Employee idea processes are proven tools - they include suggestion systems, employee driven idea systems (EDIS), lean manufacturing kaizen and continuous improvement. Traditional suggestion systems often save organizations four to ten times the cost of operating the system (ROI). These costs include awards and implementation. The Employee Involvement Association (EIA) estimates the average net savings for every eligible employee is an incredible $1,360 per year. A company with 500 employee would generate around $680,000 in savings. Can your organization afford to lose those savings?

There are those who feel idea systems are a waste of time:

	Sometimes it is due to a poor experience with an idea process at another organization. In many of those situations the person managing the idea process didn't have the authority, motivation or resources to effectively administer it. Getting the right person to manage it that is willing to resolve problems and conflict plus constantly reinvigorate the process is crucial.
	Bureaucracy around solving ideas may take a large amount of resources - even for small, easy to implement ideas. This turns off evaluators and assessors. Going on-line and creating streamlined processes to implement smaller ideas remove barriers.
	Managers may claim that ideas are part of someone's job and we would have gotten the improvement ideas anyway. In a very well run organization with an open supportive culture along with a gain sharing or profit sharing process, they may be correct. However, that type of organization is very rare. The opposite often holds where people are put down for coming up with improvement ideas. Without motivation, few people will go above and beyond the status quo to make improvements in their work areas.

Below are some examples of success stories of customers using the Total Quality Systems Software, Inc. SIM software:

STIHL INCORPORATED

STIHL Inc. uses the SimNet 8 software to manage their formal employee idea submission system online for their Virginia Beach, VA facility.  STIHL® is the number one selling brand of chain saws in the world.  They also produce other outdoor power equipment, including grass trimmers, leaf blowers, and more for both the professional and consumer markets.

They have leveraged SimNet’s flexible features to create Excel spreadsheet-based scoring sheets to evaluate an idea’s net worth to the company.  Later, they added the capability to manage a separate peer to peer recognition program in the same database, but it is managed separately from the ideas database.  There are plans to add a third process to the SimNet database to manage continuous improvement (CI).  This third process will use an entirely different entry form and review process from those used for larger ideas.

SimNet 8’s capabilities allows each program to be handled separately while information and rewards information are shared between the different programs.  Each program can potentially have a completely different person managing that set of data.  This flexibility allows Sim.net to stand alone in a market of canned programs that only work for a limited few processes.

BAPCO - A Good Idea Suggestion Scheme - Bahrain

Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) purchased the SIM-Net web-based on-line system to replace their in-house system for the management of their well respected A Good Idea suggestion scheme. Installation included converting their data and setting up the SIM software to fulfill their reporting needs. After testing and training the system was rolled out in November of 2005. Click here (PDF 800K) to see the November company newsletter article on the release.

By going on-line, BAPCO will be able to better involve the people reviewing and managing ideas in the various departments at BAPCO. Each department has a local representative that deals with ideas that fall under that area. So many aspects of the scheme are decentralized. SIM-Net allows each person involved in the review of the idea to directly check on that idea and enter their comments or results. At the same time the departmental reps or the overall scheme administrators can check status of active ideas.

Of course, submitters will also be able to directly enter ideas with a streamlined entry page tailored to their needs.

American Axle designed a new awards process to promote submission of ideas by paying points for each idea submitted. This is on top of existing awards for implemented ideas. At the same time, five separate plants now have a custom made link from the SIM software to their payroll system. Currently, each month all awards to be paid are verified and processed within the SIM software (this payout process may be moved to bimonthly payout that links with standard payroll payment schedules). The processed awards are automatically transferred (in a data format designed for the payroll system) to a location that the payroll system imports for payment and taxes.

For submission recognition points only, a participant will not be paid those specific points until they have accumulated at least 25 points (they will be banked until they achieve enough points to be paid). This is to promote associates to submit multiple ideas.

American Axle - Three Rivers Facility	American Axle - Detroit Gear Facility	American Axle - Buffalo Gear Facility

BOOTS

The manufacturing arm of Boots (in Nottingham, England, U.K.) used SIM to replace an in-house DOS based software tracking system in 1997 for their employee suggestion scheme that had become outdated and would be very costly to rewrite in-house. They chose to purchase the SIM software and along with some minor modifications have a system that solved their tracking needs and provided enhanced tracking of awards and suggestions. They call their suggestion scheme 'All Ideas Matter' (AIM).

Later in 2000, they moved on-line using the web-based SIM-Net. This allows submitters, evaluators and other participants to directly access data for the ideas they are involved in. Linking SIM to their e-mail system allows automatic e-mails to be sent to participants with a web link in the e-mail back to SIM-Net.

Recently they have extended their suggestion scheme to Boots the Chemist shops and, over the last two years, have rolled it out to the retail shops and remainder of the 66,000 workforce. This scheme now utilizes recognition rather than cash based awards to thank participants for their involvement in the suggestion scheme. This works better for customer focused ideas from retail shops that are difficult to measure for any cost benefit. They continue to use SIM-Net for on-line access but support other methods of receiving ideas from retail shops where intranet access always available. They rolled out a new logo with 'Aim to Win' as an evolution of the original 'All Ideas Matter' logo with an arrow/target image. This keeps their image fresh with employees.

The City of Mesa has a long running suggestion program called the Idea Club. They use the SIM-Integrated Idea Management software version 6.5 to manage their program.

Agenda Report - They wanted to use specialized agendas and meeting minutes for their evaluation review meetings. A custom set of reports automatically create the agenda and meeting minutes based on the SIM suggestion database. This allows the administrator to quickly pull together the report. Additionally, their input on needs for awarding gift certificates,lead to improvements to the SIM-AwardsPlus package to control gift certificate inventories from a wide range of vendors.

Holsum Bakery Inc. Phoenix, Arizona, has a very active associate suggestion system used to manage continuous improvement efforts. They use the SIM software with direct on-line access by associates. Associates without a computer can access SIM via several kiosks set up with computers for their use. Their suggestion system is strategically integrated into overall quality effort and with 450 employees they received over 2500 ideas in 1997. Without direct on-line access their process would quickly bog down with the high volume of ideas they handle since they only have a part-time administrator. In recent years they have continued to receive several thousand ideas per year. Holsum won the Arizona Pioneer Award for Quality in 1996 and have received top awards from W.E. Long Company for their bread and bun quality.

The following Success Story comes from Lockheed Martin Vought Systems. Whenever resources allow, they highly recommend that a suggestion program be networked. One unanticipated benefit from our networked system is that we have now seen many cost saving ideas submitted, approved and implemented within minutes. Remember, the sooner we implement an idea, the sooner we see savings from that idea.

The SIM-Easy module is so intuitive, that our suggestion submittals doubled in only one week. This happened before we trained our employees on the new system.

The Reporting capabilities are phenomenal. I have been able to see information about my program that I did not know existed prior to downloading my old data into SIM.

By using the employee participation report to identify people who have not participated in the suggestion system, each person was automatically contacted using the SIM e-mail module via the report. This showed significant spikes in participation right after the e-mails were sent out. This powerful promotional effort took very little administrator effort to produce.

They selected SimNet 8 to replace thier Sim-Easy 6 software that had been in use for ten years.