• Distribution (system reliability)
• Major Projects (Planning, Engineering, Construction and Systems Operations)
• Generating Plants

Working with Improvement Teams

MSI's efforts, at first, were directed towards training the professional personnel in these functional groups on the quality tools and techniques, applied to their respective areas, and on team work. These teams worked on topics such as:

• reduction of annual system interruption time
• reduction of dispatching time for repair crews
• integration of different work units that are part of the same business process
• reduction of system faults due to faulty materials and workmanship

MSI also helped the different functional areas develop a system of indicators (flag system) that shows the contribution of all the work units to the desired results. This system was also used to analyze the impact of different factors on the products and services.

Working with Management

Once the teams were trained, MSI focused its efforts on making management lead the quality efforts. To accomplish this, MSI met with all high level managers of the company and sensitized them to the new methodology and quality culture.

• During this process, there were a large number of areas identified where our intervention was required.
• This resulted in monthly visits of four of our consultants to support management in the areas of:
  • Human Resources
  • Finance
  • Materials
  • Administrative Services and Logistics
  • Distribution
  • Transmission
  • Communications
  • Commercial Planning
  • Engineering
  • Construction System Operations and Dispatching
• MSI's approach in all these areas was to:
  • Develop the unit's Mission
  • Determine the internal and external needs of the unit
  • Identify the basic results expected from the unit
  • Develop the indicators to measure each of the expected results 
  • Analyze the gap between the existing and the desired results
  • Establish improvement teams to resolve the problems identified.
  • The main result of these efforts was the integration of Management into a corporate management process.

Re-engineering

Utilizing its experience in the industry and the methodology and technique developed by its consultants, MSI led an effort in the distribution group to redesign the way of doing business.

• Several teams of professional personnel, with vast experience in their respective areas, were created to develop the "ideal system" to satisfy customer needs. They also made sure that the product would conform to the following attributes:
  • No defects (no interruptions in service and if they exist, service is to be restored quickly)
  • Delivery (service according to specifications)
  • Cost (cost per customer with growth below inflation)
  • Security (for the employee and the customer)
  • Community responsibility (meeting social requirements)
• This effort was also guided by two additional criteria:\
  • to reduce costs and
  • management levels.
• The steps taken were:

1. Determine the needs of the customers and actors of the process

2. Define the existing problems with the current process

3. Define the products and services that are necessary to meet the fundamental objectives

4. Analyze the problems that exist in the organization in performing the functions that relate to the fundamental objectives

5. Identify the key indicators of result and process.

6. Develop the redesign of the process, structures and organization based on the previous items

7. Support the implementation of the recommendations.

Other areas are currently involved in similar efforts in order to focus on customer needs and reduce costs.

MSI's contribution to re-engineering was to be co-leader of the effort, transfer the technology, and provide its technical and managerial expertise in different functional areas.

Other Activities

• Materials
  • Identify opportunities in Sales, Warehousing, Accounting and Systems
  • Identify existing materials 
  • Standardize materials 
  • Integrate existing systems
• Collections
  • Establish team to study the high cost of credit due to the large number of accounts not collected
  • Analyze the accounts and their impact on results
  • Develop improvement activities
    
    
• In all these activities we provided several of its consultants with vast experience not only on quality programs, but also in the electric industry. As a results some of the benefits were:
  • reduction of 18% inb the time to process trouble calls
  • reduction of 29% in the yearly outage times
  • reduction of 19% in the time it took engineering to complete their drawings
  • 21% reduction in customer complaints
  • 32% improvement in the time to produce financial reports