Investing in Employee Genius: Part 1 - Innovation

TrippNT invests in something we call University Time. This is where the company breaks into teams and reviews issues from the previous day. The number of teams vary depending on the needs for that business quarter, however you will typically see three main breakout groups: The Kanban Team, The One-Piece-Flow Team, and The Automation Team. 

These groups generally follow a similar agenda for the first part of their 40 minutes. It begins with a “Nice Job Man”, allowing a moment for recognition within their team before plunging into the deeper waters of the “Issues” segment. 

Issues that occur throughout a work day, no matter how small, are recorded and brought to the attention of the team the following day. They are then deemed long-term or short-term issues. If they are short-term, the team resolves them on the spot, assigns any follow up tasks and marks the issue complete. For a long-term issue the team agrees on who will be accountable to solve it and an A3 (a Lean term for an improvement project) is made. This A3 will be tracked throughout the following days or weeks until it’s completion. The final goal being that we solve the core problem so that the issue never reoccurs. 

During the second half of University Time the teams break out to improve. Working together or individually on “Improving Today for a Better Tomorrow”. Sometimes this time is used for a simple, quick improvement designed to save 2 seconds. Alternatively, the employee may chip away at an A3 assigned earlier or steadily work on a personal A3 that could save them 15 minutes everyday. No matter the scale of the improvement, TrippNT requires that every employee share an improvement video at least once a month.  Once uploaded to TrippNT’s Youtube channel they are shared in the Morning Meeting sparking inspiration and additional improvement ideas for the whole company.

Mieshia Jackson, Shipping Specialist, “I appreciate the time TrippNT invests in employees in the morning”…”’it’s kind of like’ fellowship”. Her latest and favorite improvement is a QC station that significantly reduced wasted motion, waiting time, and potential defects. Meishia’s enthusiasm for this latest improvement is obvious as well as infectious, spurring on ideas for improvement and standardization throughout the shipping department.

This investment in innovation directly benefits our customers. Quality and speed are improved, as well as waste being reduced.  Employee turnover is low, allowing for retained knowledge and lean experts. The improvements steadily (or sometime quickly) compound upon themselves and result in long term growth and success. Ultimately these factors lead to a unified team there to support our customers and community. So get out there and “Go Improve!”