CPIA Quebec productivity project boosts plastics firms profits, sales

More than half of the companies that participated in a CPIA Quebec project to boost productivity have increased their profit margins, the CPIA Quebec announced last week.
Of the 50 companies that participated in the first phase of the CPIA Quebec’s Plastics Sectoral and Regional Panels Project three years ago, 60 per cent have seen higher profits, 82 per cent have improved their operational productivity, 87 per cent have improved the productivity of their labour force and 73 per cent sale realized higher sales.
In total, the project helped to create 582 new jobs and transform 385 existing jobs, according Cristina Marques, co-ordinator sectional regional productivity table with the CPIA Quebec’s Productivity, Innovation, Marketing wing.
In 2003 the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA Quebec) embarked on the project to help firms in Quebec’s plastics industry close the productivity gap between other industrialized nations, focusing particularly on improving productivity, increasing R&D and ramping up marketing efforts. The first phase involved education, followed by the development of an action plan, and finally implementation with specialized on-site support and the providing of tools to management to track improvements, according to Marques.