Innovation and Knowledge Management Techniques

Owing to social awareness, market demands and the need to project looking forward to future times, improvement and innovation, many companies in our environment are in a changing process of the managing performance:

Introducing quality management systems.
Putting into practice clean technologies and correcting steps in order to minimize and control the impacts coming from their industrial activity
Developing activities related with the Industrial Hazard Prevention.

On these grounds it is clear that there is a need to work out a methodology enabling the development of the activities related to Quality, Occupational Hazard Prevention and Environment in a more systematized way and at the same time more integrated in the management sphere, thus enabling the introduction of continuous improvement in the management behaviour of the small and medium size companies (SME) not only as an ethical obligation towards society but also as an essential competitive weapon in a type of market that already is bearing in mind the quality-environment-safety as a distinguishing argument.

However, to carry out good management practices turns out to be difficult owing to the limited resources available to the SMEs and micro SMEs for the investment in ideas and management tools, so that the development of this tool and this methodology, i.e. the Integrated Management of Quality, Environment and Occupational Hazard Prevention, is decisive for these companies in order to achieve a competitive position in the market.

CONTENTS OF THE REPORT