In this update: FY2018 levels of quality recap, announcing FY2019 levels of quality, recent CLASS certifications, and a new Quality Systems employee
FY2018 Levels of Quality
Thanks to all employees for the great work you’ve done to reach various Levels of Quality in your departments during FY2018. A summary of how the year ended is below:
6 Stars - Underground Engineering & Construction; Wastewater Plant Operations; Water Quality Planning & System Control; Program & Technical Services; IT Operations & Infrastructure; and Treasury
5 Stars – Westfield Operations; Plant Engineering; Legal, Regulatory Affairs; Accounting, Market Development; Corporate Affairs; Business Solutions (& IT Security); and Human Resources
4 Stars – Water Production; Water Distribution; Wastewater Collections; Thermal Operations; Energy Distribution Engineering; Environmental Stewardship; Internal Audit; and Health, Safety & Security
3 Stars – Supply Chain; Gas Transmission & Distribution; Gas Supply & Oil Operations; Shared Field Services; and Billing & Customer Service
FY2019 Levels of Quality
The Levels of Quality have been established for FY2019 and have been provided to your CLASS Ambassadors. Check out your area’s Huddle Board for more information! This year, departments can earn stars in the following “6C” areas:
Control – Sustain 6S events completed in FY2018 and/or FY2019 and maintain 80 percent participation per department in CLASS General Awareness training.
Culture – Update balanced scorecard with SMART goals and Huddle Board at least monthly.
Communication – Discuss continuous improvement activity at least quarterly and have a presence at monthly Ambassador meetings.
Commitment – Hold waste identification sessions during three of four quarters and create action plans for reducing waste.
CI Activity Participation – At least 30 percent of department employees should participate in training sessions, after-action reviews, 6S events, and waste identification events.
Certifications – Earn two certifications (Yellow, Blue, Green, or Black) for departments with 20 or fewer employees, or four certifications for departments with more than 20 employees.
CLASS Certifications
Employees who have recently earned Yellow Belt Certifications include Rich Newell (CP&E, Standardize New Plan Review Process for Water and Wastewater Projects), Teresa Dick (Wastewater Collections, Develop Standard Reporting for Wastewater Collections), and Vince Stewart II (Wastewater Operations, Improve Wastewater’s Maintenance Management Reporting). Congratulations!
The Citizens Lean Leadership training and certification program provides leaders (supervisors, managers, and directors) the opportunity to discuss leadership tools, struggles, and ideas while creating a common approach for supporting and leading lean thinking. The eight-week course is based on the book “People: A Leader's Day-to-Day Guide to Building, Managing and Sustaining Lean Organizations" by Robert Martichenko, Roger Pearce, Steve Gran and Walt Miller. The most recent group of leaders to receive their Blue Belts for leadership are pictured below.
Pictured (left to right): Cheryl Carlson, Dan Moran, Mark Jacob (presented certificates), Ed Bukovac, Mark Gray, Becky Schaefer, Mary Owen, Jessica Bastin, LaTasha Stewart, Gary Justus, and Ed Malone.
Quality Team
Welcome Staci Lewis to the Quality Systems Department! As our new Quality Systems Analyst, she will be supporting Continuous Improvement projects with data analysis, coordinating industry benchmarking surveys, and leading Knowledge Management efforts. She has worked at Citizens since 2007, holding positions of increasing responsiblity in the areas of Customer Service, Billing and Revenue Assurance, and Business Customer Support, most recently working in Customer Relationships.