6 Guidelines of Canon's Suggestion System

1. Always show a positive response to suggestions for improvement.

2. Help workers to write easily and give them helpful suggestions about their work.

3. Try to identify even the slightest inconvenience for the workers. (This requires very good superior-subordinate communication.)

4. Make the target very clear. Example: How many suggestions do we need this month? Which area (quality, delivery, manpower, etc.) do we need to work on now?

5. Use competition an games to arouse interest, such as displaying individual achievement charts.

6. Implement accepted suggestions as soon as possible. Give awards before payday.

Award System

Canon employees are offering around 50 improvement ideas per year per employee.

Canon provides awards for individuals, small groups and workshop units. These awards are intended to show management's appreciation for the efforts and the results.

A unique feature of Canon's suggestion system is the lifetime cumulative award system. Each suggestion is given a certain number of points, and every year President's Awards are given to the 20 people who have accumulated the most points since the system's inception. Each recipient receives a certain amount of money and a gold medal. Since this can get a bit repetitious, there are also Presidential Awards for the most points in a given year, the top 30 people receiving a smaller amount of money and silver medals.

The list of Annual Awards provided at Canon includes: Model Workshop Award, Runner-up Model Workshop Award, Award for Eliminating 9 Wastes, CPS Performance Award, Excellent Small-Group Activities Award, Cumulative-Point Presidential Award, Annual-Points Presidential Award, Special Presidential Award.

Canon gives also Gold, Silver, and Special awards to their suppliers that have built promising systems for Quality, Cost, and Delivery.