Janardan Ghimire: Quality practitioner with 20+ years of extensive experience in implementation and deployment of international quality models. Lead Auditor for ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO 27001 and Lead Tutor for ISO 9001. An incisive, result oriented professional with in-depth understanding of quality, environment, information security, health and safety and management activities, business processes and structured methodologies. An advocator of quality and assisting organization in operational excellence by developing, implementing and conducting comprehensive organizational quality assessments.

Continuity of the certification and application for new certification affected a lot during the pandemic in Nepal. Assessment for certification, surveillance and recertification were to be postponed for sometime due to the lockdown, travel restrictions and health safety protocols. The COVID – 19 Pandemic situation replaced the usual onsite audit to remote audits. Some of the new innovations introduced in the technologies facilitated in remote audit virtually through Information and Communication Technology. Though the remote audit aided in assessment several challenges were to be faced by both auditors and auditee.

The Remote audit gives a financial benefit to the auditee however the effectiveness of the quality management system could not observe at a site or missing physical interaction with the auditee and intention of quality journey. Every risk gives an opportunity for improvement as such COVID -19 helps and explores the remote audit in the certification business continuity in the developing country like us and works from home in Nepal.

This case study is an interpretation of how the certification bodies in Nepal and the auditee team managed the remote audits. What were the means for carrying out the remote audits were studied? Different organizations certified with ISO 9001:2015 and approaching for certifications were interviewed to know how feasible is the virtual audits.

The lead auditors were also interviewed for knowing the approaches for remote audits and what all competenices are required for effectively carrying out the audits. The sampled organiztions were based in the Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Biratnagar and Pokhara. The case study further presents about the effectiveness of the remote audit and what are the limitations. Suggestions provided the interviewee during the case study has also been included in the presentation.

Key words: Remote auditing, Quality Management System, Technology, Competence

Since Keith was hired by Apple Computers to Launch the original Macintosh he has participated in a number of business transformations. The personal computer, the internet, digital media have all changed the way business is working. And Keith has been in the middle of it.

He was CEO of Apple UK, Head of Business Marketing for Apple USA before ‘retiring’ to New Zealand where he has been an Angel Investor, Venture Capitalist and now owner of QLBS (QuantumLeap Beyond Spreadsheets.). QLBS purpose is to empower the Auditor. QLBS provides a cloud platform for Audit and reporting. It is used globally to report against quality, excellence and ESG.

His Business degree and interest in Business Excellence models attracted him to the NZ Business Excellence Foundation, a Not for Profit set up by Prime Minister Bolger and Sir Doug Meyers.

He has been an advisor to 2 previous Prime Ministers on Innovation and IT.

One of the most dramatic transformations of business excellence is taking place as we speak. Societal attitudes and global awareness is extending the purpose of business from “delivering shareholder value’ to delivering “sustainable value” to a planet that we all share. These new requirements for sustainability have been packaged as Environment, Society and Governance Standards.or ESG.

Shareholders have responded with massive capital movements to ESG focused organisations and away from those that do not conform to these new standards.

Consumers have responded by demanding that the products they are consuming have not been produced at the expense of the environment and the labour force. Exposed “Greenwashing” has cost companies massive losses of market capitalisation. and reputation. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10946-greenwashing.html

All this leads to an urgent need to redefine what business excellence and quality is. Past models of excellence need to transform. Measurements need to mutate.

This session covers the growth of new models of excellence that have come out of global events such as SOC27 and administered by organisations such as the International Sustainable Standards Board ( ISSB) that was set up as a result. It then explores how organisations need to ensure that they know how they are living to those standards, where shortfalls are and what to do about them.

It also explores the role of the professional Quality Auditor and how they must evolve to help in building trust and transparency in corporate reporting of ESG.

The session will feature examples of how auditors have conducted audits and produced reports, profiles and provided benchmarking against ESG so that clients can develop their improvement plans.

It will conclude by emphasising how fundamental is this shift for the Quality industry and how important it is to use and understand the new tools that will support them.

Andre Lim

Andre Lim, CEO, Quality Systems Training and Consulting Pte Ltd (Singapore) and consultant at LIQM. He has taught and lead Productivity, Quality, QC Circles, SQC at National, company and educational institutions level in Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka since 1984. He has been an advisor to government, the pioneer of Students Quality Circle and a lead QMS auditor. He has been awarded top trainer of the year award by the National Productivity Board, has written a book Creativity Techniques for Problem Solving Teams. He has trained over 15000 students and is affectionately called Guru of QCC.


Mangalika de Silva

Mangalika de Silva, President, Asia Pacific Quality Organization (APQO) and President, Sri Lanka Association for Quality is recognised leader in international management systems namely quality, food safety, environment and occupational health and safety in the capacity of system auditor, trainer, and consultant. Previously she worked at Sri Lanka Standards Institution in various capacities and as National Quality Award Examiner. Mangalika received her first quality related training in Japan on TQM and certification systems. Mangalika is a recipient of number of international awards including APQO’s MMG Medal for Professional Women in Global Quality Leadership 2010 in Nepal and APQO Award for Woman in Quality Leadership 2016 in New Zealand in recognition of her contribution in promoting quality management in the region. She is qualified with BSc in Biology (Hon) (Colombo), MSc (Analytical Chemistry) (Colombo), MBA (Colombo), LLB (OUSL) & Attorney-at-Law. Currently, Mangalika is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

Today’s skills will not match the jobs of tomorrow and newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete. 800M jobs will be lost to robots by 2030 and many millions more to other advancing technologies. Recognizing that traditional education systems have generally not been preparing learners to face such challenges education systems around the world have started to include 21st Century skills. However these have been more rhetoric than real development. Even so the 21CS does not include Quality. In the paper the authors will share their vast experience with quality and productivity implementation in thousands of companies after having spent decades in the development of Quality, Productivity and Quality Circles at national and international levels. They were pioneers to introduced QC to children as home and school training. They will examine the hits and misses of national quality movements and examine why Quality is an attitude that is trainable and should be done as early as possible in children. They have introduced quality as a 21CS skill together with the other skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem solving communication etc and it was named Total Quality Education a term coined by the authors. In 2014 and 2015 together with the Ministry of Education (Sri Lanka) thousands of School principals, teachers and students were trained. This paper will also share the achievements, challenges setbacks to help pave any country wishing to implement TQE.

Nishantha Ekanayake an enthusiastic individual highly skilled in Product Development, Product Innovation, Marketing, and Merchandising. With over 18 years of experiences in the apparel industry in both local and international level. Currently working as a freelance business consultant and lecturer while reading for PhD in Marketing at University of Sri Jayewardenepura Sri Lanka. He completed his MBA at university of Bolton UK, PGD in Fashion Marketing at Cavendish College UK, BBA (Hon) at Lincoln University of Malaysia. His research interests lies in the fields of Marketing, Management, Entrepreneurship, Communication, and Green Innovation.

Covid19 impact forced to closure of many small and medium enterprises (SME’s). This situation demanded people to adopt themselves to rapid changes in the environment, as such there was a need to use the technology to fulfil their basic requirements. It is understood that, the people with technical background have more tendency to be more innovative. Also it is evident that, human interaction and freedom of movement make people to be more creative. Similar situation such as Covid19 pandemic could increase or decrease people’s perception level for entrepreneurial orientation.

This presentation focus on the impact of Covid19 pandemic on individual entrepreneurial orientation among the engineering university students in Sri Lanka.

Dr Martin Andrew is a Lead Auditor for ISO Management Systems for Quality, Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety, and Information Security. He conducts internal and 3rd Party Audits for a number of clients and Certification Bodies, and is contracted Quality Manager for two technical service provider companies.

Prior to this he was regional Quality Manager for global civil infrastructure companies and a member of their global Quality teams.

Martin began his career as a Research Scientist in environmental agriculture, before moving to an academic role and then into environmental consulting.

Martin is a Fellow, Life Member and also a Board Director of AOQ Ltd. He is a former President of AOQ Inc. He co-edits ‘Quality Business’, the quarterly journal of the Australian and New Zealand Organisations for Quality. He was Project Manager for the 2021 APQO Conference delivered by AOQ, and was program lead for four Qualcons prior to that, these being the Australian national Quality Conference.

The ISO Management Systems Standards (e.g. Quality Management Systems, ISO 9001:2015) make “common sense”, yet some practitioners and especially users seem to find them difficult and confusing.

Martin has developed schematic to explain the common-sense nature of these Standards to his audit and consulting clients. His clients find this most helpful when he explains it to them. And not just his clients – others with a long experience of the ISO Management System Standards have also found this schematic most enlightening also.

Perhaps you will too!

Weerakoon is a holder of B.Sc, MBA and PhD. He is a Professor in Finance and founder head of the Department of Finance, and the research coordinator of the PhD programme of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He held a number of positions; as the director of the Research Center of the Faculty in 2015. In 2011, he became the Director of Advance Technological Institute, which is a higher education institute under Ministry of Higher Education of Sri Lanka. He then joined Sir John Kotelawala Defence University in 2013 and headed the Department of Management and Finance and later became the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Management for three years. He has published a number of research papers in academic refereed and index journals. He has been recognized and awarded by the National Science Foundation for his contribution for research and the best PhD supervision in 2019 in the field of management in Sri Lanka (SUSRED award).

Global banking sector is embracing FinTech vigorously since last two decades. Also, the usage of digital banking channels has increased within the general public in Sri Lanka owing to the travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other economic factors arisen mainly.

This paper reviews the impact of FinTech innovations in the banking industry in Sri Lanka. Development of Information Technology (IT) and enhancing digital banking usage lure banks into transaction banking. However, banking sector competition in Sri Lanka with the emerging FinTech innovations is considered more important together with high level of bank branch penetration, high level of financial literacy, increase mobile phone and internet penetration.

A survey was carried out among 150 banking professionals to examine the awareness and capture the thoughts of them regarding the impact from emerging FinTech innovations to banking sector.

The paper concludes that, using financial technology, banking operations need to be improved further by reducing regulatory barriers, reducing bank operating costs, improving service efficiency, strengthening risk control capabilities, and creating enhanced customer-oriented business models and thereby improving comprehensive competitiveness. Also, bank customers preference obtaining their banking services through social network platform would be more significant factor in near future with the simplicity in procedures compared to traditional banking practices.

Keywords: Banking Industry, FinTech, Sri Lanka, social network platform

Kennedy D Gunawardana, Head of Department of Accounting and is a Senior Professor of Accounting Information Systems at the Department of Accounting, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He is Chair of Accounting. His teaching and research areas are Cost and Management Accounting, Accounting Information Systems, Artificial Neural Networks for Accounting and Research Methodology in Accounting and Finance. Kennedy is the first Sri Lankan who made link with Artificial Intelligence to the Field of Accounting and Finance for corporate sector predictions and developed new course unit called, artificial neural network for accounting. Kennedy served as Chairman of the Board of Study in Management from 2010 to 2016 and first coordinator of the PhD in Management Program of the Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce from 2014 to 2020. Kennedy worked in several public sector and private sector organization as chairman and currently, he is a board member of many academic institutions and visiting faculty member for many state universities.

This paper Analyses the challenges of implementing ISO 9001:2015 quality management systems on customer satisfaction among the Small and Medium Manufacturing Companies (SME) in Colombo. This paper is carried out among 10 Small and Medium Manufacturing Companies (SME) in the Colombo district. The scope of this study was limited to companies that use or plan to use only with the ISO 9001:2015 certification. The objective of this study is to assess whether the quality management systems implementation in the ISO 9001:2015 framework brings about Customer satisfaction among the listed manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. The management systems included Management policies, plans and actions; Focus on Customers, Capable employees, Reliable Suppliers, Sound communication Systems and Steady processes. Customer satisfaction consists of business performance, customer satisfaction and Consistent Quality Output.

This study provides challenges and a trend analysis of the identified companies’ business performances and further explores the development of a prediction model between the ISO 9001:2015 Management practices and Customer satisfaction. This study assess how well companies are following the ISO 9001:2015 management practices through the use of well-planned out questionnaires.

Key Words: ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management systems, Organizational Performance, Small and Medium Manufacturing Industry

Born in Braga, Portugal, in 1978, he graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Minho in 2002 (5-year degree). He completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2008 at the University of Minho. During 2015, Paulo was a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a sabbatical leave. His research field is focused on Quality and Organizational Excellence. Always privileging research and development for industrial applications, he has been involved in several R&D projects supported by Portuguese Institutions and under European funding programs. Paulo has supervised with success 4 PhD students and more than 100 Master students. He is the Coordinator of the Research Group on Quality and Organizational Excellence at the University of Minho. Paulo had several technical and management positions at the University of Minho and other organizations, profit and non-profit, in the past 20 years. Paulo participates as a Keynote Speaker in Quality and Organizational Excellence international conferences and he is author of several publications in the Quality field (books, papers in international and national journals). In 2011 and 2016, Paulo was nominated as one of the Quality Progress “New Voices of Quality” (ASQ) and in 2012 he was awarded with the Feigenbaum Medal (ASQ). He has been an Academician of the International Academy for Quality since 2014.

The changes brought forth by the Digital Transformation have an impact on the way we think, assess and manage Quality. While the concept of Quality 4.0 has resulted from these changes, there is still limited understanding and unclear definitions in this new era of Quality Management. There is a clear opportunity to review and analyze the state-of-the-art of Quality 4.0, its main research efforts, topics and directions. This presentation will focus these and other topics related to Quality 4.0, pointing out the current state of the topic and future directions.

Established a reputation for being professional, highly motivated and dedicated project leader with vast experiences of managing governance reforms initiatives and public sector modernisation program for different sectors in Malaysia. Possess excellent leadership skills, strong interpersonal and communication skills to elicit cooperation from different government agencies, stakeholders, clients and team members. Having good track record of managing various complex multifunctional process improvement projects and initiatives for almost 23 years of service with the Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC). Completed with excellence award in Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) specialising in work efficiency since year 2013. Her areas of expertise including Government Sectoral Reforms, Reducing Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens on Business, Process Improvement, Regulatory Experimentation, Project Management, Behavioral Insight, Benchmarking and Business Excellence Assessors. Current responsibility as the Deputy Director General of MPC in spearheading process innovation initiatives at enterprise level towards driving productivity of the nation.

The Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), a statutory body under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, has been mandated to ensure increased country productivity and competitiveness. Therefore, MPC has introduced targeted initiatives at the national, sector and enterprise levels to ensure tangible and measurable improvements in productivity and building our competitive advantage to the next level. One of the initiatives is the Enterprise Productive Program that can scaling up micro-productivity measures to bring Malaysia's productivity growth to pre-pandemic levels, targeted at 3.6 per cent in 2022. MPC introduces this program that applies the waterfall effect approach for cultivating more local companies to be global champions and ultimately creates more job opportunities to the community. This program is gaining momentum with more frontier companies participating in transferring knowledge, skills, and expertise to the local enterprises. The local enterprises which are the vendors of frontier companies will be joining the Vendor Development Program, enabling them to implement process innovation, and prompt creativity and innovation for business efficiency. MPC also recognises employees who contribute to increase productivity as Productivity Champions, and a total of 1,323 Productivity Champions were recognised under the Enterprise Productive Program.

Hasrath Munasinghe is holder of FIB (SL)/FCIM (UK)/FSLIM/FCMI (UK)/MSc in Information Technology (University of Moratuwa)/MBA (University of Southern Queensland, Aus)/ACMA/CGMA (UK)/CMA (Aus)/Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Finance Administration (CA Sri Lanka)/CPM (Asia Pacific Marketing Federation, Sing)/ GSLID (SLID)/Advanced Diploma in Credit Management (IBSL)/Diploma in Treasury & Risk Management (IBSL).

Hasrath Munasinghe currently serves as the Deputy General Manager - Marketing of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC. He also serves as a Trustee of the Commercial Bank CSR Trust. He is also a Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director of C B C Finance Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC.

Hasrath possesses over 28 years of experience in Marketing and Sales, including 11 years in Banking. He is a recipient of multiple awards, the most coveted being one of the “Top 10 Outstanding Young Persons in Sri Lanka” in 2013. He was listed amongst the “100 Most Talented Global Marketing Leaders” by Chief Marketing Officers, Asia Council in 2014.

With its origins running back to the establishment of the Eastern Bank in 1920, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC has surpassed a century of operations serving over 3.5 million Sri Lankans.

Commercial Bank is the largest private bank and the largest lender to the SME sector in Sri Lanka and the only Sri Lankan Bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the world for 12 consecutive years.

The Bank operates on four strategic pillars, namely: 1. Prudent Growth - Growing the business astutely with a long-term perspective 2. Customer Centricity-Providing the experience, simplicity, and convenience that customers value most today 3. Leading through Innovation -Innovating to enhance the quality of stakeholder interactions and experience 4. Operational Excellence - Enhancing operational efficiencies for better productivity and customer service.

Focusing on the above mentioned strategic pillars, Commercial Bank has delivered an outstanding performance, weathering the economic effects of the pandemic and continued to progress and transform.

Commercial Bank’s will continue to enhance the customer experience across its retail, Corporate, and SME segments and creating end-to-end customer journeys by seamlessly integrating human and digital interactions to get even closer to customers. The Bank will focus on the four strategic pillars and renew its operational processes to ensure business and service excellence.

Ravi Jaywardena is the current Group Chief Executive Officer at Maliban Group, and he is a key member of the strategic team which transformed the business from Rs 15B to Rs 40B in five years. Ravi started his carrier at Unilever Sri Lanka Ltd where he held several senior management positions in Marketing covering Home, Personnel care, and Foods.

Afterwards he joined Coca Cola as a “Country Head of Sales - Sri Lanka” where he led the team to win several Asian and African “Best Practice Awards. Ravi has received his MBA from Postgraduate Institute of Management. In 2013 Ravi was selected to deliver a speech on “Effectiveness in Thematic Advertising” at Cambridge University in the UK at their annual “Business & Economic Forum”.

In the year 2018 was awarded “Life Time Achievement Award” by the CMO Asia for his immense contribution to the society, professional and business community.

Though the entire macro environment is going through major post covid transformation, Maliban Biscuits has performed exceptionally well during the last two years. Not only the business results; even quality index, connected stakeholder satisfaction parameters such as suppliers, internal employees and customers).

There were few decisions by the senior leadership took at the inception itself. For example, to be focused on fundamentals; seamless manufacturing, uninterrupted supplies to our customers and keeping our internal employee moral high in extremely volatile situation. First time we won the “Great Place to work”. The other key factor is that we kept our DNA of the company (quality) as core of our all our operations.

We worked very closely with our suppliers, collaborated with them in the total upstream. In depth analysis on the increase in stock cover vs opportunity lost before taking decisions, leveraging complimentary expertise (quality of packaging by the suppliers & consumer satisfaction curve with different shelf life), even helping overcome forex crisis to main suppliers.

Downstream we gave more priority to service optimization than operational cost. Hence we had an almost uninterrupted supply despite of covid lock down and oil crisis. Our fill arte was best in class with over +95% and ranked within first three out of +800 suppliers for Supermarkets. All precautionary measures to reduce the cost of our overall operation without sacrificing the quality, we reduced 30 % TV advertising and convert part of it as consumer offers, across the company implemented the lean management to cut down all non-value activities, launch a major CSR project to help the needy, voluntarily sacrifice some salary increases by the senior management to name few.

Hemantha De Silva is the Finance Director of DRH Logistics Group. He is holding B.Sc. degree from the University of Peradeniya, He has completed MBA & M.Econ from the University of Colombo, M.Sc (IS) from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT). He is a fellow member of the Institute of Charted Accountants of Sri Lanka & the Institute of Certified Management Accountant of Sri Lanka, He is passed finalist of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK). He is a life member of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (Australia) and Member of the British Computer Society. He is currently reading Ph.D in Management, at the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura .He is a visiting lecture for Master of Business Administration at Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo and also at the Faculty of Business Economics, University of Sri Jayewardenepura for Master of Business Economics.

Knton, W., (2022) has defined Human Capital as an intangible asset, consisting of education, training, intelligence, skills, health, and other things employers value such as loyalty and punctuality which has not listed on the balance sheets of companies. The quality of each element mentioned as an element of human capital improves the productivity of human beings. The researchers such as Shultz (1961), and Backer (1962) who contributed to developing the theory of human capital, examined investments on the said elements that contribute back as Return on Investments(ROI) to the companies.

The contribution mentioned as ROI depends on the quality improvements which have been embodied through education, health, training, developments, etc, especially how human beings behave during a pandemic and a crisis situation. This research is designed to investigate the transformation process that happen to the human capital during the pandemic and economic crisis of Sri Lanka via a field survey carried out among the people who belong the self-employed people (Three-wheel drivers, Grass cutters, Backers, etc) who are above 45yeras of age. The geographical area and places were selected conveniently and people were selected random basis. The questionnaire consists of focusing on their previous knowledge of mobile technology and current status and their reaction to the smartphone, QR code, etc. The majority of people were poor at using smart phone previously and none of them were aware of QR codes. The result of this mini research done as a pilot survey enlightens the researchers on the positive side of the recent pandemic and economic crisis in Sri Lanka transforming the quality level of human capital by the way of acquiring new knowledge in advanced technology and improving the quality of products and services provided by them. This effect can be explained as a transforming effect on human capital via macro-level changes that happen in a country.

Dushanthi Dinusha Lokuge is a senior lecturer at the Department of Management and Finance, Faculty of Management, Social Sciences and Humanities, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka. She is a visiting lecturer for Sri Lanka Army, Navy and Air Force academies and having more than ten years of experience in lecturing Human Resource Management. She has completed her Msc. in Management at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. At present she is reading for her PhD in Management at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. She is keen on positive organizational behavior and organizational resilience for research purposes.

The history of the apparel industry, spanning more than four decades, is an ideal example of a resilient industry characterized by continuous quality improvement even with the abolition of the multi-fibre agreement and GSP+. Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing techniques have been key quality management tools that reduce lead time and cost to impress clients in the high-end niche market that most companies in apparel industry operate in Sri Lanka. The post-COVID-19 economic downturn coupled with the political turmoil is seen as the new normal for businesses to confront. In this chaotic situation, to manage quality within an organization it has to first recognize the stability of internal and external environment to tap emerging opportunities. In early resilient management literature iterates organizational resilience as the firm’s ability to bring back to previous state and operate as usual after a crisis. Recent academic work now shows that coping with change and looking at organizational adaptability is not sufficient to deal with the current crisis. It has to uplift the potentials of thrive and sustain for long term survival. Former adaptive capacity drives by TQM and lean principles now play limited role and even become constraints in a crisis where the requirement arise to focus on agility, flexibility and improvisation. Dynamic capability view lays theoretical foundation to discover how the quality drivers should behave in order to nurture resilient organizations in apparel industry under aforementioned turbulent environment.

Key words: Quality, Resilient Organizations, Dynamic Capability View, Crisis

Dr. Guo Zheng has more than 15 years of experience in quality research and management. He is currently the Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Association for Quality, Chairman of Research and Innovation Committee of APQO, Deputy Dean of Chinese Institute for Quality Research, Director of Shanghai Zhongde Institute of Quality Technology, and a Senior Economist. Dr. Guo received his PhD in Business Administration and carried out postdoctoral research on Applied Economics. He has been engaged in macro and micro quality management and technical research for a long time, and has successively participated in the drafting of National Quality Strategy documents. He has lead quality improvement and performance excellence projects for more than 30 large enterprises. He has published 3 books on quality and innovation, more than 100 academic papers in journals of quality professional.

This presentation will analyze the current situation of the position and role of the chief quality officer (CQO) in the enterprise, and explore how the CQO make drastic adaptive changes, to establish a new skill structure, when they face a high uncertainty environment, including technology, public health, political, etc.. Finally, it will introduce the recent progress of CQO system in Chinese enterprises.

She currently manages a company which deals with Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions. They own a Learning Experience Platform, used to deliver 2D and 3D contents to various Industries. VR AR Solutions have a global footprint cross 5 countries. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Anna University. She started as a Acquisition Editor then had a stint into Information Technology as a Software Tester in India. She moved to Singapore where she started a Content Management and Digital Marketing Company. In Australia since in 2018,she manages two companies - one is for Digital Marketing and VR AR Solutions Australia.

Reduce the Total Cost of Quality by deploying AI early and often in your manufacturing process will help organisations topline. Through advanced analytics and machine learning, steps can be implemented earlier in the process. By focusing on the COGQ, companies can drastically reduce their COPQ and thus the total COQ. AR will become the new interface between humans and machines, bridging the digital and physical worlds. AR enables a new information-delivery paradigm, which we believe will have a profound impact on how data is structured, managed, and delivered on the internet. AR allows people to process the physical and digital simultaneously, eliminating the need to mentally bridge the two. That improves our ability to absorb information, make decisions, and execute required tasks quickly and efficiently rapidly and accurately. Manufacturers are investing more in human-and-machine interaction. To stay competitive, leading manufacturers continue to bring in automation to handle simple, repetitive tasks and track data.

Lakshika Rathnayake, serves as the Manager Quality Assurance in Lalan group-Non rubber sector, Sri Lanka. She has 10+ years’ experience in Quality Assurance field including ISO 22000, HACCP, GFSI, BRC, ISO 9001, SLS standard implementation and maintaining and QMS governance in different organizations. She has experience in implementation of Quality circles, process controls, 5S and GMP in effective manner, thus strongly believes in, quality culture can be inculcated in the organizations through proper employee engagement. She holds B.Tec degree in Science and Technology, specialized in Food engineering and bio process technology and Master’s degree in Manufacturing Management. She is a member of Sri Lanka Association for Quality (SLAQ).

Industry 4.0 now has become key concerning area among industries all over the world. Therefore adapting its’ systems according to the changes, including quality management system has become a vital requirement.

Packaging industry is now equipped with modern machinery to minimize errors and optimize the output, which aligned with smart factory concepts. But in the developing countries, due to affordability concerns, the companies are more towards developing their existing machineries in to more automate level than replacing them with modern machines. Quality 4.0 is a concept related to Industry 4.0 with application of basic TQM principles. It refers to the digitalization of quality and how that digital tools can impact technology, processes and people.

The study carried out, came out with the key factors that are affecting the transition of TQM towards Quality 4.0, which will be discussed in the presentation. And a three phase model was developed focusing companies that look for automation upon their traditional systems. Which consist of step wise recommendation as a guide to enable a smooth transition.

Nishanthi Sirisinghe is Technical, R&D and HSEQ Manger from Chryso Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. She has joined with Chryso in 2019 and presently working with Chryso Group technical and R&D team to developing innovative chemical solutions for sustainable concrete solutions for Sri Lanka. Further she is overlooking the quality management system in Chryso Lanka including ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001. She obtained her master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry in 2015 and BSc degree in 2012 from University of Peradeniya Sri Lanka. She started her career as Senior laboratory in-charge in textile testing laboratory in 2012 and worked with different industries related to laboratory equipment supply and different raw material import industry in Sri Lanka.

Chryso Lanka (Pvt) Ltd going through its hardest time with the economic crisis in Sri Lanka and with Covid19 pandemic. During this crisis we must withstand raw material import restrictions, lack of fuel availability, long hours power interruptions. We followed different strategies to sustain our service to customers, by conserving our raw materials, managing our human resources and limited energy. To minimize raw material impact with the import restrictions, we have evaluated different formulations with the raw material available in our stock and locally available raw materials. To eliminate the impact with the long hours power cuts and lack of fuel availability, we adjusted our working shift. Further we maintain good relationship between our employees and with our customers and suppliers during this period and it ease us to overcome most of the challenges. With all efforts and all employees’ commitments we have been able to successfully continue our business further. Along with our well-established strategies, we successfully meet our customer’s requirements, together with company objectives. It headed us to the greatest achievement of receiving “Chryso Global Award for Commitment and Attitudes”

Janardan Ghimire: Quality practitioner with 20+ years of extensive experience in implementation and deployment of international quality models. Lead Auditor for ISO 9001, ISO 45001 and ISO 27001 and Lead Tutor for ISO 9001. An incisive, result oriented professional with in-depth understanding of quality, environment, information security, health and safety and management activities, business processes and structured methodologies. An advocator of quality and assisting organization in operational excellence by developing, implementing and conducting comprehensive organizational quality assessments.

Isuja Aryal: Post Graduate in Microbiology. Lead auditor for ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018. Have audited various QMS and FSMS certified service and manufacturing industries. Experienced Quality Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the management consultancy. Have been engaged in preparing documents required for implementation and certification of QMS, FSMS, HACCP, FSSC and OH&S for various organizations. Have skills in performance improvement, operations management, operational planning, facilitation, and management.

Customer centricity is way of doing business by understanding customer, anticipating their preferences and fostering positive customer experience at every stage of their journey. Despite benefits of being customer centric, many firms are struggling to fully align to customer - centric paradigm. This case study depicts how a company (Aqua World) implemented customer centric approach despite of some challenges.

Customer centric journey was started by understanding major needs of customer which were quality and availability of product. Management made motto 'Make Sure Drink Pure'. It integrated ISO 22000:2018 and ERP software. It has team for following up with customers. Recent, advance in IT have facilitated marketing team in having conversation with the customer.

Some challenges were faced like inadequate knowledge about customer centric culture, self-motivation amongst employee, infrastructure for managing data and financial investment. All challenges were solved through combined effort. Company has ultimately been achieving tangible improvements and improving continually.

Rama is NABH Assessorand contributes to South Zone -CAHO(Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations) and IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality serving as a Technical Committee member. She is also instrumental for obtainingGlobal Performance Excellence Award (GPEA)–‘Best in Class’ of Asia Pacific Quality Organization and IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Awardfor Ganga Medical Centre & Hospitals. Rama is qualified withM.A (Fine Arts)&Post Graduate in Hospital Management from University of Madrasand M.Phil. In Hospital Administration from BITS Pilani. Currently she is the Managing Director of Ganga Medical Centre & Hospitals (P) Ltd, Coimbatore (650 bedded Super Specialty Hospital) and a Trustee for Ganga Institute of Health Sciences, &Ganga Spine Injury Foundation, Coimbatore.

Ganga hospital works on its mission ‘To provide quality care at affordable price so that expertise is available to all citizen of the country. Delivering affordable and quality health care to the huge population like in India presents enormous challenges and opportunities. We rest on our 4 Verticals to excel: Academics, research, clinical excellence & corporate social responsibility.

Ganga hospital’s strategy focus on the following principles:

1. Provide a facility and expertise that was not available in the Society was the initial mission of the hospital. The high volume low cost model adopted by the organization allowed the most expensive treatment at no additional cost.
2. The organization believes that ‘Leadership comes through Research and Innovation’, that is why research was made as the second vertical.
3. The effort of adding academics in the strategy has led to the development of clinical practice guidelines, performance measures, data standards, and supported in the human resources management of the hospital. Shared clinical expertise and learning across the organization has raised the bar for quality.
4. Any model which addresses a desperate need of the Society and at a reasonable Cost cannot be but a great success. Charity is integrated into the daily work.

Sustainability is going to be a dominant theme for the current decade. Working on the four strategic verticals made the organization to stay ahead of the curve and benefit from the coming transformation. The organization adheres to rigorous metrics and benchmarks to achieve our goal of care that is high quality, safe, and cost effective. And though the organization is proud of our previous accreditation and accolades, it always strives to do better.

Dr. Anuradha Iddagoda, is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. She is a PhD holder from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Sri Lanka. She does research in Human Resources. Her current project is 'Green Employee Engagement'. She also completed a MBA in Human Resource Management at PIM- University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Master of Information Technology (MIT) and the Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) degree from Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Some of the frequently used buzz-words in the corporate sector include green leadership, green human resource management, green employee engagement and green work-life balance. The intention of this study is to identify and examine the logical reasons that govern “green work-life balance” or, in simple terms, “greenwashing” work-life balance. This study also aims at providing a comprehensive conceptualization of work-life balance, while thoroughly examining the components of measuring the construct. Based on a cross-sectional study in the banking industry with a sample of 170 managerial employees, this study analyzes the impact of work-life balance on employee job performance mediated by employee engagement. Results support the assumed relationship between work-life balance and employee job performance embedded in employee engagement. The theoretical contribution of this study concerns the application of role behavior theory to describe the mechanisms shaping the relationship between work-life balance and job performance through employee engagement. The practical implications of the paper include recommendations for improving job performance by enhancing the work-life balance and strengthening employee engagement.

https://doi.org/10.3390/en14154556
Authors: Anuradha Iddagoda, Eglantina Hysa, Helena Bulinska-Stangrecka and Otilia Manta

He has long been interested in quality & productivity management, working for many years in manufacturing operations and management consulting. Currently working as Senior Management Consultant specialized in TQM, Standards, Business Excellence Assessment and Improvement & Innovation Activities at WKM (PT Wahana Kendali Mutu - Quality Management Consultant). Previous work experience in Restructuring & Business Reengineering Project in Indonesian oil company and manufacturing industry. His formal educational background is a Foundry Diploma, Bachelor of Management & Industrial Engineering and Master of Law. He is also an organizing committee at IQPMA (Indonesian Quality & Productivity Association).

Changes in the world are accelerating with the presence of digital technology, the emergence of a new economic order, changes in values and lifestyles, as well as the flow of information, the availability of exchange of goods and services and price trends combined with the flow of services and information dissemination. VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) An unstable, rapidly changing environment makes it difficult to predict what will happen next, forcing organizational leaders to change as well. Organizations that adapt quickly to change will survive in the VUCA environment. Organizational leaders must be unconventional. Skills and knowledge that used to be a mainstay may no longer be relevant. Most of the previous workforce may now become a burden for the company. How to design and manage HR competencies according to changes in the VUCA environment? Process-Based Competence provides a solution for formulating strategic plans and organizational competencies that are appropriate for responding to changes in the VUCA environment in order to survive and excel in the competition.

Abdul Halim Is a practitioner and consultant in the field of business excellence, Total Quality Management (TQM), and International Standard Organization( ISO:9000). Currently as a Quality Assurance and Judge assessment board of business excellence in Indonesia, and also as a GPEA-APQO Assessor. Has worked in the Performance manager at PT Krakatau Steel (Persero) Tbk, and has experience creating innovations of more than 20 themes in a period of 10 years, currently as Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Assessors (LPABEI), still active in Research & Development IQPMA (Indonesia Quality Productivity Management Association).

The BeTI principle is an integration model between the Baldrige Excellence Framework (BEF) with Total Quality Management (TQM), and the ISO 9001 International Standard to create organizational excellence. There are 2 (two) types of OFI’s, namely the Process dimension OFI’s (1-6), and the Results category OFI’s (7.1-7.5), then the OFI’s system is built through quality cluster activities with the Total Quality Management (TQM) category approach by utilizing management TOOLS such as fishbone diagram, pareto diagram 5W, 1H, the results of the improvement in the dimensions of the process are then standardized into the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) through the ISO 9001 approach. These two improvements (Process and Results) are then included in the BEF application document, which is then used by the assessor to assess organizational performance. And so on, PDCA innovation & improvement runs every year with different themes and titles. The ultimate goal of the BeTI principle is to make it easier and more focused on achieving performance excellence.

Over 20 years experiences in the field of Quality, production, EHS, and Lean manufacturing. Leading the organization to received APQO GPEA world class in 2014. Currently is working on the dissertation related to Intelligent manufacturing for DBA program. Meanwhile I am the assessor of APQO award and Shanghai Quality management award.

With the development of the concept of industry 4.0 and the continuous emergence of industry 4.0 technology, more and more manufacturing enterprises try to combine advanced digital technology with traditional Lean production practice, further expand the benefits of Lean production practices in order to improve the performance and competitiveness of enterprises. The integration of industry 4.0 technologies with lean manufacturing practices is known as "Lean 4.0" or "Digital Lean (DL)". The existing literature remains ambiguous on the relationship between lean practices and industry 4.0 technologies. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted to clarify the relationship between lean practices and industry 4.0 technologies. The results of systematic literature review show that lean production and industry 4.0 are not contradictory, and there is a strong correlation between them.

Abraham is the Chairman& President of New Zealand Organisation for Quality since 2015 and Past President for Asia Pacific Quality Organisation. He has had significant contribution in building NZOQ and is very well connected with Quality Organizations globally. He is also a Governance and Quality Council Member Singapore Institute of Multidisciplinary Professionals and Judge International Best Practice Competition.

Abraham is seen as the Quality Guru of New Zealand and represents the country in various International Quality Conferences frequently as key speaker, judge & moderator.

Abraham show cases the work we carry out at NZOQ and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in promoting growth and better economic standard for all New Zealanders and the Pacific islands.

Abraham has been instrumental in attaining ISO 9001:2015 for the Ministry in early 2016, making MBIE the first organisation in New Zealand and the first Central Government in the world and in 2018 followed up with ISO 45001 Health and Safety certification making MBIE the first central government in the world to attain dual certifications.

Abraham leads the ISO Practitioner’s Group in MBIE.

The presentation provides an overview of top innovations and new technologies and their integration.

Not long ago, high-performance computing use cases came solely from the rarefied realm of government agencies, research institutions and the largest corporations. The ability of high-performance computing systems to process large data sets and perform complex calculations at high speeds -- on machines that cost hundreds of millions of dollars -- was not a critical business need for many enterprises

Across diverse industries, a gold-rush mentality has emerged, as corporate leaders can't bear the thought of being left behind while competitors discover game-changing business models. While the number of high-performance computing use cases grows and reveals the benefits for business, vendors are seeking to capitalize on the feverish activity surrounding high-performance computing in the enterprise by coming up with hardware, software, storage, and network innovations.

Technology today is evolving at a rapid pace, enabling faster change and progress, causing an acceleration of the rate of change. However, it is not only technology trends and emerging technologies that are evolving, a lot more has changed this year after the outbreak of COVID-19.

Some of the new technologies discussed would have been sheer dreams or wish list for most of us a few years back but is a reality today and the integration of these top innovations and new technologies are helping businesses worldwide to develop and edge in today’s highly competitive global environment.

One of the well-known resources in the field of Lean Six Sigma and Organizational Excellence in the region, often referred to as the Lean Six Sigma Guru of Sri Lanka by print media. An avid speaker featured over 100 international and local forums, Dumidu has trained 30k+ resources and guided 500+ organizations in their improvement journey across 10 countries.

His contributions over the decades have been admired by many. These include Lean Six Sigma Coaching Excellence Medal by Dr. Mikel J Harry, Karmaveer Chakra Silver Award by REX in association with the United Nations, 'Business Leader of the Year 2017 & 2019' Awards during Sri Lanka Quality Leadership Awards, 'Hall of Fame Award' during Asia Training & Leadership Awards 2019, IT-BPO Young Outstanding Professional Sri Lanka Award from ICTA, Distinguished Industry Achievement Award by IEOM 2021,"101 Most Fabulous Global Training & Development Leaders" at the WTDC in 2020 etc.

Industry evolution and the developments in smart technology (e.g. robotics, smart manufacturing tools, automation etc.) have enabled a plethora of new opportunities for Lean Six Sigma practitioners to exploit during their breakthrough improvement efforts.

The increasing data availability due to faster and innovative modes of data gathering, analytics, predictive modelling, controls, robotics, and automation are changing the traditional Lean Six Sigma deployment practices landscape. However, integration of these methods must be done in consideration of multiple factors. For example, being high-tech focused or low-tech focused can be detrimental in some cases. On the other hand, the core principles of Lean Six Sigma help industry evolution and smart tech adaptation to be performed in alignment with the voice of the customer and their value expectations.

Applied Lean Six Sigma is a concept developed by the author a decade ago to guide practitioners on the use of smart-tech and industry-specific best practices to maximize the potential and success rate of the Lean Six Sigma deployment process. Applied Lean Six Sigma can also be identified as a process of making Lean Six Sigma methodology relevant to the industry and technology evolutions & making Lean Six Sigma future ready.

Dr. Sid Ahmed Benraouane is a thought leader with more than 20 years of experience in multiple sectors, regions, and industries. He is a member of the United States ISO Working Group in charge of developing a new set of international standards on Artificial Intelligence, including a standard on AI Management system (ISO/IEC CD 42001.2), a standard on ethical and societal concerns (ISO/IEC TR 24368), and a standard on AI risk management (ISO/IEC FDIS 23894). Dr. Benraouane published many books. In his latest book, “Using the ISO 56002 Innovation Management System: A Practical Guide for Implementation and Building a Culture of Innovation,” Dr. Benraouane provides a step-by-step planning process that helps government leaders design an ecosystem that engages and empowers innovators and creative minds.

Dr. Benraouane holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He taught at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, in the United States, and at Mohamed Bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai, the UAE.

In this presentation, we will look at the work ISO has been doing in the field of Artificial Intelligence. As the AI adoption rate increases, managers face many challenges on how to integrate AI into different functions and how to reorganize to take full advantage of different AI applications. But perhaps the most critical challenge companies face is the issue of trustworthiness. How do employees, customers, and overall stakeholders develop trust in an autonomous system? And what tools and frameworks do managers have to develop to build this trust?

ISO is currently working on developing many standards. Some of them have been published and some of them are working. These standards will be of great help to managers seeking guidance and direction on issues that relate to fairness, accountability, explainability, interpretability, and the overall acceptance of AI application’s outcomes.

Hiranya Dissanayake is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Accountancy, Faculty of Business Studies and Finance, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka. She is currently reading PhD in Management at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka and completed her M.Sc. in Applied Finance at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She has more than ten years of experience in teaching and research. She is passed finalist of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants of the United Kingdom. She served as head of the Department of Accountancy at the Department of Accountancy and Reviewer of the Journal of Accountancy and Finance peer-reviewed journal and several conferences. She won several awards at International Conferences and published more than 15 journal articles. Co-Authors of this publication are DBPH Dissabandara, Senior Professor, A.R. Ajward, Professor, and KLW Perera, Professor at Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

COVID-19 and Environmental problems faced by the world heightens the attention of research scholars to increase research on environmental sustainability. Accordingly, this study attempts to establish a comprehensive and integrative conceptual definition of environmental sustainability, including operationalizing its dimensions, and used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to conduct a systematic review, performed a bibliometric analysis and conducted expert opinion interviews for these purposes. This study found a dearth of studies on environmental sustainability on a comprehensive basis, and we propose that environmental sustainability should be defined on an integrated basis that consists of both Western and Buddhist ideologies and should take the perspective that all beings in the atmosphere should be protected. Therefore, it is highlighted that environmental sustainability should consider water preservation, air preservation, energy preservation, bio-diversity protection, noise prevention, waste prevention, materials management and environmental management. This study adds to the Stakeholder theory by conceptualizing and operationalizing environmental sustainability. In addition, a comprehensive and integrative perspective will assist in measuring this construct properly and ensure the quality of measurement, and policymakers should consider imposing regulations to improve environmental sustainability. These will help the survival of humans and all beings in our global village.

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability, Quality, Stakeholder Theory, Buddhist Philosophy

Engr. Fraginal is a recipient of various awards in quality management and performance excellence, both local and international. She was awarded by the Philippine Society for Quality, Inc. (PSQ) for her outstanding dedication and volunteerism to promote quality awareness and practices. She has performed substantial services which contributed to the progress and development of the society. The training and consultancy firm she manages was awarded as an outstanding management consulting and training organization in the Philippines. She is currently the longest serving assessor of the Philippine Quality Award and serves as assessor in the Global Performance Excellence Award administered by the APQO. She is a regular Resource Person of the Development Academy of the Philippines, Department of Trade and Industry and PSQ. She is a former Country Counselor of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), Inc. representing the Philippines. Currently, she is one of the Deputy Regional Directors of ASQ.

Different challenges in today's environment have prompted many leaders of SMEs, to reassess their own purpose and make themselves continue to be relevant to their customers and other stakeholders in the new normal. Many companies have shut down while others keep themselves afloat, such as the SMEs.

With good management, it is possible to achieve benefits for its growth and maintenance to increase sales of products and services. Using proven frameworks of PDCA and Performance Excellence may help and lead them to growth and success. The PDCA (plan–do–check–act or plan–do–check–adjust) cycle is one of the most powerful tools for rapid iteration and ensuring that organization is always moving towards improvement. The Criteria for Performance Excellence, which is regularly updated to address the changing environment, is a proven framework to help an organization continuously improve. The framework helps an organization manage the crisis and continue to be relevant by looking at the different areas: organizational profile to revisit the purpose and relevance of the organization; visionary leadership through the crisis; having a relevant strategy; thinking about customers; use of measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; caring for the people; having a robust operation; and achieving results.

Sanjeewanee Samaraweera is a professional with more than 12 years of practical experience in the development, integration, management, and improvement of quality, Food safety and environment management systems in food industry. Currently working as Head of Quality Assurance & Process Development at Pussalla Meat producers (Pvt) Ltd - Sri Lanka managing total vertical integration from grandparent farm to own country-wide meat specific retail outlet chain for more than 30 years.

She is certified as a lead auditor for FSSC 22000 and ISO 9001 and ISO/EC 17024 certified consultant for ISO 14001. She is the Secretary of Sri Lanka Association of Quality and also practicing as a trained trainer for developing an effective quality culture by improving competencies of workforce.

Safe food is a right of all living beings in the world and it emphasizes that an effective Food Safety management system is a fundamental tool for any industry in food chain, from farm to fork. The System effectiveness is composited with many factors but food safety culture is like the essence in both consistency and continuous improvement. Further, it facilitates easy adaptation and execution to any other system based on the risk and requirement. All most all the organizations in this era got an opportunity to validate their capacity and capability of risk management though the COVID 19 pandemic spread worldwide in 2020.

This case study is an outstanding example for demonstrating the pragmatic approach that has been taken to manage COVID 19 pandemic by a vertically integrated Sri Lankan poultry company (Pussalla) certified for food safety system management requirements.

This presentation will discuss the prominent factors in COVID 19 management program including leadership, human interaction, input management, production and reaching customers in restricted environment.

Mr. Sunil Thawani is an Author, Fellow, American Society for Quality (ASQ), Board Member and CEO, Quality Indeed Consulting Ltd. Dubai, UAE. Sunil champions UN SDGs 2030and is recipient of prestigious ASQ Lancaster Medal for his dedication and outstanding contributions to the International Fraternity of Quality Professionals.

Sunil has assisted many organizations in their transformation efforts and improve governance, performance, customer centricity etc. in diverse industries Government, Banking, Social sector, Logistics, Services, Manufacturing, Healthcare including United Nations. He has the honor of meeting Prime Minister of India, U.A.E and other Ministers from India, U.A.E., Lebanon, Slovenia, South Africa etc. He currently champions United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For decades organizations have collaborated to solve global problems, access and share expertise, gain market leadership, gain competitive advantage, etc. However successful and sustainable collaborations just do not happen. Some of the common pitfalls in building successful and sustainable partnerships are: a) Organizations do not have a strategy for business collaborations; b) Differing motivation of partners in collaboration; c) “Measures of Success of Partnerships” are missing etc.

Recently issued ISO:44001 - international standards on “Collaboration Business Relationship Management System” provides eight-stage life cycle components required for building and sustaining business relationships and associated operational process requirements. It has many useful and much needed requirements such as strategic perspective and planning for opportunities for collaboration, due diligence, governance, risk management, business continuity etc. However, implementing ISO:44001 standards is extensive, complex, challenging and demanding. It has about 130+ requirements organization to comply with.

To drive maximum benefits from the standard, organizations should consider ISO 44001 as a reference document and pick and choose needed requirements while keeping the context in which its’ business operates. Use the standard to establish a collaborative management system for leveraging opportunities for collaboration for achieving their strategic objectives, add value to customers, improve operational excellence etc. while weighing in the associated risks.

Miflora Minoza-Gatchalian, PhD is CEO of Quality Partners Company, Ltd. Her major achievements: (a) Founding President of Philippine Association of Food Technologists; (b) Past President of Philippine Society for Quality Inc. where during her term conceptualized and finalized founding of Asia Pacific Quality Organization (APQO); (c) On her retirement as First APQO Secretary-General, APQO Core Council honored her with the Award of “APQO Secretary General Emeritus” and the honor of a medal in her name- “ Miflora M. Gatchalian Gold Medal” to be awarded annually to a Woman Global Quality Leader (APQO President Mangalika is an Awardee); (d) The International Academy for Quality (IAQ) awarded MMG with the title “ Academician Emeritus” and later received “Agnes Zaludova IAQ Award to a Woman of Quality”. She published peer-reviewed articles and books on QUALITY where the one most utilized today is her book entitled “Sensory Quality Measurement: Statistical Analysis of Human Responses”.

The journey to Total Quality (TQ) had been grossly hampered by: (a) difficulty to obtain everyone’s involvement in the quest for quality and (b) inability to sustain the pursuit for continual improvement. A “process and structure” where Management and Staff (MS) can work together harmoniously appeared missing. This prompted the creation of a “Workforce Steering Council” (WSC) where Management (Senior Leaders appointed by Highest Official) and Staff (elected by workers ) jointly engage in problem-solving activities from identification towards successful resolution. WSC members led by a Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer do continuous identification, collection and prioritization of problems observed in the workplace through information channels. Once problems are prioritized, the WSC creates “Task Forces” (TF) of 3 or more members coming from both MS to jointly perform problem-solving activities up to implementation of recommended solutions as approved by WSC. When done, the TF is disbanded, and new sets of TFs are created to work on other problems all year-round. WSC also has “Standing Committees” working on long-term projects affecting the total organization. WSC is thus, the “process and structure” that insures MS jointly work towards a sustainable Total Quality where within a year almost everyone in the Company gets involved in continual improvement activities.

Yulia Mikhaleva is the Deputy CEO of the Russian Quality System (Rusquality), Secretariat Head of the Council for the Russian Federation Government Quality Award (RFGQA), EFQM Assessor, Head of the Organizing Committee for the annual International Forum «World Quality Day». She has a higher education in Economics and Management and in Applied Mathematics.

Her key activities include strategic partners’ management. Improving the business processes efficiency. Russian Federation Government Quality Award (Business Excellence). International cooperation. Quality education (Rusquality Academy). В2В-portal ProQuality. Business events. She is a member of various expert panels for International and Federal projects and competitions and has several publications in the scientific, regional and industry journals.

Yulia’s recent achievements include organizing the annual forum "World Quality Day" (2021 - more than 1 million views of the business sessions, 47 participating countries, 37 sessions, more than 250 speakers); development of industry-specific systems for diagnosing and improving business processes, including evaluating the effectiveness of government bodies; strengthening the influence of the Rusquality in international Quality Alliances (APQO, EOQ, ASQ, EQFM, etc.); winning Russia's bid to host the World Congress of Quality (WCC-24, APQO); expansion of Rusquality’s strategic partners and implementation of joint projects: international partners including national Quality alliances, government agencies, state corporations, industry and business associations, financial institutions.

This presentation will consider the experience and best practices of the the Russian Quality Award participants, the involvement of Russian regions and enterprises from various sectors of the economy (education, healthcare, food industry, services) in the application of the business excellence model, the results of participation, the approaches and results used.

Xu ZHE, Chairman of Shanghai Chengtou Environment Co., Ltd (SCEG), Vice President of Shanghai Resource Recycling Association, and senior political advisor, is in charge of SCEG’s overall strategic planning, transformation and development. He has established the company’s development goal of “Green, Low Carbon, New Environment”, which enables SCEG to transform from traditional business format into a modern environmental service company providing a wide range of services. He has also made active and effective efforts to build urban solid waste sorted disposal system, resource recyclable society and urban environmental resilience space to implement carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy. Overall, he has made outstanding contribution to the mega city’s refined management and construction of Eco-city.

Shanghai Chengtou Environment Group Co., Ltd. (SCEG), as one of the most important environmental service providers, takes responsibility of 80% domestic waste disposal in Shanghai.

Digitalization Empowers Company Transformation and Upgrading: SCEG drives transformation and upgrading through digitalization. Facing market’s needs for waste sorted disposal, SCEG established “digital environment” system using Internet, IoT and AI technologies to manage entire process of waste collection, transportation and disposal, achieving full cycle management in digital, refined and visual way.

Excellence in Spirit Promotes Company Sustainable Development: Shanghai proposes to take lead to achieve carbon peaking in 2025. As a benchmark enterprise in this field, SCEG will realize waste sorted refined management and resource utilization of residual waste (incineration), household food waste (biogas generation), hazardous waste (bio-safety treatment) and construction waste (reuse) based on recyclable waste disposal (incineration, landfill).

ESG Strategy Leads to Become Industry Benchmark: In the future, SCEG will integrate ESG Strategy into overall strategic planning and pay attention to how it can contribute to company’s and city’s high-quality development. SCEG will maintain leading position in green transformation and digitalization and drive more companies to join green development.

Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Learning & Development Professional, Certified Digital Transformation Professional, and Certified in de Bono Six Thinking Hats®, Rey is an executive with expertise leading teams in process excellence, digital transformation, and analytics across diverse businesses. He is the President of the Philippine Society for Quality, AVP for Digital Transformation of an international company, and a Professorial Lecturer of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. He is one of the Appointees of the President of the Republic of the Philippines to be part of the Philippine Quality Award Executive Committee. He is also an Associate Academician of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ). He is one of the 2022 Philippines’ Top 30 Leaders on LinkedIn. He is a recipient of the International Individual Award from APQO in 2017 and of the Quality Manager of the Year Award from PSQ in 2015.

We have seen how important data is in transforming any businesses in the globe not just in the past decades but also nowadays in the age of Industry 4.0, where data has come in different forms and volumes. We’ve also seen how data plays a crucial role when the global pandemic hit all of us last 2020, enabling us to move as agile as we can in making decisions and crafting policies and processes that help employees continue their work remotely. It’s a huge driver why digital transformation efforts have become successful, creating new business opportunities, optimizing operational processes, and producing actionable and value-adding insights. However, even though the data that we need is available and Analytics teams can run series of analyses and extract the insights, we struggle to package them in such a way that others can understand. And not just to understand but how can we communicate it so that it inspires action, enabling change to happen.

Zhang Lingxiang is a senior expert in the field of rail transportation operation and maintenance, the Chief Designer of Shanghai Metro Intelligent Operation and Maintenance, and a professor-level senior engineer. He is the Director of Operations of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co., Ltd. and General Manager of Shanghai Rail Transit Maintenance Support Co., Ltd. He concurrently holds the positions of expert of China Urban Rail Transit Association. With nearly 30 years of experience in rail transportation, he has studied metro operation and maintenance technology in Germany and has taken the lead in developing an intelligent operation and maintenance system covering all disciplines in the industry. He has been awarded the title of "Excellent Worker in Equipment Management" in China and "Leading Pioneer in Intelligent Construction" in Shanghai.

The presentation will brief the development history, scale of facilities, and current status of the operation of Shanghai Metro. It will focus on the latest development in the application of digital technologies in the Intelligent Operations & Maintenance model, the architecture and building of cutting-edge digital platforms, as well as the innovative integration of intelligent maintenance to drive quality improvement and model innovation, aiming to bring changes to the operation and maintenance process of Shanghai Metro. Furthermore, a large number of excellent real-life cases will be shared, including application scenarios during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical professional with 12 years of practical expertise in the development, integration, management, and improvement of quality management systems for good manufacturing practice (GMP) and drug development processes. Having a thorough understanding of how quality systems can govern and improve lean, efficient, and productive GMP operations. Successive increases in responsibilities and multi-disciplinary duties allow him to have a broad perspective of manufacturing capabilities, global compliance standards, and how to integrate the two within an efficient and effective Quality System.

Quality 4.0 stems from Industry 4.0. Quality 4.0 uses new digital technologies to maintain organization quality. This quality revolution aims to improve industrial and service quality by integrating emerging technologies that connect physical systems with nature. Pharmaceutical manufacturing processes have evolved from small-scale manual processing with simple tools to large-scale production as part of a trillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. As IoT, AI, robotics, and advanced computing challenge traditional approaches, practices, and business models for pharmaceutical manufacturing, current technologies continue to evolve. These technologies can boost the pharmaceutical industry's agility, efficiency, adaptability, and quality. They also used to resolve quality issues in a timely manner and conduct real-time quality analyses in order to increase competitiveness. Quality 4.0 technologies address challenges like automated root cause analysis, machine-to-machine connectivity for automatic parameter adjustment, and simulation of real-time processes. How these technologies are implemented from data collection to Industry 4.0 digital maturity will determine the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing. Realizing this future's benefits requires vision and knowledge of regulatory, technical, and logistical barriers. This presentation will discuss Quality 4.0 and how it can be used to ensure the quality of future pharmaceutical production.

Liu Haibin graduated from Tsinghua University. He is a researcher senior engineer engaged in nuclear energy quality management. He is an expert of many professional committees such as the Shanghai Association for Quality (SAQ) and China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA). He was once an EOQ paper reviewer, won the first gold medal of the ASQ’s International Team Excellence Award, and published more than 40 articles. Co- author of this study is Zheng Mingguang, Academician of International Association for Quality, Nuclear Power Chief Engineer of State Power Investment Corporation, Chief Designer of National Science and Technology Major Project-Pressurized Water Reactor Project.

With continuous advancement of social economy, requiring sustainable development and support from energy, carbon-based energy system has challenged environment and ecology enormously. Industrial nations need multi-energy collaborative technology system supports. In the era of global village, in addition to promoting technology innovation in every industry and segmented field, the policy for carbon emission and tax shall be established completely, scientifically and systematically. From two aspects of technology and policy, collaboration among various industries around the world shall be encouraged to integrate worldwide collaboration and improve overall social administrative capability, which benefits low-carbon technology development and innovation and constructs new energy supply system, moreover, promoting social economy and sustainable and bettering lives, global high-quality sustainable development as well.

Johnson George is qualified as B.Com, MBA (TQM & Operations), DBA (HR), DIATM, Certified NLP Master Practioner and a Life Coach. He is also a Certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 standards. He was awarded ‘Fellow of International Association for Commerce & Management’ India 2022. He is also a Certified Examiner for Business Excellence Models - MBNQA & EFQM. He had held various positions in the industry as Associate Vice President at WNS Global, GM at VFS Global, etc. He was a senior Examiner on National Panel for Business Excellence Awards & Faculty with IMC-RBNQA (until 2020) & CII-EXIM, India for 15 years. Currently he is Examiner, Speaker on the International panel of APQO-GPEA, Ideas Arabia (DQG). He is a Visiting faculty for Management Studies at Colleges in India. Authored ‘Insight into Corrective Action’. He has International Training/Consulting experience in 18+ countries with 28+years’ experience.

My talk is on ‘Renewed Focus on Business Ecosystem Relationship’.Organizations must adopt an ecosystem mindset & capitalize on your business ecosystem because your organizations/institutions exist within a business ecosystem. Today many organizations use ecosystem-based business models to create value.But, before you embark on an ecosystem adventure, you must be very clear why you want to take the risk and what specifically you want to achieve. Therefore, it is important to understand who are the participants of your organization’s business ecosystem. In this VUCA world, the Core competencies are frequently challenging for the participants of your organization’s business ecosystem. How do you partner with these participants to grow the ecosystem together keeping in mind the 3 P’s – People, Planet and Profit.