Since 2004, Great Lakes Council on the mid north coast of New South Wales has been involved in a continuous quality improvement program.
Great Lakes General Manager, Keith O’Leary, said a core principle of the Great Lakes Improvement Program (GLIP) is using a team based approach to provide lifelong skills to Council staff, while concurrently improving the efficiency and effectiveness of key Council processes. Each year, Council selects three processes to be reviewed.
“All employees are given an opportunity to nominate a process for review and Council is keen to take up their ideas to ensure interest in the program,” Keith O’Leary said. “Once the processes are selected, Council then determines key staff who best know the processes to form three teams. Over a five month period, the teams attend five workshops with consultants, Toucan Resources Group. They also work with nominated staff members who are familiar with the continuous improvement objectives. During this time, the teams work through a seven step review process. They firstly look at how the current process works, identify major causes of problems, and use creative tools such as brainstorming and cause and effect diagrams to consider all options for improvement to meet the changing expectations and requirements of residents and ratepayers. At the end of the five month period, the teams formally present their ideas to Council representation and management through a team report and presentation.”
Council has reviewed 14 processes over the last four years, with approximately 80 recommendations for change presented to Council.
Keith O’Leary said to date, 100 per cent of recommendations have been supported by management and introduced.
“This level of management support has ensured that staff feel valued, and enables them to see their efforts translated into results,” he said.
“Great Lakes covers a large geographic area and standardisation of good practice has provided significant productivity improvements, including cost savings, efficiency and customer service improvements.”
One review looked at pothole patching, heavy patching and maintenance grading processes. It included a combination of employees that have hands on involvement in the process, as well as those who coordinate the work.
Keith O’Leary said that by involving those who actually carry out the work activities, the review resulted in realistic solutions being developed to standardise resources and improve efficiencies.
“Employees had an opportunity to learn a lot about their process and share experiences and knowledge between different operational depots, which resulted in an improvement to the quality, process, resources, skills, productivity and labour allocation,” he said.
Approximately 80 employees have now participated in the GLIP program. Keith O’Leary said they have obtained additional skills in continuous improvement principles, data analysis, team building, communicating effectively and presenting information.
“At the same time, the team members have a great opportunity to better appreciate each other’s role within the organisation,” he said.
For further information contact Keith O’Leary on (02) 6591 7222.
