In
2013, ABARTA’s PIT Crew team was challenged to design a new employee suggestion
program. This was a collaborative effort which, after reviewing the successes
and failures of past programs, looked to create a fresh, new program with a
primary goal of fostering 100% participation in the ABARTA Continuous
Improvement process. The result was the creation of the RISE program, an
acronym which stands for Reduce, Improve, Simplify and Eliminate.
RISE continues the basic premise of previous
programs, specifically, soliciting employee suggestions for improvements in
productivity, efficiency, safety and cost reduction. However, Coca-Cola Buffalo’s Mid-Management
team wanted to ensure that employees are fully engaged in the entire process
and therefore, a highlight of the program is a team approach whereby the
submitting employee is completely involved in all aspects of their idea
generation, i.e. research, justification, solution development, etc. Every idea
is scored on 4 levels, needs justification, ROI, implementation opportunity,
and Company commitment.
In
January 2014, at the kick off meetings, each employee was given a unique coin
designed by the Mid-Management team.
Coins were manufactured with a value of 1, 5, 25, and 50 points. Any idea meeting the aforementioned criteria
will be given points based on the grading structure developed.
Twice
a year, in June & December, a celebration will take place where employees
can redeem their points for prizes.
We
are very enthusiastic that this program will not only engage and motivate our
employees to become more involved in making The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of
Buffalo a company that truly values and encourages employee’s feedback but also
recognizes their accomplishments as their ideas become reality.
