About Ability Works
Operating in Kew, Victoria, Ability Works is a not-for-profit social enterprise whose mission is to provide Purpose Through employment. Ability Works provides the opportunity for people living with disabilities and those socially excluded to discover their potential and enhance their quality of life. For the past three years, TSSC has partnered with Ability Works to help expand their range of employment opportunities.
Contribution to the Community
Upon joining Ability Works, all employees feel a greater sense of self-worth, a sense of connection with their community, and a sense of achievement that is recognised and appreciated by a variety of stakeholders, including family members of employees.
Business Need
The Transurban processing area was identified as facing several daily challenges. The complex nature of the work limited the number of roles that could be made available to supported employees, and in turn this limited the ability of the area to keep up with the high-volume demand of its customers.
Improvement Strategy
Ability Works and TSSC saw the opportunity to develop a flexible process for including assisted employees while also promoting a wheelchair-friendly workplace.
The team implemented the Toyota Production System (TPS) methodology to achieve the following objectives:
• Visual management to provide all employees with a better understanding of whether they are ahead or behind.
• Simplified processing tasks to allow assisted employees to participate in more Transurban roles
• Increase output by eliminating stagnation between processes
• Re-layout and introduction of 4S to make adequate use of the floor space, as well as to make the workflow easier for employees in wheelchairs
Results
• A dramatic increase in assisted employees working across the Transurban process, from 2 to 14 members
• Increase in daily output to match customer demand, from 670 up to 1200 e-tags
Jidoka
Build in Quality
4s + 1
Everything in its place