JEA is a Florida based utility company which takes care of the electric, water and sewer facilities for its customers in North East Florida. The company has a vast network and serves more than 300,000 clients by providing the basic need of water. The JEA electric framework as of now serves more than 417,000 electric clients in Jacksonville. JEA extensively uses LEAN methodology and Six Sigma Improvement techniques. We would be discussing three example projects such as the St. John’s River Nitrogen Project, Improvement project for Efficiency and Safety for the Water Maintenance Trucks and the Sanitary Sewer Overflow reduction project. Utilizing Lean has resulted in effective cost reduction for the company and aided to the growth of the company. JEA modified the Six Sigma DMAIC process to DMAGIC, adding an extra “Green it up” phase. We would also be examining if the changes contrived are in accordance with the “Code of Ethics for Engineers” by National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
Keywords: Lean, DMAIC, Engineering
Introduction
JEA envisioned of utilizing the Six Sigma techniques in 1999. To start with, they trained their employees and had its first Six Sigma project in 2001. JEA had 32 “Black Belt” employees by 2010, out of which 8 were supporting the utility full time. The Vice Presidents and the Directors of the company were also Black Belt trained.
Since 2000, JEA has been applying Lean techniques, and it has resulted in a collective cost saving of around $579 million. They achieved a completion of 580 projects ever since. The company’s 2010 budget had projects primarily centralized around cost reduction initiatives. Practicing Lean and Six Sigma Techniques has resulted in dodging a whopping $95 million on the cost reduction projects. Process improvement methods resulted in a business of $950 per customer and the increase per month linked to the improvement methodologies also ended.
JEA applies both Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. The foundation for JEA process development plan is a slightly tweaked rendition of DMAIC.
Essentially, DMAIC covers the five steps of Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. Following these steps, JEA defines its goal, gathers measurements or data to compile the prevalent issue, analyzes the effects and causes. After this, the probable improvement options are thoroughly analyzed, and the one with most positive effects is selected and implemented. After implementation, the Control phase ensures that no other variables are present which could invite long-lasting negative effects.
In 2008, JEA came up with their improvement plan based on DMAIC. They named it DMAGIC, where the ‘G’ stood for “Green it up” phase. This initiative directed that every project improvement plan should have some positive effects towards the environmental issues.
The Green phase scrutinized the various aspects of environment like the Air and Water quality issues, waste streamlining and ecosystem issues. In addition to this, it also took care of Societal and Economic Issues like energy conservation and water/air quality. So that no environmental issue is left untouched, a relationship matrix for each project was developed. It covered not only the environmental issues but also the societal concerns. All the root-causes were identified, and every corrective measure along with its outcomes was delved into before its evaluation.
JEA worked its way to be a socially responsible utility provider by giving a high priority in maintaining environmental standards.
Today, JEA’s prepared Lean and Six Sigma group gives exemplar administrations worldwide as well as supports the procedure change at JEA.
We would be discussing three example projects such as the St. John’s River Nitrogen Project, Improvement project for Efficiency and Safety for the Water Maintenance Trucks and the Sanitary Sewer Overflow reduction project.
St. John’s River Nitrogen Project
This was a project to reduce the nitrogen discharges to the St. John river. The root causes of this issue were considered to be the fluctuations in the nitrogen nutrient discharge to the river. JEA, being a Green company was committed to meet the EPA standards. In 2008 itself, JEA setup the target for meeting the 2013 EPA standards for nitrogen discharge to the river. The company worked diligently to achieve the goal and set up several Lean Six Sigma initiatives, aiding to achieve the goal.
Starting with the “Define” phase, extensive studies revealed that the Nitrogen effluent in the river is at its minimum on Fridays and rises to the peak on Monday mornings only to decline afterward. This pattern was observed for 67 weeks. They concluded that this emission is negatively affecting the monthly effluent report to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. After rigorous deliberation of the situation, the root causes were analyzed, and several changes were proposed to focus on the solution. For the Analysis phase, manual testing of daily 24 composite samples of both the influent and effluent was taken, and a multivariate regression analysis was performed. This determined which factor caused the highest variation in the effluent discharge throughout the week. The result proved that it was a nearby fish processing facility which caused the nitrogen level to spike every weekend. This facility was closed during weekends, and thus the necessary microbes for the JEA water treatment plant, (which was actually the effluent from the fish processing factory) used to die between Friday evening and Monday morning.
Now that the root cause was known, the new demand for JEA was to keep the microbes, necessary for sewage treatment alive over the weekend. Hypothesis testing revealed that byproducts from the bio diesel making process could be fed to the microbes and this is exactly what was required for the water treatment plant to sustain.
Thus, a hazardous waste is now recycled and used as “Nitro-Gone.” In addition to this, a super microbe was breed by the JEA which could withstand even a 106 Fahrenheit environment.
The overall nitrogen output to St. John river was reduced by a colossal 74 tons per year.
Both customers and the company have saved a lot by this improved change. Since the nitrogen emission by JEA is considerably less, local municipalities have a benefit, and they use this margin to allow their water runoff, thus creating a societal welfare. Positive public perception and customer relationship have also been established.
Improving Efficiency and Safety on Water Maintenance Trucks
In 2005, May-September, there were three major safety incidents and one first aid incident on Pearl Street, Jacksonville among the team working on the Ford F-550 truck. These trucks were working on a water maintenance project. JEA adopted a Lean Six Sigma project to address this issue. The challenge was the reduce both the job time and safety incidents. The primary cause of the safety incidents was the tool/material layout on the trucks. They also wanted to reduce the maintenance time from 78 mins to 65 mins by March 2006.
Meticulous analysis using JEA’s trademark tool DMAGIC as framework, direct observation. Root cause analysis and 5-why questioning helped in determining the top factor for the increased time. The conclusion was the material/tools were difficult to locate and get off from the truck. Thus, the 5S process was applied to maintain a clean and orderly working environment.
5S is a 5-step process (Sort, Set-in-order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain).
A standard system applicable to all trucks was improvised. The tools positions were varied by ease of use and everything was labeled and had magnetic signs. There were notebooks with pictures and description of each tool.
To sustain this new system, a committee was formed which ensured that all water infrastructure maintenance trucks followed the fashion. Placement and position of any new tool were decided by this committee. Random inspection by managers and SHAPE representatives were implemented, and any anomaly was the responsibility of the Crew leader. The control and Improve phase of the DMAGIC safeguarded the sustainability of the new system.
This truly had a positive impact and the work time reduced to 55 mins. The crew could do more jobs per day. There were also hidden benefits like reduced fuel costs due to lighter weight of the trucks. Most importantly there were zero accidents since its implementation; thus the employees now work in a safer environment.
Reduction of Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO)
The evidence of the problem came into picture in 2002 as there were 43 SSOs per month. JEA formed an SSO reduction committee and positioned a Black Belt in that team. A data-driven study was made by them which resulted in replacing the ductile iron pipes. These ductile iron pipes caused 20% of the SSO’s despite being only 2% of the overall linear pipe footage. This resulted in an average of 2.5 SSO’s per month in 2009.
Changes to Improve the Situation
As it is applicable for any company, there is always a scope for improvement.
However, JEA promised deliverance of the target goals they had set up for each project. All projects and initiatives taken by JEA are in accordance with NSPE and Code of Ethics.
Conclusion
JEA is a stellar example of a company which used Lean techniques and improved the overall process by reducing wastes, customer satisfaction and saving money.