Read this article about JR Automation, one of our finalists, in the category Best Achievement in Operational Excellence to deliver Business Transformation, selected by the independent judging panel, for the 2019 Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards program. Click here to read articles on other finalists.

JR Automation is a rapidly growing global supplier of automation equipment. Improving the financial and schedule performance of its business was a key focus in 2018 when JR Automation’s CEO/ Chairman launched their company-wide strategic initiative: Improve Project Performance.

The initiative consisted of 5 pillars, which collectively produced $10 Million in savings throughout 2018.

One pillar, made up of several OpEx projects, was dedicated to improving quote development with an objective of increasing the business’ financial returns on work it wins as well as increase the business’ win rate.

To create an optimized Quoting Process, JR Automation’s Master Black Belt, Jeff Opperman, assembled a team of problem solvers including Quoting Managers and executive leaders. Jeff also surveyed key functions in our engineering, operational, and sales teams on our current quoting process – what does the current process deliver, or not deliver?

Jeff combined this data with similar data from JR Automation’s standard Voice of the Customer survey. Using an affinity diagram, Jeff transformed that data into a list of key requirements for the new process.

The 5-phase process was documented through the company’s ISO documentation system, but the real challenge for this implementation was training. Business leaders understood how critical training was to a successful implementation, and they sought a training solution that would engage and excite learners.

Jeff worked with JR Automation’s Employee Development Manager, Robyn Gordon, to develop a board game that required players (learners) to say each step aloud as they moved through process, which caused each step in the process to be read aloud multiple times. Reading, saying, and hearing each step more than once contributed to increased cognitive retention.

Additional active learning techniques were built into game play, as players encountered “mini-games” that focused on key resources and learning objectives:

• Scavenger hunt that sent players into business systems to find the answers
• Adapted version of Pictionary™ that exposed players to reference work
• Adapted version of Catch Phrase™ that exposed players to vocabulary terms in the process

This project contributed to increased business and improved understanding of OpEx methodology. A key metric for quote development at JR is the amount of work won relative to the amount of work bid. This is measured as both Win Rate (% of $) and Hit Rate (% of opportunities). Management was confident that implementing this process was a significant factor in the business’ win rate increasing by 14 percentage points and the Hit Rate increasing by 8 percentage points. These percentage increases equate to approximately $140M in increased revenue.

This project also demonstrated the power of OpEx tools geared more towards Design for Six Sigma. Using these tools helped deliver the process for quote development, and business leaders experienced first-hand the benefits they could bring to our business.

Additionally, the team recognized that the tools used to develop this new process could be used in the process itself. They built opportunities for Process Flow Mapping, Morph Matrices, and Pugh Matrices into the process and provided dedicated training on each topic.