important thing. If you work with the staff, which doesn't correspond to you, you won't succeed", believes Elena Degtyareva. Today the enterprises face the problem of finding highly qualified personnel. Today there is a serious deficit of specialists, who have competences in lean production. Last year the region received a federal subsidy for training specialists. Together with educational institutions of the region 5,5 thousand people were trained. 99% of all project participants are trained in the Perm Krai.

There is also a problem with personnel at the enterprises themselves. Besides, the participating enterprises face rejection of innovations by their employees. That is why an important issue when implementing productivity improvement programmes is to build the right motivation of employees. "The most important thing for any specialist is to understand how innovations will affect his or her salary," the official specifies.

Marina Polosukhina, a senior lecturer at the Management Department of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Perm, agrees that working with human resources is the most important element of the efficiency of the implemented programs. "When new, high-tech processes are built, new, modern digital technologies are introduced, employees do not always understand what is going on. This leads to a gap between management and staff. If we do not build internal communications between managers and employees, the system will not work in isolation from the value of the company," the expert believes. According to her, when developing a program to increase productivity at a particular enterprise, it is important to take into account how new competencies are supported at the level of staff motivation. Besides introduction of new technological processes, it is necessary to build new approaches in corporate culture of the enterprise. "The employees should understand the goals of the company", - she emphasized.

Evgeny Davydov, Director of the Regional Engineering Center Foundation, said that in October, the Process Factory, an efficient, modern tool for training in the practical implementation of lean production principles, will be presented in the Perm Region, at the site of the Perm Engineering and Industrial Forum. The appearance of the Process Factory in Perm is one of the main activities of the national and regional project to increase labour productivity. According to Mr. Davydov, it is one of the most modern programs, which includes information about both production and office processes.

There are different approaches to solving the issue of increasing motivation of the company personnel. For example, Dmitry Teplov, Director of Krasnokamsk RMZ LLC, said that the company motivates its employees by the prospect of entering export markets, and is financially ready to share the future profits of the company with its employees. Mikhail Kamenskikh, the head of the business system development service at Sveza Uralsky, LLC, explained that the company's employees were the main beneficiaries of the program implementation. "Development of the company is impossible without participation of every team member, every employee and constant training of this employee," he stressed. That is why eight basic elements of lean production were introduced: shift meetings, problem solving board, bonus, factory of ideas, standard operating procedure, kaizen team, production competitions, 5C. The essence of this approach is to involve the team in solving the company's problems. These can be both production and household difficulties faced by the employee during his work at the enterprise.

OOO Sveza Uralsky has a system in place where an employee can not only declare his or her problems, but also suggest ways to solve them, submit ideas and rationalisation proposals for which he or she will be later awarded. This year alone the company accepted 1203 ideas, of which 808 (67%) have already been implemented. In the first eight months of 2019, the preliminary economic effect from the "Factory of Ideas" was 153.8 million rubles. 2136 problems voiced by the company employees have been solved. This is approximately 90% of the problems identified.

"All of us are led by people: safe behaviour, the right system of goal setting, the right system of training and motivation. We have always had a goal to produce a lot. But then we realized that the cool is not the one who produces a lot, but the one who earns a lot", - sums up Denis Maltsev. The results of this approach did not take long: the annual growth of productivity was 12%. "We could grow at the expense of investments, but now, first of all, we realize our potential through the introduction of lean production, through the transformation of culture", - added Mr Maltsev.

Dmitry Artemyev, PhD in Economics and an associate professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, believes that over the two years of the program's operation in the Kama region, it has grown in complexity and consistency. Today a number of companies have already formed good cases to improve productivity. The work in this direction gives significant results. According to Mr. Artemyev, today it is important to build a system of interaction between enterprises in order for them to share successful experiences. This can subsequently significantly improve the results of the program.