Overall Idea of the Year Award Winner - Honda of America

The Overall Idea of the Year Winner was a glass sealer tip submitted by Anthony Blamer, Steven Augenstein, and John Ayer of Honda of America. The winners are seen here with LaVerne Holland, chair, EIA Conference and Adrienne Finley-Plummer, judge of the Idea of the Year (at the podium).

The group looked at the problem of water leaks around window openings at the start/stop point of the sealer bead, then redesigned the sealer application tip. The result was an 85% reduction in leaks and downtime and 100% reduction in failures at the dealer. Here's how the idea came about, in their own words:

We were experiencing an excessive amount of water leaks around the fixed window openings due to the poor quality of starVstop (knit) point of the glass sealer bead. To countermeasure these water leaks we wanted to redesign the tip that was being used to apply the sealer.
After three different designs were tested we found that the final design worked best. This design uses a leading edge opening half the area of the trailing edge. This design showed improvements over all other designs.
In addition to the new sealer tip, a mastic regulator was installed to better control the flow rate of the sealer and eliminate the pulsing created by the Johnstone piston pump.

How does your company recognize outstanding ideas that save money, increase productivity and enhance your profitability? The Employee Involvement Association has an awards program that provides validation for your company's best ideas. For more information on EIA's awards program go to http://www.eianet.org/awards. The competition opens in January 2008 for ideas successfully implemented in 2007. The award entry deadline is April 30, 2008.. but it's not too early to start thinking about this now!

The best ideas...

Competing businesses often run on a level playing field: they can grow their companies by borrowing capital, hiring from the same experienced personnel pool, and expanding their locations. Where the advantage lies is ideas generated from within. As rubber giant Harvey Firestone said: "If you have ideas…there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."

The internationally recognized, non-profit Employee Involvement Association (EIA) values employees and ideas and each year recognizes the originators of the most significant ideas implemented in the previous calendar year. A rigorous competition has brought these individuals, organizations and ideas into the spotlight:
The Overall Idea of the Year Winner was a glass sealer tip submitted by Anthony Blamer, Steven Augenstein, and John Ayer of Honda of America. The group looked at the problem of water leaks around window openings at the start/stop point of the sealer bead, then redesigned the sealer application tip. The result was an 85% reduction in leaks and downtime and 100% reduction in failures at the dealer.

The Individual Idea of the Year Award was earned by Edward W. Sitarski, PE, MS of Grote Industries, LLC. His vision replaces manual terminal connector LED production with automation production that provides plug-and-play hardware interchange, graphical system monitoring and interfacing, quick-change capability, broad product adaptability, and enhanced quality control. It will increase efficiency, and reduce part cost, inventory and time to ship.

The Team Idea of the Year Award went to a group at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control – Dallas for an idea that reduced costs by 95.5%. Prior to this idea, employees in the stockroom individually counted and kitted fasteners into ESD bags. Now, assembly kits are released to the floor without hardware. Operators use their bench top bins to install hardware and then replenish their bins when empty from a conveniently close "hardware wall."

Other finalists recognized in the Idea of the Year competition included Dubai Aluminium Company Ltd / A.S. Jamshed, O.C. Thomas Jacob, J.G. Rocaberte, F.O. Boyles and P.P Silvosa; Dubai World / Jifry Cottage Pareethu Kutty Jifry, Pulukool Premavalsalan and Romeo T. Dacanay; Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control/ Mario De La Cruz; Satyam Computer Services, Ltd./ Chandra Sekhar Dasaka; Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control – Ocala/ Tom Martin; and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control – Orlando/ Technical Services Team.

EIA also presented these awards for 2007: Advocate of the Year: Susan Giliberti, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego, NY; Evaluator of the Year: Chandra Sekhar Dasaka, Satyam Computer Services, Ltd., FL; Executive Leadership Award: Tom Moser, Micro Motion, Inc.; Program Administrator of the Year: Brigadier Satish Bahuguna, Satyam Computer Services, Ltd.; and Communication Excellence Award: Performance Management Team Office, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

Sponsors for the event included BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, MetroParks of the Toledo Area, Dubai Aluminium, General Motors and the Social Security Administration.

The Employee Involvement Association serves professional managers and administrators of employee involvement and suggestion programs and has been in operation for 65 years. It is estimated that its member organizations receive more than 250,000 suggestions per year.