Abstract

        The application of Lean Management in organizations implies the involvement of all staff on the improvement of all operations, in order to reduce or eliminate anything that does not provide any added value to operations, improving the efficiency of each operation and, therefore, the whole organization. Whether the proposals for improvements come from the contributions of the working groups, through Suggestions Programs, or kaizen-blitz actions, the need to objectify the process of making decisions about its implementation emerges. As the size of the organization so does the volume of projects to improve and thus, the need to effectively manage the system through which they flow, are analyzed and, if necessary, put into practice.
        In practice, this Suggestion System covers three basic functions. First of all, it serves as channel to collect all suggestions for improvement from the production lines and service areas till the decision making on its implementation. Second, these processes allow that some of the tacit knowledge accumulated in the group members, moves to explicit knowledge, making easier the transmission and spreading within the organization. Finally, is an important factor for the job enrichment of the line operator that, by nature, is characterized by its monotony. To maintain the momentum throughout the organization from a long term perspective, the main problem is to maintain active staff participation in the improvement program. To get it, all suggestions should be evaluated through objective criteria, without generating doubts about its application, and all this must be done in the shortest time possible and maintaining active communication with the teams whose proposals are evaluated. If these elements are not perceived positively by the staff,  some of the requested involvement is lost, which directly affects the system sustainability.
        The proposed portfolio model and the economic analysis report model for the project try to step on the line to contribute to solving the above problem. The portfolio model is based on the one developed by Arthur D. Little for an R&D portfolio, being the one with a greater degree of similarity to the addressed problem. Considering a time horizon of 3 to 5 years, divided into two stages, and following the nomenclature of the Boston Consulting Group model, it allows to classify and identify projects that pose the potential to finance its implementation, always considering six lines of objectives: profitability, quality, delivery, safety, ergonomics and environment. In order to be applied in different organizations, the model was configured to suit their characteristics and objectives; that has been made possible that the model had been applied to various sports facilities with different features and an SME from the metal-mechanic sectorIn order to facilitate the work of improvement groups, a form was designed to provide the panels with an economic study of the projects and to have a provisional estimation of savings, thereby avoiding possible further disappointments. This form evolved through different groups, and is currently evolving, always with two objectives: the first is to make easier the necessary study of the economic viability of the project leading the group to do it properly and, secondly, to provide to the evaluation committee the basic information needed to perform the assessment, providing input to the model portfolio.
        The development is based on a qualitative-evaluative based methodology, deployed over 23 kaizen-blitz actions in four days, in which 63 projects were documented and a similar number of projects were left for further documentation and analysis by the improvement groups. Model results are compared with the decisions currently taken and a complete study of the characteristics of projects in each of the plants was performed.