Implementing an Improvement Suggestions and Ideas System

The recognition of people contributions is essential to maintain a suggestions system alive.

1. DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES

An Improvement Suggestions (IdM) is a proposal from any employee or team that can improve the way of working or any other current situation. The improvement can belong to safety, quality, productivity, work organization, the environment, etc.

The idea should generate a continuous improvement of the work standards through the active involvement of all employees.

1.1 Requisites

• documented
• general process control by the manager or responsible
• responsibilities clearly defined for the GAP supevisor or leader or, if not available, for the department manager.
• previous validation of the idea by the other GAPs/shifts.
• Response to the employee always quickly (less than 7 days)
• In case of being accepted, it should be done in less tan 1 month. If there is not a specific cause properly justified and accepted by the employee, this deadline should always be respected
• realization validated by the employee / team
• recognition organized and communicated
• follow up of indicators, including the realization ratio
• transversalization by means of the area responsible (one point lessons, etc.).

2. GENERALITIES

It should not be neccesary that the suggestion is turned inmediately in a benefit economically quantified.

Conformity to rules, procedures or repairs (change a light bulb, etc.) are not Improvement Suggestions, but actions to be executed immediately.

The goal should be to promote simple and convenient ideas, small improvements, step by step, both easy and not expensive, being the daily result of working as a team (Kaizen spirit). The goal should not be based on proposing the big invention of the century or redefining the overall definition of a process or technology, although this can be produced sometimes.

Improvement ideas are a natural indicator of people’s motivation and involvement.

A big number of improvement ideas means a high involvement level for the teams, coming from a way of working based on participation and hearing the associates. This is why improvement suggestions should not be directly managed by a specific comitee at plant/company level: this would cut the responsibility of the immediate responsable of the team. Each manager should have the responsibility of promoting the ideas within their teams; apart from reaching the results, each manager should be responsible for improving them.

The Idea or Suggestion should come from all the teams (operations and the other areas) and are the result for different processes, all of them focused on continuous improvement:

• Role of managers and supervisors in the way they obey the tasks in their teams (e.g.: daily control of application of standard work). It can be good to remove an employee from his workstation for a while and ask him to observe how his work is done when another employee takes his position. This worker will have the opportunity of observing the improvement possibilities in his own position in a different way.
• Role of the managers when taking advantage of the inteligence within the teams (e.g., try all the employees work together as a team, in GRPs, etc.).

An employee will only give suggestions in a regular way if he/she realizes that his/her boss is interested on that: when he/she is given a fast answer to his/her idea and when that suggestion is done. So, to execute the idea, specific resources should be assigned: time, people or some money, even in small quantities (e.g., one hour per week for the facilitator, some support from the supporting functions, dedication of the GAP members when the line is stopped, etc.). The maintenance of such a system will require that 100% of the approved ideas should be executed within 1 month as maximum. For this, the required follow up should be done.

A procedure for suggestions should be defined within the team; a system for gathering, evaluating and doing a maximun number of ideas. Ideas should be formalized for facilitating their follow up by the manager or supervisor.

Suggestions should be simple, immediate and achievable by the team. This is why a manual system should be preferred. An informatic system is not advised as it can make difficult the management of the ideas by the supervisor. Moreover, an informatic system usually generates an extra load of work and some useless databases.

The plant or department should define objectives and indicators for the follow up of the suggestions system (number of ideas generated per person, number of ideas done per person, etc.).

The HR department should follow those objectives up, maintain updated registers by employee, ensure at least an annual revision of objectives, lead the action plans to achieve said objectives and manage the formalized communication plan for the suggestions.

The Supervisor (or the leader supervised by the manager), with the support of HR, should update the indicator of suggestions in a monthly basis, at least, and publish it in the team’s communication board. Also, all done and rejected ideas should be taken from the board and kept in a designated location within the team.

2.1. What is the role of the Supervisor?

The role of the Supervisor (or leader supervised by the manager) should be based on making sure that suggestions are generated, followed, done and evaluated. When the process is properly done, suggestions are delivered.

Team members should have an active role within the system, more in the sense of a member of a team than as an individual, proposing suggestions and doing them when possible. The supervisor (or leader in offices) should have a role of a facilitator, helping in gathering and doing ideas, coordinating the supporting fuctions, etc.

It’s very important not to separate the suggestions system and the daily activity. It’s key that responsibles own the system and the ideas. It should also be mandatory to react quickly to each suggestion (say yes or no, but say something). Also, all managers and supervisors sholud ensure all needed support is given and all obstacles during implementation are eliminated.

2.2. What is the role of the Team Leader (administrative environments)?

The Team leader (supervised when needed by the manager) should manage the suggestions system in a similar way to that of the supervisor of other areas. So, the previous requisites should also be applied in this case (facilitate, make sure suggestions are generated, followed, done and valued, requiring the intervention of the supporting functions when needed).

2.3. Procedure to generate improvement suggestions

When a team member has a suggestion, he should take a standard template from the communication board and cover all the info before the area of the answer for the idea: date, name, team/area, type of improvement, detailed description of the current situation and the future situation when the idea is done, etc.

Once the template is complete, he/she should put it in the board area for “suggested proposals” and wait for the validation of the other shifts and for the answer of the team supervisor or leader, who is the person in charge of accepting or rejecting the suggestions proposed in his/her perimeter, in a first phase.

The answer should be given within 7 days as a maximum.

If the suggestions is rejected, because the supervisor or leader considers it is not achievable according to his/her experience, he/she should go for the person who suggested the idea and explain him/her the reasons for this decision. The justification will be registered in the template, which will be located in the corresponding area of the board.

When a suggestion is accepted, deadline and responsible should be defined, the employee/team informed and the template located in the area for “kept proposals” and in the correct week, according to the expected week for doing the idea. If there is not responsible nor date defined, the accepted ideas should be located in the area for “suggested proposals”.

The supervisor or leader sholud do a periodic followup for the implementation of the different ideas, managing the templates on their board and informing the employees about the progress.

When all steps for an idea are finished, being it accepted or rejected, all requirements should be signed by the involved people.

Periodically, done or rejected ideas should be removed from the board and kept in a folder properly identified in a definitive location (e.g., quaterly). Ideas should be kept during one year.

2.4. How to recognize the employees for their improvement suggestions?

Obtaining good results is part of our work and proposing ideas is a means to achieve this objective. The main motivation for the author of an idea is seeing how it is done.

Nevertheless, individual and team contributions should be recognized for demonstrating the importance given to the mood status and the improvement activities, such as the improvement suggestions.

Therefore, the recognition system should be built for giving value to improvement aspects such as:

• The person or team having proposed more ideas
• The best ideas (criteria for Safety, Quality, Productivity, Cost, etc.)
• The best realization ratio within the team, etc..
• The recognition of people and team contributions is essential to maintain an improvement suggestions system alive. It should be conceived to “recognize the best contribution to…” and not being confused with the fact of rewarding each idea for improvement, whatever the means for this recognition (public mention, certificate, gift, etc.).
• The plant management should define who and how must be rewarded, following the said general criteria, so that it can make a sense for the local employees. It is strongly recommended no to link the recognition to savings by means of a monetary system (avoid the objective of the reward, over the improvement).

The rewarding system for improvement suggestions should be defined by the local management and should include a formalized communication plan (letters, advertisements, visits to other facilities, etc.).