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‘Employee of the Week’ database is full of insights for Supply Chain improvements.
Many companies celebrate ‘Employee of the Week’ or ‘Employee of the Month’. It’s a good practice and serves as a great motivator for employees to go beyond their assigned call of duty. Companies also cite the specific initiative taken by the employee.
I have gone through this database in a few companies and the insights are quite revealing. In many cases, these employees have responded well in time to prevent a problem. However, I noticed several other instances where the employee was instrumental in just putting out a fire. In some cases, it pertained to similar fires repeating periodically! Are we rewarding problem solvers or firefighters?
There is a clear case for finding the root cause of these problems and eliminating it. Should we reward an employee only if he has gone beyond putting out the fire and worked on eliminating its root cause? Point to ponder…
A few companies have institutionalized this practice of Corrective & Preventive Action (CAPA) for every problem encountered. This is how we make the system more robust and resilient.
CAPA is a fundamental element of the Process of Ongoing Improvement (POOGI).