Striving for Excellence in Operations is the AES Way
A company’s products or services are only as good as the operations that support it. To be successful, companies must have robust, standardized operational processes in place, and a team of motivated and talented individuals prepared to effectively execute them. In addition to these important factors, you’ll see that winning organizations also embrace change and continue to strive to develop and grow every day.
At AES, we are always looking to improve the way we manufacture our gas equipment and related services to better serve our customers. Whether that means accelerating lead times, continually advancing quality, or leading the industry in responsiveness for customer service and field support, every initiative we undertake is aimed at maintaining, and further enhancing, the high standards of excellence our customers have come to expect. In fact, last year we formalized a program for continuous operational improvement that we call ‘Applied Excellence’.
How are we working to achieve Applied Excellence every day?
We take a multi-pronged approach to continual improvement that equally addresses the key elements we feel are core to our success: our operations and our people.
Operationally, we have set a series of SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) that leverage accredited methodologies to enable AES to improve lead times and lower costs. These methodologies include:
- Lean Manufacturing: This method enables us to systematically uncover problems so that we can strategically focus on the most valuable operational facets to improve lead times, lower costs, and eliminate waste.
- 5S: A key principle of Lean Manufacturing, 5S helps us focus on maintaining a clean, safe, and organized operating environment, significantly improving quality and efficiency.
- Value Stream Mapping: Through this process we analyze the flow of materials throughout our organization during production to proactively identify areas for optimization.
- Kaizen: We follow the Japanese methodology of continuous improvement to increase productivity by equally engaging team members across our organization, enabling us all to work smarter and without unnecessary waste.
In addition to improving the AES experience for our customers through these proven methodologies, we also continually strive to enhance our company culture and work life for our valued employees. We strongly believe that happier employees yield better products and services, and our marketing, sales, customer service, engineering, production, quality, HR, and accounting teams all play a critical part in furthering AES’ mission to uphold quality in every facet of operations. We want AES to be a place where our employees love to come to work and deliver for our clients, every day.
Applied Excellence: More than a mantra
Applied Excellence is more than a company initiative; it encompasses how we approach daily tasks and challenges. Through Applied Excellence and our ‘quality everywhere’ corporate philosophy, we have significantly increased our on-time delivery rates and have further solidified our place as the go-to provider for top quality gas delivery products and services. But even as we continue to achieve successes like these, we won’t stop innovating and striving to push the boundaries of excellence, for our customers and employees alike.
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