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What is the purpose of the suggestion system?
By Norman Bodek
In America the first suggestion came from an employee at Kodak in 1898
and was, “Clean the windows.” With poor lighting, it was a
very small but very good idea. The first suggestion system was an excellent
way to get all employees involved in improvement activities. It was a
way to empower employees to use their minds to solve the hundreds of problems
around them. But, probably because the supervisor or manager saw the system
as a “threat” to their authority a participatory system turned
into a cost saving bureaucratic nightmare. In fact, unfortunately, Kodak
a year ago cancelled their system.
In Japan the system called Quick and Easy Kaizen is primarily to empower
people to take more responsibility in the overall success of their company.
In Japan the average is 24 ideas per year per employee. The primarily
focus of Quick and Easy Kaizen is to empower the worker to make their
work easier and more interesting and of course, the company also benefits
enormously. Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) received a year ago 23.7 ideas
per employee and claimed a cost saving of $3,000 US a year per employee
(over 100 million dollars a year in economic benefits). And Panasonic
is not the exception.
I think the big question to ask yourself is, especially, if you want your
lean efforts to succeed. “Why isn’t your company doing it?"
| Norman Bodek is a consultant and the author
of The Idea Generator – Quick and Easy Kaizen – a process
developed in Japan to foster creative involvement of all employees.
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