iDS Lean

Organizations have long known the power of suggestions, and the Japanese have known this for almost three centuries. It was in 1721 when the eighth Shogun, Yoshimuni Tokugawa offered rewards for people’s ideas and today the Japanese are known for their ability to harness their employees’ ideas effectively. Kaizen-Teian (Japanese for Improvement Suggestions) has made companies like Toyota, Honda, and Sony very successful. Their ability to empower their associates to continually improve their work areas has made them leaders in their fields and by far some of the most efficient organizations in the world.

Wise managers have learned that in today’s globalized economy, with rapid product introductions, remaining competitive can no longer be done through engaging outside consultants or hiring more people. Doing more with less requires the sustainable engagement of their brain trust which not only resides at the management, engineering, and technical levels, but at their manufacturing front-line.

INCENT designed the Idea Development System (iDS : pronounced “ideas”) to assist organizations with the implementation of Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement in their organizations. iDS-LEAN was designed to systematically prevent the pitfalls of the ordinary employee suggestion box, and to help facilitate the capture, evaluation, selection, and implementation of all the ideas in your brain trust. Together with its reward management and visual management tools, iDS is a complete solution which effectively helps you:

• Promote the Continuous Improvement Culture
• Foster teamwork and collaboration.
• Sustain a continuous flow of Cost Savings and Improvement Ideas.
• Maintain your Lean Program delivering results year after year.

Lean Idea Management

Lean Idea Management is the elimination of non-value added steps in a typical idea management process. From the elimination of the paper process, to parallel and structured evaluation techniques, iDS can cut the ideation to implementation timeline by up to 75% and reduce the typical overhead associated with managing ideas in a manual process.

Our software was designed by a team of Idea Management and Lean Manufacturing experts. Our technology was built with Continuous Improvement (CI) in mind. Idea Management software solutions come in many different formats, but only iDS-LEAN is designed to effectively engage your organization in Lean, Kaizen, and Six Sigma initiatives. Our software will help you track, sustain, and drive:

• Continuous Improvement
• 5S
• Safety
• Quality
• Waste (muda) reduction.

iDS-Lean Key Features

• Global access via the internet
• Task based workflow
• Directed collaboration
• Email notifications
• Kaizen Cards
• Awards Management
• Multilingual Support
• Visual Management (Program statistics, health charts, and accountability reports.)

Why will your implementation of a Lean culture benefit from iDS-LEAN?

Lean organizations rely on the Continuous Improvement (CI) efforts of all its employees. CI is not about implementing the million dollar idea, but rather the implementation of many smaller ideas. Making an organization Lean takes many years of training and culture changes, and convincing employees to embrace CI activities is not an overnight event. iDS was designed to help jumpstart and sustain this effort with its combination of motivation, accountability and tracking tools.

• Motivation: It is difficult to convince employees to help identify waste and areas of improvement when there is no benefit in return. iDS’s motivation tool, the reward engine, will ensure that your workforce feels a tangible benefit from engaging in the CI process.

• Accountability: Nothing can stop the CI process more than the lack of support and follow through from an organization’s management and support resources. iDS’s accountability tool will make sure that individuals engaged in the idea development and implementation process are held accountable to their deadlines.

• Tracking: Knowing how effective CI is in the organization is a key to fostering further buy-in from your team. iDS has the right tools to ensure the performance and benefits are transparently communicated to your team. Our visual management tools provide the flexibility to keep everyone informed of key performance indicators.