Collaborative approach for performance improvement of non-added value activities in SMEs

The continuous improvement projects in SMEs are more difficult to develop than in larger companies mainly due to lack of resources. Yet they usually find ways to improve their performance. This is not the case for the non-added value activities. Its “invisibility” and strict relation with SME cultural behaviour make it difficult to develop internal action and collaborative projects to improve its performance. The proposed collaborative approach aims to establish joint projects involving several players to deal and reduce the impact of that type of activities in SMEs. Each player has a specific role and all of them benefit from the collaboration: pool of SMEs, Sectorial Centre, Consultancy Company and R&D Institution. The approach steps and its application in the Setup process are presented. The type of participation of each player is described as well as its benefits. The final projects outputs are identified and discussed.