At Heritage, we realized that one of the best ways to improve and innovate our processes is to tap into the people who are using them every day. The Heritage Innovation Team (HIT) is the company’s online version of the classic suggestion box. We’d like to congratulate our latest Heritage Innovation Team Finalist, Dexter Thrasher, a service technician at the Heritage incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. His suggestion to improve efficiency in his work area is the first idea to reach the final stage in the recently revamped HIT program!
After joining Heritage in 2019, Dexter saw an opportunity with the automated process for moving carriages that convey waste containers throughout the plant, reducing from four steps to one. He also sought input from his coworkers, managers and a software engineer to validate his idea. His progress was tracked on the HIT platform as it moved to the Deploy stage when a software change was installed on the control panel for the carriages.
Dexter working “The Altar” at our incineration facility
“My suggestion was to add a feature to our altar operation to make it more computer operated, which would free up manpower,” Dexter said. “Some great people I have had the honor to work with at Heritage helped develop the insight into a project.”
–Dexter Thrasher
Along the way, Dexter earned monetary awards totaling $1,775. Now in the Deliver stage, the efficiency benefit of his HIT will be monitored through August, when he will be eligible for 10 percent of the profit.
Since the rewards-based program was introduced two decades ago, more than 600 Heritage Environmental Services (HES) employees have submitted more than 2,200 ideas, or HITs. Thousands of dollars and dozens of gifts have been awarded based on the impacts of their ideas for innovation.
In 2020, the Heritage Research Group and HG Ventures joined with HES to roll out an online platform that is easier for employees to submit ideas and to participate in their review along with the HIT subject-matter professionals, known as coaches. Monetary awards are available as they progress through the five-stage process – Discover, Define, Develop, Deploy and Deliver. The Heritage Innovation Team is only one of the many ways we empower our people to tackle the big problems.
Interested in joining our team of problem solvers? Apply today! https://heritageenviro.applicantpool.com/jobs/
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