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Emrill has looked to Japan for wisdom, implementing the new ‘Kaizen’ philosophy within its business strategy. Created in Japan following World War II, the term itself means “continuous improvement.” For Emrill, it has become a way of life.
“Since implementing the philosophy, we have noticed direct cost savings, improved quality and environment, health and safety performance and above all elevated employee morale,” said managing director, Ben Churchill.
The philosophy involves every employee from upper management to cleaning staff. Each person is continually encouraged to come up with suggestions for small improvements on a regular basis. It is where Emrill’s vision of empowering staff has stemmed, encouraging people to take ownership of tasks and create effective cost saving systems, explained Churchill.
“Recommendations
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At Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon, a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee are collected, shared and implemented yearly. And the ideas don’t necessarily have to be complex, says Churchill.
Recently, at Festival City, Emrill changed the street light timing during the peak three months, reduced the running hours of the fresh air handling unit during the night, reduced the staircase light working hours, reset the timer of site, office, street and common area lights and reduced the running time of the AC unit by three hours, resulting in a saving of 46,179 kWh.
“All the ideas implemented were a result of Emrill taking the philosophy to the client base it serves by suggesting improvements in terms of cost, safety and sustainability. Emrill staff in coordination with the client work together as a team to ensure ideas generated are put into practice,” said Churchill.
While the popular attitude may be: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Kaizen urges to “do/make it better, improve it even if it isn’t broken. If we don’t, we can’t compete with those who do.”
“The Kaizen approach is not to identify deviation and take actions. [It] is about bringing small changes in the system by suggesting innovative and effective ideas and implementing them to improve the efficiency of a process or system thus reducing cost, improving quality and service delivery, while enhancing environment and safety performance.”
Significant energy savings were also seen at the Residences in Downtown Dubai and Dubai Marina. At The Residences Phase 1 car park the transfer fan working time for 51 units was reduced by providing a timer/contactor and setting it to work for 15 minutes an hour.
As a result, the fan working time was reduced to six hours a day, resulting in an energy saving of 18 hours which translated into an annual cost saving of approximately $14,000.
Emrill has established a detailed procedure for identifying process and health safety environment and quality related deviations. Furthermore scheduled and random inspections and audits are in place to identify potential non conformities.
The deviations are reported in appropriate forms from client feedback forms and incident report forms to supplier/subcontractor feedback forms. Depending upon the magnitude of the problem, corrective/preventative actions are taken accordingly after investigating the root cause. These are then reviewed during client meetings and senior management meetings to ensure effective results.
“The inception of Kaizen at Emrill, has seen us achieve cost savings, customer appreciation, energy savings, waste minimisation, H&S improvements and an outsourcing [reduction],” said Churchill.
“It has allowed Emrill to strive towards obtaining the small goals in order to reach overall success. Everyone is encouraged to bring out ideas/suggestions for improvements which support one of our Emrill values of openness.”
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