CASE STUDY: Hitachi Vantara solves 40% of problems reported by its employees using Sherlock Waste!
CUSTOMER
Just after the New Year we began cooperation with Hitachi Data Systems (now Hitachi Vantara). The Polish branch of this global organization is a center operating in Cracow since 2007 and closely cooperating with the branch in Kuala Lumpur, providing financial and accounting services for all Hitachi units in Europe and the Americas. In addition, the Krakow branch supports operations in areas such as: HR, Business Intelligence, IT and after-sales customer support.
PROBLEM
A team keeping a watchful eye on the spirit of continuous improvement approached us looking for an innovative solution to elevate employee involvement in the existing system for submitting ideas and improvements.
SOLUTION
This initiative led to the implementation of the Sherlock Waste platform for all employees of the Center in Krakow and in Kuala Lumpur. We combined this event with the official launch and the "9 Wastes" workshop, which we conducted almost simultaneously on-site in Krakow and in the Malaysian capital.
EFFECTS
In addition to the employees involved in this initiative, who submitted as many as 163 problems and 160 ideas for their removal, leaders, managers and the Improvement Team also showed great commitment. As of today, we know of 22 removed problems and 44 ideas that are regularly implemented. That's up to 40% of the implementations from the solutions given.
We also conducted an anonymous survey of employees to see what they thought of the new tool. Some responses, such as this one, exceeded our wildest expectations!
"Created to share ideas and build cooperation between Krakow and Kuala Lumpur."
We also asked Mr. Pawel Sulinski, who is in the position of Business Development and Continuous Improvement Director, what he thought of our application:
"Sherlock Waste is a fast, simple and intuitive tool for reporting problems and ideas for fixing them. I was also persuaded to decide to use it by its transparent form: everyone can see the submissions and anyone can add an idea with a solution. Sherlock Waste is worth recommending to any company that does not yet have any improvement system and one that wants to re-engage employees in this initiative."
As Sherlock Waste also has an element of positive gamification on the basis of awarding points for entries, we announced a competition. Its conclusion was celebrated with the distribution of prizes, certificates and considerable refreshments.