Performance Evaluation of an Industrial Cluster-based Common Facility Centre (CFC) in Pakistan

Abstract

A common facility centre (CFC) was established to enhance the competitiveness and economic contribution of organisations operating in the ceramics sector of Pakistan. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of this CFC in terms of its operational, financial and strategic goals achievement. The second aim of this study was to propose a customised, cost-effective and robust framework for the proper monitoring and evaluation of the present as well as other CFCs developed particularly to support industrial clusters in Pakistan. Study used mixed-methods approach (i.e., interviews, focus group, survey questionnaires, content analysis, etc.) to collect data. Feedback from the industry revealed that CFC had significantly enhanced the productivity, profitability and competitiveness of the clustered organisations in ceramics sector. Shuttle kiln technology had created a huge buy-in and has been acknowledged as a vital value addition to the industry. However, the current capacity of CFC was found insufficient to fulfil industry’s demands and to achieve its macroeconomic goals. Provision of pressure casting technology along with addition of another shuttle kiln was needed to obtain desired results. CFC’s own competitiveness was very important for the cluster’s competitiveness. A proper monitoring and evaluation system along with a coherent set of performance indicators should have been designed and implemented at the time of CFC’s inception.