Employee
Suggestion Teams
by Jim Collison
Communication
is the key to the success of the Employee Involvement and employee
idea program at Shurtape Technologies, Inc. in Hickory, NC. Shurtape
manufactures tape products, paper tapes, duct tape and carton sealing
tape. They have three manufacturing plants and one converter plant.
The first thing
the company did was to set up teams of employee volunteers. Each
department has their own team. These teams come up with employee
ideas and employee suggestions for management. Each team has a budget
for implementing ideas.
Then the company
decided to make teammembership a
requirement for all employees, in each department. Volunteerism
was not working.
Teams
for Suggestion Program
At first the
employees at Shurtape resisted the team idea. They were worried
about having to rely on a co-worker for bonuses and rewards. But
after working in the system for a few years, employees began to
think, act and work as teams.
Shurtape has
a bonus system to reward employees. Each employee gets quarterly
bonuses and a year-end bonus. (These do not include the Christmas
and July bonuses each employee receives.) The bonuses are based
on net sales. The better the company does, the better the bonus.
The company has a "threshold" of sales that has to be
met. If met, then employees receive a bonus based on a percentage
of earnings. The highest bonus given yet was 5.7% of annual earnings.
Shurtape also
has a reward system. Each team is able to put all accepted employee
ideas into a drawing for a prize. The prizes are different every
time. The latest was dinner at one of the better area restaurants
and a movie of choice.
Employee
Suggestions
Some of the
many successful employee suggestion and employee ideas from employees
at Shurtape:
- One employee
suggested putting airguides on two rollers on a machine in the
manufacturing plant. The cost to implement the idea was $4,000,
the savings was $800,000.
- One young
lady's suggestion was to put a filter on a latex tank. The cost
was $400, the savings was $70,000.
- Another suggestion
was to put an electronic switch on a packaging line. This idea
saved on machine down time
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