People often say it's the little things that mean the most. That theory helped the Savannah River Site's management and operations contractor save $45.7 million in fiscal year 2014 through its Continuous Improvement program.
According to Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, or SRNS, the program has saved a total of $200 million since 2008, when the contractor took over the contract.
One example of a continuous improvement initiative is the Corrective Action Program, which will save 14,000 man-hours per year, or $1.24 million in productivity. Required by the Department of Energy, the program serves to correct and prevent recurrence of issues affecting personal safety, operational safety and regulatory compliance.
More than 2,000 employees at the Site use software called STAR,Site Tracking and Reporting, to track corrective actions. The initiative not only made usability improvements within the software but also streamlined the overall corrective action process.
"I use STAR as part of my job as the Analytical Lab F Area Operations STAR and Assessment Coordinator. Since STAR was improved upon in early August, I've been able to save a lot of time and the interface is a lot easier to use," said SRNS employee Janice Steadman Shipes.
To further cost savings, SRNS has continued by hiring Simpler Consulting, a leader in Lean Transformation, to help develop lean experts within the company. Simpler also will help implement a Lean Business System to improve employee satisfaction, reduce costs, increase productive capacity and improve quality and timeliness of product delivery.
PK Hightower, the manager of the Continuous Improvement program, spoke about the addition of Simpler Consulting.
"Simpler's successful track record for implementing Lean management initiatives in the government sector will be invaluable for SRNS during our Lean transformation," said Hightower. "The Continuous Improvement program at SRNS strives to improve our processes in a highly-regulated environment while saving taxpayer dollars."
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter.