2001-11-01T00:00:00Z

Consolidated Edison, the utility serving New York City and its environs, is in the third year of an extremely successful process improvement implementation using Process Innovation Through Teams (PITT™) and BrainSmart Leader (BSL™). I recently had the opportunity to listen to people from ConEd explain what the key ingredients are to make process improvement programs successful. Not surprisingly a number of the key ingredients center around how the program is launched, and what is done to sustain it. Program Launch – Program launch starts with a good evaluation of the proposed program. Does it match your company’s culture? (Or, if you want to change your culture, does it match the one you want to create?) If the answer is no, look elsewhere. Many process improvement programs are major efforts driven from the top down. Others are driven from the bottom up. PITT™ and BSL™ follow both routes. ConEd liked the initiative and skills PITT™ developed in the workforce. They also liked the way the two programs encouraged, if not outright required, communications from the top down, bottom up and across functional lines. The second step of a successful launch involves getting buy-in from the program’s stakeholders — in this case, the employees, union and managers/executives. Every company has initiated programs that turned out to be “flavor of the month”. Employees will be skeptical of any new program. ConEd explained the benefits of PITT™ to the employees, that it is focused on helping them make their jobs easier and the company more competitive. They also set the expectations that the teams sent to PITT™ would complete 3 projects, not just one and forget about it. ConEd stressed to the union stewards that PITT™ presented an opportunity for the company and union to work together to make improvements. They also agreed improvements from PITT™ wouldn’t result in any loss of jobs for union members. The last group to deal with was the managers/executives. Here ConEd took a unique approach of selling instead of mandating the process. Al Homyk, the initial ConEd champion for PITT™, met with executives/managers to market the program. Executives and managers elected to participate and send teams. Sustaining the Effort – ConEd did a number of things to sustain the effort. First the success of the teams that went through PITT™ provided examples to use in the marketing meetings with managers/executives. The electric operations division of ConEd held recognition breakfasts for the PITT™ teams and their supervisors. Breakfasts were held on the regional and local levels every six months. Electric operations also published a newsletter, The PITT™ Report, which highlighted PITT™ efforts. The letter included a column from the group vice president demonstrating his continued support of process improvement.   Other Key Lessons – There are other key lessons to be gleaned from the ConEd experience.   <ol> <li> Process Improvement needs an owner. Someone has to do the marketing, keep the efforts in the company’s view, and deal with the myriad tasks required to get people to the training and to keep them moving through their projects.</li> </ol> <ol start="2"> <li> The managers and supervisors have to be educated as well. This is where the BSL™ workshop was very successful. At this workshop managers were taught what to expect from the PITT™ teams, how to select a team, and given the skills needed to motivate the teams.</li> </ol> <ol start="3"> <li> Make-up of the project teams is crucial. You need the right mix of people on the teams with the right mix of experience.</li> </ol> <ol start="4"> <li> Communications are critical. This comes as no surprise but you have to keep the successes of the process in front of everyone’s eyes.</li> </ol> While the steps and lessons above will have to be tweaked to best meet the needs of your organization, they provide an excellent roadmap. Is process improvement worth the effort? Just ask the people at ConEd. They’ll tell you for all their efforts they have saved over $5,000,000, improved communications between the workers, union and management, and now have a process improvement program that is largely self-sustaining.§ - Bob McGarry, Sextant Consulting

2009-03-12T03:57:18Z

10 Consolidated Edison, the utility serving New York City and its environs, is in the third year of an extremely successful process improvement implementation using Process Innovation Through Teams (PITT™) and BrainSmart Leader (BSL™). I recently had the opportunity to listen to people from ConEd explain what the key ingredients are to make process improvement programs successful. Not surprisingly a number of the key ingredients center around how the program is launched, and what is done to sustain it.

true Sustaining Success Sustaining_Success

2009-03-24T00:25:54Z