SCORE PROGRAM

It’s All Because of Love

FIGURE 1 MARIA SATYA PUTRI, OWNER OF SPA FACTORY

Back in 2002, Maria Satya Putri decided to move to the Island of the Gods; Bali. There, she decided to start her career as a

businesswoman selling spa products, which are now being sold by a number of local and international hotels and resorts.

Earlier in her business journey, Maria met an acquaintance from the United States who had a dream to transform Bali into a global pampering destination. Maria, who had a great passion for spa products and body scrub, greatly welcomed the idea and decided to open a small business producing body care products, which she later called: Spa Factory.

“I am indeed a fan and lover of spa and body scrub products. My mother who is from Yogyakarta is the one who introduced me to those body care products. I have known those products from a young age,” Maria said

OPPORTUNITIES AND INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Maria’s small business was officially operational in August 2002. At the beginning of her business, she only had one employee and used her own house as a production facility.

According to Maria, producing these spa products made her feel like she was back in her college years, when she spent a lot of time reading and expanding her knowledge and her insight on beauty products, especially developing spa products.

SPA FACTORY’S CASE STUDY

TAKING HOUSE SPA TO AN

THEY SAY“As the owner of the company, I see SCORE program as a much needed training for the employees in my company. They (the employees) often fail to do something not because they do not want to do it, but they do not know how to do it. For example, arranging the objects in the warehouse appropriately, etc. – that is the knowledge that they acquire through SCORE.” – Maria Satya Putri, Spa Factory owner

Back in September 2002, the international community was shocked by the tragic Bali Bombing terrorist attack which claimed hundreds of lives. This event affected Maria’s new startup business. However, Maria is a tough businessperson. “That is the risk of having a business, I have a strong will and continue to think positively,” Maria said.

Maria’s persistence in pioneering her business paid dividends, and eventually one of her friends from France contacted her and expressed her intention to open a spa business in Maldives. Maria immediately welcomed this opportunity and started her spa product export to a foreign country.

“My business is small to medium scale and I am not a business person with unlimited capital, therefore I

have to be able to create products which will satisfy my consumers; both nationally and internationally,” she said.

Other than product quality, Maria expressed the importance of innovation and the ability to envision and determine the market niche in line with attracting her consumer’s attention. Offering a private label or customized products became the new focus of her business. “We do not have brands for the products that we produce, however we make products and build the brand image for other people; these conditions in fact have enabled our company to survive and in fact keep growing,” Maria said.

WOMAN LEADER

Being a woman business leader in spa products productions provides various types of privileges, according to Maria.

“As a woman, I have a strong maternal instinct; this in fact helps me to embrace my employees and as majority of them are women; we are more open to communication and a cohesive working environment,” Maria said.

FIGURE 2. DAYCARE FACILITY AT SPA FACTORY

One initiative that Maria implemented in order to create conducive working conditions, was to open a daycare facility for her female employees. This has

positively impacted working conditions, as it provides a sense of comfort and security for the female employees as they know their children are being well looked after when they are at work.

“I am a mother of two, so I appreciate the security of knowing I am able to work while my children are looked after,” Maria explained.

Despite fierce business competition, Maria believes that the company will survive because of the strong sense of family values in the workplace, as well as the highly flexible culture designed to build, and accommodate conducive working conditions for her employees. Cooking and having lunch together or going on fishing trips are some of the social activities regularly organized by the Spa Factory to improve team morale and encouraging a positive culture in the workplace.

“These social activities in fact create a high sense of belonging among the employees toward this company. Ultimately, this is what will lead to more effective and consumer satisfaction of our products,” Maria said.

2

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMPANY TO ENHANCE EFFECTIVENESS IN THE WORKPLACE

Spa Factory interaction with ILO’s SCORE program took place on January 2015. SCORE establishes collaboration with a private training provider, BEDO, to organize enhancing performance training of small to medium scale enterprises in Bali.

“When I first attended SCORE training, I encouraged my employees to be more active in taking part in discussions and performing issue mapping. I think it is essential as this training actually places the employees as the agent of change; thus when a change is deemed necessary, the initiative should originate from the employees,” Maria said.

“SCORE training is not dull, as it is so much different from the trainings we attended in the past,” Mauliana Soliha, Head of Production at Spa Factory said.

Upon returning from the SCORE training, employees and management of Spa Factory demonstrated a commitment to transforming their company. The mass signing of the SCORE banner by all employees and management indicated a strong consensus of improving the workplace together.

In conjunction with cleaning up the company’s internal organization; 5S, the employees identified issues and saw that they needed to engage in organizational activities especially within the company’s warehouse. This step was followed by the formation of an Enterprise Improvement Team (EIT). One of the duties of the EIT is to ensure the sustainability of 5s activities in the company as well as maintain the 5s passion and approach within the entire production line.

Mauliana also expressed: “There is only limited space in our office and our warehouse is seriously disorganized. All objects are mixed-up and there is

no proper room organization nor consistent identification of existing objects,” Mauliana said.

Thoyibun Riki Mat Hora, Assembling Supervisor, also adds that due to these complexities and the disorganization, including the lack of labels on objects, an absent employee for a particular department results in confusion among other employees in the management of the objects.

Mauliana also describes the R&D room, where she works, as chaotic. “Work files were scattered everywhere. I was so embarrassed. Now my room is very organized, thanks to 5s,” Mauliana added.

FIGURE 3. MAULINA SOLIHA PROUD BECAUSE R&D ROOM BECOME SO CLEAN AND ORGANIZED

Jeff Kristianto, one of the trainers of BEDO who accompanied the SCORE program implementation at Spa Factory, stated that: “The established EIT shows a high level of enthusiasm toward the SCORE program implementation. They always attend the meetings and actively discuss with trainers from BEDO to receive professional feedback in conjunction with improved collaboration and implementation of 5s; therefore the organization and clean up activities which were originally done only in the warehouse, finally expanded to production and office areas,” Jeff said with a wide grin.

Other than 5s, Spa Factory also experienced some improvements in terms of communication and collaboration. “We used to blame each other’s unit

3

when a mistake occurred. Now we focus more on identifying the issues and look for solutions. This is made possible due to regular meetings held in the late afternoon among division heads and inventory units to discuss various issues such as orders received,” Mauliana explained. Additionally, they also hold weekly meetings that involve all divisions in the company, including the sales department. This is necessary in order to avoid production mistakes.

FIGURE 4. REGULAR MEETING AMONG ALL DIVISION IMPROVED COOPERATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Thoyibun has also noticed improvements in the communication system. “It used to be that our communication system was greatly informal; this situation is due to the location of our company which is in the middle of a residential area, hence we do not feel that it is necessary to prepare a request for goods in writing, normally we simply shout out a request for such goods; and we shall receive the requested goods. With the introduction of SCORE, we have learned to build a better communication system. Now we have to have cover letters when we request goods from the warehouse. This helps facilitate a correct audit of stock inventory.”

Spa Factory has also started to maximize the use of a bulletin board to ensure that employees receive sufficient information regarding relevant company matters. Additionally, there is also a platform which enables the employees to provide feedback on ways

to improve work effectiveness, as well as other topics.

Through the commitment and hard work demonstrated by this company, in a relatively short period of time from January to March 2015, there are improvements in communication which has led to improved collaboration. This has triggered a fairly significant improvement in the production front line: the percentage of defective products at the front line fell from 4.12% to 0%. Meanwhile at the end of the production line, the percentage of defective products which was 2%, and at some point even reached 2.8%, has now dropped to 0%.

BECOMING EVEN BETTER

As the head of Spa Factory, Maria admitted that this small to medium enterprise is the type of business which is vulnerable to changes and development taking place out there.

“Majority of Small to Medium Enterprises start with the interest of the owner toward a particular subject, hence often times these Small to Medium Enterprises do not keep a good management system; hence their businesses start to disintegrate when their businesses should be growing,” Maria said.

Maria further added that SCORE is a training program that meets the needs of Small to Medium Enterprise entrepreneurs in this country.

“I honestly feel supported by the SCORE program as this program was introduced at the right time. Moreover, when we had to move from our previous location to the new location we occupy now, there were plenty of aspects associated with the proper workflow, organization, and tidiness of our workplace which has helped us during the relocation of our workplace,” Maria said.

4

FIGURE 5. SPA FACTORY IS NOW OCCUPIED A NEW BUILDING IN UNGASAN AREA

Effective April 2015, Spa Factory, which was located on Toyaning Street, Kuta-Bali, now occupies a new location in the Ungasan area. Occupying an area of 1,450 meters, Spa Factory is now proudly showing its presence.

Inside her workspace, filled with an aroma of lemongrass and mint leaves, Maria stated that she is a passionate person when it comes to spas, and she is often preoccupied with the idea on how to develop this ideal business of hers. However, she admitted that whatever happens behind the doors of Spa Factory becomes another challenge. Workflows which involves various work units often times present problems, therefore communication and collaboration is a critical aspect, in addition to 5s.

FIGURE 6. MARIA MET UP WITH SCORE IN HER CLEAN AND ORGANIZED OFFICE

“I do not have sufficient knowledge of how to run a factory, but now I truly have a chance to learn it

from SCORE,” Maria said. “As the owner of the company, I see the SCORE program as much needed training for the employees in my company. They (the employees) often fail to do something not because they do not want to do it, but because they do not know how to do it. For example, effectively arranging the objects in the warehouse appropriately, etc. That is the knowledge that they have now acquired through SCORE,” Maria said.

According to her, the business owners often assume that the employees should know of various aspects that enable the company to work more effectively and efficiently, however not all employees have sufficient knowledge and experience. Maria considers that a common business owner’s mistake is that they do not provide sufficient training and guidelines for their employees.

“When the employees have acquired knowledge from SCORE training, they will be passionate to lead changes in their workplace and will truly feel the benefits of them,” Maria said.

The success of Spa Factory in implementing the SCORE program in the company has enhanced the working spirits of the employees. This is indicated by the reduction in employee absenteeism from 3% in January down to 1% in March 2015.

Thoyibun from the assembling unit said, “Since the workplace is now clean and orderly, the workflow and communication work well, I sometimes don’t realize what time it is as it goes by so quickly, and all of sudden it is time to go home. I feel at home here and this is like a second home for me.”

5

FIGURE 7. R&D ROOM BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION OF SCORE: PREVIOUS BUILDING

FIGURE 9. R&D ROOM IS ORGANIZED AND CLEAN – NEW BUILDING

FIGURE 8. R&D ROOM AFTER SCORE IMPLEMENTATION – TRANSITION PERIODE BEFORE MOVE OUT TO THE NEW BUILDING

6

THEY SAY“Work files were scattered everywhere. I was so embarrassed. Now my room is highly organized, thanks to 5s,” - Mauliana Soliha, Head of Production, Spa Factory

THEY SAY“Since the workplace now is clean and orderly, the workflow and communication work well, I sometime am not aware as time goes by so quickly, all of sudden it is time to go home. I feel at home here and this is like a second home for me.” – Thoyibun Riki Mat Hora, Assembling Supervisor.