Congratulations to the organization for already meeting the 40 percent Continuous Improvement (CI) participation goal for fiscal year 2022! Stars have been awarded to areas that have reached the minimum 25 percent departmental CI participation. For up-to-date CI participation data, you can access the dashboards on the Quality Systems iTrust site. Quality encourages employees to keep participating in CI activities and to complete projects they have started.
Continuous Improvement Project Benefits
Have you recently completed a CI project that has resulted in measurable benefits, such as time- and cost-savings or increased revenue? If so, please contact the Quality team to have the results of your project added to the benefits dashboard.
Mid-Year Reminder: Strategic Initiative 60
Per Strategic Initiative 60, all divisions and departments are to define their top three to five critical processes and conduct a “gap analysis” to develop a list of procedures that require documentation.
In fiscal year 2021, at a minimum, all items listed below were to be documented on the standard template available on Quality’s iTrust site.
- Identify and document your department’s critical processes (a minimum of three).
- List all procedures and sub-processes.
- Conduct a “gap analysis” to determine what documentation exists (or doesn’t exist) for each procedure and sub-process, and any actions needed to review or update. Consider using Gemba Walks to review the process and documentation.
In fiscal year 2022, plans should be executed to achieve current and accurate documentation, as explained below.
- Where documentation exists: Review, verify, and validate current documentation (through Gemba Walks as appropriate)
- Where documentation doesn’t exist: Create process maps, work instructions, etc. (through Gemba Walks as appropriate)
CLASS Belt Certification - Yellow Belt
Carly Senak (Regulatory Affairs): Streamline Regulatory Affairs Process Workflows [pictured below with Joe Sutherland, Vice President, Regulatory and External Affairs (left) and Korlon Kilpatrick, Interim Director of Internal Audit (right)]
Completed Just Do It Projects
Several employees have completed Just Do It (JDI) projects. These CI ideas already have a known solution and do not need to go through the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control process. All completed JDI projects can be found by clicking on the “CI Activities and Completed Projects” button from the Quality Systems iTrust page.
- Chris Kennedy (Wastewater Plant Operations): FeCI2 Dosing
- Joni Staten (Wastewater Plant Operations): Oil Sampling
- Bill Price (Wastewater Collections): Time Sheet Management
- Wastewater Collections Department: Treasure Hunt – Connections Not Billed
- Randy Higginbotham (Westfield): Yard Hydrant Replacements
- Dennis Claffey (Shared Field Services): Hardware Reorder
- Dan Kramer (Plant Engineering): Capital Projects Closeout Summary
- Sarah Wittig (Plant Engineering): Submittal Register
- David Clark (Program & Technical Services): Utility Coordination – Hydraulics – SPO Workflow Process
- Jennifer Gill (Environmental Stewardship): GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer) Source Part Organization
- Michael Watson (Environmental Stewardship): IDEXX Bacteria Calculator
- Mark Gray (Environmental Stewardship): Westfield New Main Sample Drop Off
- Market Development Department: Treasure Hunt - New Service
