Business Influenced by Suggestions : Employees’ Ideas Led to Cost Savings of $2 Billion in 1987

For those who have ever stuffed something into a suggestion box thinking it might as well have gone down a rat hole, take heart.

Or take Edward A. Anderson, for example.

Anderson, 51, of Yorba Linda, Calif., has been named “Suggester of the Year” for 1987 by a business trade association for nine little gems his company adopted that resulted in cost savings totaling $22 million that year. Anderson is a senior scientist in the materials and process laboratory of Hughes’ Space and Communications Group.

The suggestions not only were beneficial to Hughes Aircraft Co., but they also put extra money into Anderson’s own pockets. Patents have been awarded on five of his ideas to improve methods of assembling communications satellites.

One of his suggestions saved about 15,000 hours of labor. Another reduced the weight of satellites, thereby cutting down on launch costs.

‘Desire for Recognition’

“I’m motivated by a desire for recognition by the management,” Anderson says. “When you come up with a really good idea, you know you did something important. It’s my way of keeping on top of the Christmas tree.”

The Hughes program does not provide direct financial rewards, but “there’s a direct relationship between your suggestions and your salary raises,” Anderson says.

Over 14 years, he has submitted 200 ideas. Of these, his bosses say, 100 were adopted, leading to a total cost savings of $75 million.

Anderson’s selection was announced in Orlando at the annual conference of the National Assn. of Suggestion Systems. Its delegates included administrators of suggestion systems for 900 member companies nationwide with a combined total of 13 million employees.

The runner-up suggester is Richard Makaiwi, who recommended the use of a pneumatic underground piercing tool for installation of natural gas services to customers of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. of San Jose.

That suggestion will result in an estimated savings of more than $1 million in each of the next five years. Finishing third was Rickey D. Tison, who works for the Air Force at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. His idea led to the development of a machine part used in the repair of the engine afterburner of an F-111 jet fighter.

Air Force Saved Millions

NASS officials said that the Air Force suggestion program in fiscal 1987 led to a record savings of $309 million.

NASS member companies reported receiving 1,023,421 suggestions last year, which works out to 13 suggestions from every 100 eligible employees. Of these, 247,920 were adopted.

The companies reported savings of more than $2 billion in 1987 as a result of their employee suggestion programs, NASS said, with the employees receiving a total of $150 million in award payments for those adopted.

The first employee suggestion program in this country was set up in 1898 by the Eastman Kodak Co. The program is still operating. Shortly afterward, General Electric, Westinghouse, Metropolitan Life Insurance, Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals and others set up their own systems.

After World War II, a federal law opened the way for the widespread establishment of such programs in federal, state and local government agencies.