That was really, really interesting. I would be curious to see other suggestions for quarterly improvement ideas. Where I work, we are all supposed to do a Six Sigma project of some sort, individual or as a team. I did mine last year and am actually quite proud of it. It was a process improvement project that removed several clicks/steps from a task that the 80 or so people in my department do anywhere from every few days to 4 or 5 times a day. I got with my DM and he gave me stats and labor rates to calculate that my project will save the department and our customers roughly $13k a year. Pretty amazing when you think of how insignificant the time requirement is, maybe just a few seconds each time. I did it because the process was tedious, not to save a ton of time, but it does that as a nice side effect.
My DM points out a few times a year that if people have ideas for 6S projects, to come to him and he will see if it's something to pursue and find funding for it. I probably spent 10 hours on it, and a total of 60 for everyone involved that had to write the script. The savings there would have been seen in the first few months, if not sooner. I think it's great that companies support these types of goals. Those who are impacted on a regular basis will want to fix things and given the opportunity and support, they can.
That's a pretty awesome video, I wish more employers would take it to heart.
I just got a new job that I'll be starting in a few weeks, but my current/soon to be former employer could learn a lot from this train of thought. Run by a few old engineers that refuse to accept that any way other than the way they would do it could possibly be right. Nothing like treating engineers with 7-10 years of experience like drafters and changing every design decision they make just for the sake of changing it to demotivate them.
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