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Living Our Mission: Continuous Improvement For Continuous Improvers

Improving Products And Services Around The Globe Every Day To Make Life Better

If you knew Dorian Shainin, you likely heard him say “Some information needed to make a product both right and reliable isn’t in the textbooks. It’s in the parts.” From his days at United Aircraft to his retirement from Shainin, Dorian’s passion was solving problems, which in turn helped others improve their products and services. 

But honoring Dorian’s legacy isn’t just about solving other people’s problems. It’s about taking a bit of our own advice. Just like you, we are in constant pursuit of improvement. To work toward improving our products and services each day to make not only our lives better but yours as well. It’s just a part of how we’re living our mission.

This quarter we reached out to customers to get first-hand feedback on their entire experience with Shainin. We sought what Dorian would describe as empirical data from the people who know us best. We didn’t want to make assumptions; we wanted the facts. We’ve conducted a series of interviews and surveys with a wide variety of our customers to understand your experiences when working with us. These interviews have already been enlightening, and we’re appreciative of the time we’ve gotten to spend hearing about your experiences. 

As it turns out, we have work to do to improve your customer experience, create a relationship where your needs are better met, and provide better support to our customers, from Apprentices to RT5 Leaders and everyone in between. Our technical tools may be effective, but unless we provide the support, guidance, and structure you need, their impact can be insufficient, and that is unacceptable. For a team of problem solvers, we accept the challenge you’ve given us. We appreciate the candor of the interviewees, even when it was hard to hear. 

While some improvements will be made over the long term, we have already begun to make some changes to enhance the return on your investment and support your team as they solve problems. For example, we’re formalizing the procedure for coaching day preparation so that your team can best benefit from the time they spend with their coach. We’re also creating standardized resources that your team can access that will help them more effectively present, track, and complete their projects.

Of course, we have more work to do, but we’re excited to better guide you in enhancing your problem solving and, simultaneously, in better serving our mission of improving products and services around the world each day to make life better. 

If you’re interested in sitting down for a discussion or would like to send us a note about how we can better serve you, please contact Elizabeth Cobau at ecobau@shainin.com. In the meantime, we’re honored you continue to trust us with your problem solving and are excited to embark on this continuous improvement journey with you.

Dorian Awards Criteria

Master of the year Award

The Master of the Year Award is for leaders who have increased the impact of problem solving using Shainin technologies within their organization.

To be considered for this award, the submission must meet the following criteria:

  • Applies leadership skills to expand the impact of Red X technologies within the organizatio
  • Results including projects completed that made a significant impact to improving business performance
  • The number of individuals coached to certification

Dorian Awards Criteria

RT5 Leadership Award

The Rolling Top 5 Leadership Award is for leaders who have increased the impact of problem solving using Shainin technologies within their organization.

To be considered for this award, the submission must meet the following criteria:

  • Demonstrates leadership guidance, structural framework, and effective mentoring of a dynamic problem-solving culture
  • Conducts regular reviews to ensure that key projects are solved quickly and efficiently
  • Encourages major suppliers and customers to jointly solve problems by using Shainin methods and leveraging the results
  • Actively recognizes and rewards outstanding performance in problem- solving
  • The number of successful projects and certifications

Dorian Awards Criteria

Team Project Awards

This category of awards is for project teams who have demonstrated outstanding application of Shainin methodologies in solving complex problems within their company.

To be considered for this award, the submission must meet the following criteria:

  • Speed and efficiency of the problem solved
  • Technical difficulty and complexity of the problem solved
  • Project impact and leverage across the organization
  • Creative use of Shainin technologies
  • Clarity of the project documentation

Dorian Awards Criteria

Company Award

This category of awards is for companies who have succesfully developed a Red X Program within a facility, division, region, or company and can demonstrate impactful improvements based on that development.

To be considered for this award, the submission must meet the following criteria:

  • Demonstrates impact of Shainin technology greatly improving key business metrics. 
  • Examples include: scrap reduction, yield improvement, throughput, warranty reductions, field failure avoidance, and other technical solutions resulting in savings. 
  • Enables a successful launch of a new program or product.