Continuous Improvement Board & Innovation Scheme User Guide
Introduction Excellence Delivered (ED) is a strand of our DNA, and consists of behaviours, tools and practices to help us improve each day. Our continuous improvement (CI) board is owned by the team and is designed to be used by everyone. It should be centrally located at each location, ideally adjacent to the Altrad Storyboard. Individual sites may have a nominated ED Champion, who could become a focal point for facilitating and coordinating some of the discussions relating to the improvement board. The board should be used daily creating a place for useful information, team messages, and become a central location the team gathers round weekly to discuss: •
How they have performed in the week.
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Share updates of actions identified on the ‘T Card’ System.
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Shares updates and opportunities with each other.
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Explore ideas and suggestions that improve our performance.
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A mechanism for suggesting innovative solutions to how we operate including: •
Safer ways of working or means of reducing hazards
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Innovative designs for new or improved equipment, tools or plant
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Ideas for new products or services we might offer to clients
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Reduction of waste or environmental improvement.
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A flowchart highlighting how to use the boards for this purpose can be found on pages eight and nine.
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Please ensure you follow this process as it will give your idea the greatest opportunity to succeed, and make sure you tick the innovation box on the back of the ‘T card’
Note: you are also able to submit ideas via inspire@altrad.com 2
The board contains a ‘T Card’ system where you can record actions that help us improve our performance. Driving our performance at both a team and individual level will help us deliver Excellence, in all we do. How to use the ‘T Card’ system •
Who can start an improvement action and fill in a ‘T Card’? •
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What is an improvement action? •
An action can be anything that you, or your team, think would improve our performance, and our service.
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It can cover any subject and any team; it is not restricted to site operations or health and safety.
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Improvement actions can be large actions which impact all our teams, or something just relating to ourselves that means we might perform a job a little safer or more effectively.
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Where the improvement action incorporates an element of innovation (see flow chart - page 8 & 9) you should submit your idea to inspire@altrad.com or speak with your board champion.
What colour ‘T Card’ should I use? •
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Anyone at all; it’s a way of gathering good ideas and working improvements together as a team.
When the board is in use the team is split into smaller teams, sometimes these might be work groups, each team or work group should identify itself as a colour and write their team identity in the corresponding coloured boxes below the ‘T Card’, so everyone knows who is who.
Who should complete improvement actions? •
There is no exact answer to this, but the principle is actions are driven by each of the teams or work groups, assisted by Altrad and other functions within the organisation. 3
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Where a site has a nominated ED Champion, they may be able to assit with some facilitation.
We want to recognise and promote the great work our people do each and every day, and one of the ways we do this is via our ‘Impactful Innovation and Digital Transformation Awards’ •
The use of our CI boards, ‘T Cards’ allow many new ideas and improvements to be implemented across sites, offices and the UK business.
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The ‘T card’ system is the vehicle for submitting ideas related to these awards as well as via inspire@altrad.com
How to complete a ‘T Card’ Use the correct coloured ‘T Card’, to reflect the team or work group you belong to. The sections and questions on the ‘T Card’ are to help you structure your idea in a way it is easy to understand and implement. Keep it simple and use the ‘T Card’ with our Good, Better, How approach. •
Good – What is good about the way we work now?
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Better – What is your idea for making us better? You could also think about what is at the root cause of what is getting in our way now?
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How – How are we going to get your idea implemented? What do you believe are the actions needed to make us better?
Insert the ‘T Card’ in the rack in either Inspire, Simplify or Win in the first column, Live Action. If the suggestion is to be considered for the ‘Impactful Innovation and Digital Transformation Award’ don’t forget to tick the innovation box. The action is now part of our Excellence Delivered DNA and should be reviewed by the team weekly. 4
There may be situations when the team feel an action or set of actions require a greater level of detail than the ‘T Card’ system provides. When this is the case there is a continuous improvement template available which can be accessed by all work groups and referenced within the ‘T Card’ system. This addition to the ‘T card’ system can lead to further reward for the individuals submitting ideas for improving the business. Any ideas are welcome. Weekly Reviews The board should be reviewed and used daily, ensuring that information is being kept up to date, remaining relevant and useful to all users. On a weekly basis, as part of an existing rhythm when a team or work group meet, for example during a tool box talk or discussing safety messages, the messages and improvement action board should be reviewed together. 5
The team or work group discuss any key learning opportunities from the week, share messages and updates and discuss the work for the week ahead. Plan to succeed. The team or work group should collectively review the status of the improvement actions, where they have any new knowledge of improvement actions they can share it within their team or work group, and they should progress the ‘T Card’ along the tracker if possible, moving it between columns to indicate a change in the action status, as below: •
Live Action - new action identified.
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Assigned to action owner – an individual has agreed to own the delivery of the action.
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In progress – once an outcome has been agreed for an action, it is now “In progress”
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With client or other for comment – if the action has been passed on for review.
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Overdue – to indicate an action is still being progressed but maybe taking longer than hoped to complete.
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Closed – once the agreed action is completed to the satisfaction of the nominated action owner.
The team, site management or ED champion should collect the good spots (positive and negative observations) from the board along with any other submitted by the team and looks for key trends, actions and feedback. Where an innovation has been identified, the local team collectively deicde whether it is worth pursuing in line with the flow chart (pages 8 & 9). Depending on the idea, it could be elligible for the ‘Impactful Innovation and Digital Transformation Award’, further details can be found in AIMS-SOP-55-21.
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The weekly reviews round the board offer an opportunity to feedback on good spots, and praise with positive feedback the team and team members.
There is an area for anyone within the team to feedback on how we are doing. This can be through observations relating to requests and feedback, or simple feedback on the board itself. Finally the weekly reviews provide a good opportunity for feedback to be provided on the progress of submissions for the ‘Impactful Innovation and Digital Transformation Awards’. Supplementary Notes There may be occasions where some actions form part of a larger process that is already initiated, for example an action resulting from a near miss or incident investigation would be logged within MyOSH and our client’s systems. Where this is the case notify the team that the action is being progressed by others and is recorded within another system. For very large teams or locations you may choose to have more than one board in operation, with a team or work group having their own board to monitor. On these occasions apply a judgement of how you want to use the colour coded ‘T Card’ system.
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Capturing Innovation
I have an idea
Utilise your ED continuous improvement board and create a new “live action” using a T card and flag it as an innovation or contact us via Inspire@Altrad.com
Collab with y team and the merit innovation Is it worth e Move ‘T ca progr
No
Idea flow chart - CI Boards, ‘Impactful Innovation and Digital Transformation Awards’ and ‘Good Better How’
The ‘T card’ is updated and moved to “closed”
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No
Have you considered submitting the idea or innovation into the monhly ‘Good Better How’ process?
You agree the Idea is not worth further exploring. Move Your ‘T Card’ to Close
The business agrees how the idea or innovation shall be progressed and owners assigned. Award winners notified
Yes
borate your d discuss ts of your n or idea. exploring? ard’ to “In ress”
Explore further
Utilise the people in your team and seek Line Manager support assistance with cost estimates, technical support or other. Develop your innovation or idea into a simple proposal (could be one page of paper), covering:
Immediate expolitation
It is agreed to simply proceed and implement your idea or innovation locally and submit for further consideration
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Would the idea work
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Who would it benefit (Altrad, Client, Other)
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How the idea or innovation would be impactful and how would it deliver benefit
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How much would it cost
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How long would it take to implement
Submit Innovation via Inspire@Altrad.com and consider for ‘Good Better How’
Idea or innovation should be progressed further contact is made with the originator You agree the idea is not worth further exploring. Move your ‘T Card’ to Close
Progress
Submissions are evaluated at the monthly Performance Management meeting by the Regional Performance Managers and TA’s Quarterly and Annual Awards agreed
No further action 9
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