The suggestion system at Jam Petrochemical Company includes a steering committee, specialized committees, expert committees, and a secretariat.
The message of the suggestion system
Any idea or opinion that can create improvement in any field and is supported by sufficient reasons and documentation is called a suggestion. Do you have any suggestions? We look forward to your valuable ideas and proposals.
Your suggestion is valuable, no matter how small it may be.
General Conditions for Suggestion Acceptance
General conditions for acceptance of suggestions are as follows:
- The suggestion must be new and not part of the company’s ongoing activities.
- The suggestion must have technical, economic, practical, and quality justification.
- The suggestion must not have been previously implemented or approved as a contract or research project.
If the implementation of a suggestion is urgent and there is not enough time for the usual registration and committee review process, the suggester, with coordination of the relevant manager, may implement the suggestion after registration at the Secretariat and approval by the Acceptance and Review Committee. Upon acceptance and approval by the relevant committee, the corresponding points and rewards will be granted.
Objectives of the Suggestion System
Overall Objectives of Implementing the Suggestion System:
The main goal of implementing the suggestion system is to create a suitable environment for the participation of all employees toward achieving organizational objectives. A clearer picture of the aims and benefits of this system includes:
- Establishing and developing a creative environment at all organizational levels
- Strengthening organizational culture and sense of belonging
- Expanding the scope of thinking and institutionalizing improvement through change
- Broadening organizational learning levels
- Utilizing constructive and effective organizational suggestions to support improvement activities
- Identifying and empowering innovative and creative talents
- Aligning individual and organizational goals
- Solving problems using cost-effective solutions
- Encouraging employee participation in decision-making and planning
- Providing management with insight into employees’ actual and potential capabilities
- Valuing human dignity and status by creating a space for expressing creativity and talent
- Improving organizational performance, increasing productivity and quality, reducing costs and waste
- Strengthening communication between employees and the organization, fostering mutual trust
- Creating favorable conditions for work and eliminating barriers to inclusive employee participation
- Enhancing employee motivation, promoting work spirit, and increasing problem-solving capabilities
- Spreading a culture of participation and teamwork in solving problems and improving workplace relations and organizational behavior
The Necessity of Establishing a Suggestion System
The Necessity of Establishing a Suggestion System
Given that the employees of any organization are its most valuable assets due to their ideas, thoughts, and creativity, it can be stated that one of the systems capable of giving identity to this invaluable capital—aligned with their characteristics and spirit—is the employee suggestion system.
This system does not view human resources merely as tools to achieve organizational goals, but instead moves toward reinforcing human identity and distancing from a utilitarian view of people. It activates employees’ thoughts to help achieve the organization’s objectives more effectively. In this system, employees are rewarded for their ideas and thoughts—not as a price for their intellectual contributions, but as a gesture to improve their welfare. The true value of their ideas lies in involving them in the organization’s decision-making processes.
The suggestion system emphasizes that thoughts and ideas cannot be bought with money. Over time, implementing such a system in each organizational unit leads to a participatory environment, enabling the execution of other participatory management programs such as quality control circles, self-directed teams, group decision-making, and more.
Source: Saderat Development Bank of Iran website
History of the Suggestion System
Participation is a historical concept rooted in public administration and religious thought. For instance, participation based on consultation has been emphasized in Islam under the term “Shura”. The Holy Quran explicitly obliges leaders to make decisions on matters requiring investigation through consultation.
The suggestion evaluation and acceptance system, as a managerial technique to increase organizational efficiency and profit, became common in the United States. After World War II, the Japanese became familiar with this system through American industries and gradually promoted it in their own. From the 1950s onwards, this system was widely implemented in manufacturing and service companies in Japan and later adopted by companies and organizations around the world.
In Iran, the suggestion system was first implemented in the early 1988 (1367 Hijri Shamsi) in one of the companies under the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) — Iran Radiator Company. Following that, other companies also began implementing the suggestion system. Today, this system has been established in many domestic organizations and companies.
Source: Ferdowsi University of Mashhad official website
Topics and Areas Eligible for Suggestions
- Increasing productivity, optimal use of resources, cost savings, and reduction of overhead costs
- Improving safety, health, and environmental conditions
- Enhancing employee knowledge and health
- Improving work processes and structures to accelerate operations and services provided
- Increasing customer, client, and community satisfaction
- Improving working conditions and human relations
- Gaining employee support and backing for better service delivery and activities
- Increasing company profitability
- Enhancing the company’s reputation and image
Steering Committee
Consisting of the CEO, Complex Manager, and senior managers and heads of the organization and complex, the CEO is the Chair of the Steering Committee and responsible for appointing committee members. In the absence or delegation of the CEO, the Complex Manager will act as the chair of the meetings. The CEO, Complex Manager, Human Resources Manager, and the heads of Operations, Technical Services, Maintenance, and Quality Assurance are the main members of the Steering Committee, and meetings are valid with their presence. The Participation System Secretary acts as the meeting secretary and is responsible for organizing the meetings. Major duties of this committee include determining and approving the overall policies and objectives of the participation system, and developing promotional policies and methods to spread the culture of participation and encourage employee cooperation.
Specialized Committee
It includes representatives of the main members of the steering committee and the head of the unit related to the proposal. Its main duties are the initial and final review of proposals, supervision of the evaluation and points assigned to proposals, and the appointment of expert committees.
Expert Committee
Based on the scope of the proposal and the determination of the specialized committee, an expert committee is formed for further review of the proposal.
The Participation System Secretary is responsible for the implementation of the participatory management system in the company and is appointed by the CEO. The establishment of software and operational infrastructure for the participation system is the duty of the Secretariat of the participatory management system.
All company employees can submit their proposals through the suggestion system software and select the committee to review their proposal. Any registration or review done by the committees on the proposal is visible to the proposer. Each proposer can track the workflow and results of reviews and, if the proposal is rejected, can request a re-examination. According to the operational guidelines of the suggestion system, all approved and implemented proposals receive rewards.
The philosophy of the established structure for the suggestion system includes simplicity in the workflow process, balance between the economic benefits of implemented proposals and rewards granted to employees, and decentralization of senior management in advancing the goals of the suggestion system.
Previous cultural promotion efforts for the suggestion system include printing and distributing brochures, holding monthly meetings among suggestion system secretaries to review obstacles and issues, training on software and guidelines monthly at the Tehran office and website, weekly notifications sent to all users via the software, daily correspondence with committee secretaries, and continuous presence of the secretary and expert of the suggestion system in expert unit meetings.
In the new cycle of the suggestion system, actions such as launching a page on the company’s internet site to receive suggestions from external stakeholders, publishing news and announcements of the suggestion system secretariat, updating the suggestion system software, following up on printing and installing banners related to the suggestion system, and more are underway.
Receiving proposals from the organization’s external stakeholders
All external stakeholders of the organization (shareholders, customers, employees’ families, contractors, etc.) can submit their proposals to the Suggestions System Secretariat by completing the proposal submission form on the company’s website. As a token of appreciation, rewards will be granted for proposals that are approved and implemented.
Committees of the Suggestions System Secretariat
Currently, a plan for reviewing the committees of the Suggestions System is underway. The first committees formed in the company’s Suggestions System are as follows:
- Instrumentation and
- Telecommunications
- Maintenance
- Mechanical Maintenance
- Electrical Maintenance
- Maintenance Services
- Maintenance Planning
- Process Engineering
- Technical Inspection
- Laboratory
- Research and Development
- Product Warehouse
- HSE
- General Engineering
- Olefin Operations
- HDPE Operations
- LLDPE Operations
- Butene 1 Operations
- BD Operations
- Storage and Offsite
- Operations
- Warehouse Operations
- Procurement and Self-Sufficiency
- Administrative Services
- Human Resources and
- Labor Relations
- Safety and Firefighting
- Training
- Projects
- Commercial Affairs
- Finance
- Planning and Information
- Technology
- Jam Sanat Karan Company
- Security
- Public Relations
- Participation and
- Productivity System
Contact with the Suggestion System Secretariat
Address: South Pars Special Economic Zone (Asaluyeh), Jam Petrochemical
P.O. Box: 415-75391
Phone: 0773-7323221 ext. 3040
Fax: 0773-7323311 ext. 12
Email: suggestion[@]jpcomplex.com