By Edwin P. Galvez
Trust the “diskarte,” or innate creativity, of Filipinos to come up with innovations to help solve community problems or boost productivity and increase revenues at their workplaces, especially in these challenging times of pandemic.
These products of malikhaing pag-iisip, or creative thinking, were evident during the past months of quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reported the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in its weekly virtual news conference on DOSTv.
The DOST recognized a number of shop-floor and grassroots innovations from enterprises and communities it assists under two of the agency’s flagship programs, the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP) and the Community Empowerment through Science and Technology (CEST).
Science Undersecretary for Regional Operations Brenda L. Nazareth-Manzano said that these programs have encouraged Filipinos to innovate using DOST’s “technology interventions such as modern machineries and technical trainings and consultancy.”
There is also the Grassroots Innovation for Inclusive Development (GRIND) program, she added, that “documents, institutionalizes and promotes grassroots innovations [GIs] in the marginalized communities.”
Nazareth-Manzano said that while these shop-floor and grassroots innovations “do not undergo the usual research and development [R&D] processes, these have significantly contributed to the growth of our country’s industries” and provided creative solutions to pressing community challenges.
Innovate to build an agile community
“This pandemic has taught us many lessons, particularly the importance of science, technology and education,” said Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña in Filipino during the same DOSTv broadcast.
He said innovative firms faced less difficulty repurposing or adjusting to the situation.
“Instead of closing or stopping operations, these firms developed new products to augment their revenues,” added de la Peña.
To promote and stimulate the creation of innovations among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), de la Peña announced that the agency will sustain the implementation of SETUP with its Version 2.0, saying that “innovation is needed to have an agile community.”
“The enhanced version will not only offer intervention at the firm level, but also in their sector in the industry, guided by a roadmap we are formulating for each industry,” he said.
De la Peña said the DOST will push for the use of its programs under the Advanced Mechatronics, Robotics and Industrial Automation Laboratory.
One of its objectives is to establish a technology laboratory, where experts from different industries, academe and business can practice the automation of their production processes.
The Science department will provide interventions to “guide and help them create more shop-floor innovations” to help the enterprises become more competitive.
Nazareth-Manzano added that, for the communities, the agency will “institutionalize the GRIND program and continue implementing the CEST program.”
Shop-floor innovations during the pandemic
She explained that while shop-floor innovations are “discovered not in the laboratories or research facilities but at the actual production floor of factories” to improve production processes, there were innovations made by SETUP beneficiaries that address critical needs in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
She cited Baguio City-based TG Signage that makes signage, plaques and trophies before the pandemic. It is now helping reduce the shortage of personal protective equipment.
The shop “repurposed its equipment to produce aerobox, face shields, eva rubber frame goggles with acrylic lens and mask hookers or ear savers.”
It also recently created a specimen collection cubicle prototype for the Baguio City government.
Nazareth-Manzano said that TG Signage improved the box-type design of commercially available aerobox—the barrier between doctor and patient during manual laryngoscopy—by making the upper part dome-shaped for its Covid-19 AeroBox.
The innovation solved the visual atrophy and head bumps experienced by doctors in the box-type aerobox, making it more convenient for their use during intubation.
Reducing the use of acrylic by 50 percent also makes the AeroBox lighter and less costly to produce.
Meanwhile, Nazareth-Manzano reported that Mana Shameyn Enterprises, based in the National Capital Region which previously engaged in hospital bed repair and modification services, has ventured into manufacturing when it saw the demand for hospital beds.
Using its own designs, the company is also making examination tables, bedside cabinet, emergency cart, intravenous stand, and medicine and instrument cabinets, growing its annual sales of P7 million to P21 million in gross sales in 2019.
SETUP beneficiaries give back
De la Peña cited a SETUP beneficiary in Region I, ModulHaus Inc., maker of modular cabinets, tables, windows, doors, and other office features, that “repurposed to extend help” with the present situation.
The furniture maker built nine units of specimen collection booths (SCBs), each worth between P70,000 and P80,000, at no cost to the government.
DOST donated these SCBs to the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union, and other medical institutions and health facilities in the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan.
VCO production
Another innovative firm assisted by the SETUP is the GreenLife Coconut Products Philippines Inc. in Tayabas City, Quezon province.
Nazareth-Manzano said GreenLife is a top manufacturer and exporter of virgin coconut oil (VCO), which, in April, supplied the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine with its VCO products for the agency’s trials on the use of VCO against Covid-19.
“It operates with almost zero-waste by creating high-value products like jam, vinegar, coconut sap aminos, sugar, nectar syrup, and coconut oil from other coconut parts,” Nazareth-Manzano said.
It also developed a new business model, an innovation by itself, added de la Peña.
GreenLife established a VCO processing village model where they taught coconut farmers how to make VCO using the cold process method, making them earn more from their produce.
Their produce passes through a centrifuge machine to standardize the quality of the products from the small-scale farmer-producers.
Nazareth-Manzano said that GreenLife, which now supplies 33 companies and five traders for the export market, is “helping more than 100 coconut farmers in Quezon province and 30 farmers in Marinduque by buying their coconuts.”
The company’s increase in VCO production comes at an opportune time when it is becoming more popular because of its possible anti-Covid-19 effect that is currently being tested.
Grassroots innovations aid marginalized communities
They may not have finished formal schooling, but members of the informal sector imbued with creative thinking can also develop grassroots innovations (GIs) to help solve the problems in their respective communities, Nazareth-Manzano explained.
The DOST stimulates the creation of these innovations through the implementation of the CEST program, wherein marginalized “communities are given a package of science and technology interventions to empower and develop them.”
Nazareth-Manzano cited Villa Conzoilo in Jaro, Leyte, which was awarded the best CEST community in 2019.
The farming community used to propagate tomatoes by planting the seeds bought for P600 to P1,000, and waiting for 80 to 90 days to harvest them.
When the farmers cut the plants to grow them near the ground to avoid getting destroyed during typhoons, they discovered that the cuttings they later planted bore fruits after only one month.
The community uses natural fertilizers from poultry waste and vermicast for better growth.
GRIND program
Aiming to capture the GIs for the communities is the GRIND program. Launched last year, it is a framework plan with four components, or the four Ls: learning, leveraging, linking, and legitimizing
Nazareth-Manzano said that learning refers to the profiling and identifying the GIs; leveraging gives assistance on how to commercialize the GIs and “finding the science behind the innovations”; linking is developing and strengthening the network of advocates and experts of the marginalized sector; and legitimizing is focused on developing policy recommendations.
Piloting in the Davao region, the DOST identified some of its grassroots innovations that “mainly address issues on food security, health and immunity, health hazards and safety, and sustainable livelihood.”
One project, the foot-operated handwashing kiosk invented by Edmund Jacalan, a fabricator in Nabunturan, Davao de Oro, is used in CEST communities.
A “no-contact means to handwashing,” the kiosk is fitted with a liquid dispenser and a water tap that are connected to two different pedals.
Breadfruit, or “Mirakolo” health tea made by Askedwell Inc. of CEST Montevista serves as a food supplement that indigenous peoples in the area consider helpful in improving the immune system and antibodies of consumers.
Likewise, honey with pollen, a food supplement with immune-boosting properties, was discovered by Maricel D. Ferrando of the municipality of Baganga.
Helping SETUP beneficiaries recover from the pandemic
Assisting thousands of MSMEs through the SETUP, DOST extended in April the moratorium of refund payments for up to five months or until July 2020 to give enterprises more time to recover their losses during the quarantine period.
De la Peña said the agency is also conducting webinars to give these firms some push, discussing such topics as “how to repurpose given the new environment,” selling and delivery, and food safety.
He said less than 30 percent of the SETUP beneficiaries are closing shop as the firms anticipate recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an online survey the DOST held in March to know the status of SETUP-assisted firms, out of 2,318 surveyed, 68.8 percent or 1,594 companies had closed during the enhanced community quarantine period due to low sales.
Nazareth-Manzano encourages the SETUP beneficiaries to continue availing themselves of the various services of the department through virtual or online consultancies.
Image credits: Henri de Leon /S&T Media Service
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