On Tuesday, 28 July 2015, SMU held its inaugural Business Excellence Awards at the University Lounge. This event, hosted by President Prof. Arnoud De Meyer, recognized a total of five departments and 29 individuals for their contributions toward business excellence in SMU. Four categories of awards were presented during the ceremony: the Business Improvement Pioneer Award; the Outstanding Project Award; the Outstanding Department Award and the Business Excellence Role Model Award. SMU Black and Green Belts were also conferred to staff who had completed the requirements for certification.
Outstanding Department Award
The Li Ka Shing Library won the Outstanding Department Award for commitment towards improving effectiveness, productivity, and in building a culture of continuous improvement. To date, more than 70% of library staff have been trained through the SMU Green Belt programme, with 90% of the trained staff actively engaged in improvement projects and initiatives. The Library has been progressively building competencies for continuous improvement through extensive participation in SMU's Lean Six Sigma Green Belt workshops. Trained staff are subsequently mobilized to continuously improve the Library's effectiveness and productivity with their skills through improvement projects and initiatives.
Through various improvements projects, The Li Ka Shing Library has continued to improve in terms of appearance, meeting demand, selection of titles - all demonstrated by a continued increase in usage of their Lifestyle collections. For example, in 2014, 218 bestsellers were added to the collection with a record breaking 80% lending rate. They have also reduced the problems of seat hogging in the Library by an estimated 15%, allowing other students to use the seats and staff time to be better utilised during exam period. For their continuous effort and commitment, the department received a plaque and a total of $35,000, which includes $5,000 specifically allocated to their staff welfare fund.
Business Excellence Role Model Awards
During this award ceremony, four Business Excellence Role Model Awards were also given out to recognize individuals who had contributed significantly towards business improvement initiatives. The four recipients of this year’s award were Ms Tamera Hanken from the Li Ka Shing Library, Ms Karen Yee from OGL, Ms Yvonne Yong from SMU’s Integrated Information Technology Services (IITS) the and Ng Teck Siong, also from IITS.
Ms Tamera Hanken played an instrumental role in facilitating the culture of continuous improvement in the Library. She helped oversee Green Belt projects in the library and encouraged library staff to attend the Green Belt training. To date, 70% of all library staff have been trained in Lean Six Sigma methodologies with five Green Belt projects completed and several more underway.
Green Belts
In recognition of demonstrating continuous improvements, competency and successful delivery of business improvements projects, 10 staff members were also conferred their SMU Lean Six Sigma Black and Green belt certifications. These certificates were awarded to staff who have attended their pre-requisite Lean Six Sigma Training, passed the pre-requisite qualifying exams and completed projects which showed sustained process improvement which are – (1) User Driver Collection Strategy by Ms Nazimah Ram Nath, Ms Tan Yee Yee, Ms Rochelle Moyano Magat and Ms Hamidah Asri, (2) Items Reservation by Ms Fion Goh Lee Phing, Ms Lim Siew Khim, Ms Jennifer Anak Usah, and Mr Vincent Ong, and (3) Seat Hogging by Ms Yuyun Wirawati Ishak and Mr Vincent Ong.
Photos from Office of Business Improvement