Are you a champion of one of these forms of improvement and innovation activities that comprise Idea Management?

	Innovation Concepts and Ideas
	Idea Systems
	Structured Collaboration
	Lean Manufacturing Kaizen Workshops and Blitzes
	Continuous Improvement
	Suggestion Systems & Suggestion Schemes
	Lessons Learned
	Employee Driven Idea Systems (EDIS)
	Supplier Ideas or Kelratsu Process
	Customer Inputs or Complaints
	Team Activities/Projects or Corrective Actions
	Other knowledge bases that track or trap ideas from employees that can be shared

Idea managment is an umbrella that nurtures creative input from a wide range of sources that includes: employees, contractors, suppliers, customers and other outside sourcess.  Effectively managing idea innovation in your organization is no easy task, but offers huge rewards. 

	Customer ideas/complaints - wants, complaints, recommendations survey data or listening sessions. It can also be used to manage ISO Corrective Actions.
	Supplier involvement (Keiratsu) - product and process improvements, design planning, WIP reduction, etc.
	Employee teams - All kinds of task, self managing, quality improvement, staff and other teams
	Employee ideas - via suggestions, continuous improvement, kaizen, self initiated, teams, etc.
	Staff and management doing continuous improvement

Idea Managment - Innovating by Capturing and Sharing People's Ideas  reviews the umbrella of idea processes that comprise idea management.  A good primer on the topic.

Are you you dealing with challenges in creating an Idea Management process that thrives in your organization?  Possibly due to one of the following:

	Lack of support from managment for managing ideas?  They formally sign up but don't participate when needed.
	Does your current management system for ideas not serve you?
	Are there several idea management systems in place and they are poorly linked?
	Are you spending inordinate amounts of time birddogging ideas rather than championing the process?
	Do you think any change to management software or the process will be too costly to consider?
	Is your suggestion system or other idea process outdated and requires a major facelift?
	Is your budget limited?  Even if the volume of ideas and savings increases, you don't have the resources to support it?

To have a well working idea managment process, several key elements are needed:

	Champion - The right person to administer or manage the process.
	Measurements - Communicate results to management. The right balance of information is critical - often we give management too much data or not enough to make decisions on.
	Software Management System - An automated easy-to-use system that and easily creates needed reports/graphs. Except for small organizations, this needs to be some sort of software database. Ideally this should be an on-line database.
	Recognition - Finding the right form of saying thank you.  One that management supports and participants truly appreciate.
	Training & Mentoring - All participants need the right training, tools and mentoring to be successful. Providing this cost-effectively is the challenge
	Refresh - Constantly updated and invigorated to keep it interesting to participants (e.g., campaigns).

If you would like to review the health of your idea process (suggestion system, suggestion scheme, kaizen or continuous improvement), we can also provide you with a free copy of our "Checklist for Success" which itemizes key ingredients of a successful idea process.