100-Metodos-de-Qualidade-Total

IDEA GENERATION 153
Method 67
Suggestion schemes
Purpose
To generate ideas for improvement.
When to use
At a later stage of a total quality process when there is a quality
improvement plan in place and a mechanism for selecting ideas for action.
How to use
Suggestion schemes can seem deceptively simple and many fail because
ideas are asked for without any mechanism being set up for decision-taking
or communication of those decisions. The foIlowing are guidelines for
running successful suggestion schemes:
1 Set up a steering group to oversee the process.
2 Delegate as far down as practical the decision on whether or not to
implement the suggestion.
3 Give awards to supervisors and managers whose employees generate
most ideas.
4 In the early stages go for quantity of ideas rather than quality.
5 To generate ideas in manageable numbers try to set themes for ideas
and change the themes regularly.
6 Ensure that alJ ideas are acknowledged quickly and that the person
generating the idea is told whether it is to be implemented and, if not,
why not.
7 Look for reasons to say 'yes' rather than 'no'.
8 In the early stages be prepared for ideas to be about environmental
aspects rather than operational ones.
Benefits
Suggestion schemes provide a way of moving to continuous improvement
via smaIl incremental changes.
Example
A head office function of a major service organization introduced a
suggestion scheme as part of its total quality process. In the first year 18
suggestions per employee were generated and 90 per cent acted upon. The
organization began a 'Suggestion of the month' and 'Suggestion of the
year' award and the scheme flourished.