Towngas Quality Day 2015

Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) had been invited to attend the “Towngas Quality Day 2015” in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 16 Dec 2015. It is our second time to attend this meaningful quality event. Dr. Aaron Tong (Former Chairman, Ms. Minda Chiang (Hon. Secretary, HKSQ) and I (Former Chairman, HKSQ) represented HKSQ to attend this event.

We met Dr. Victor Lo (ISI) and took a photo together.
(Left: Mr. Peter Fung, Dr. Victor Lo, Dr. Aaron Tong and Ms. Minda Chiang)

Opening Ceremony of Towngas Quality Day 2015 was started. The slogan G = I X I that Growth = Innovation x Implementation was the key icon for the ceremony.

Mr. Wong Wai Yee, Peter (CEO, Towngas) gave welcome speech and he welcome all of us to join towngas quality day for the presentation from the best Superior Quality Service (SQS) teams. He appreciated the guest speaker Mr. Matthias Li (Deputy Chief Executive cum Chief Financial Officer, Ocean Park Hong Kong) to share his vast knowledge of providing quality service to the many tourists and local Hong Kong resident. Then he introduced SQS programme which based on the concept of the Quality Circle and launched in 1992. He said towngas had challenged SQS teams to look at ways of improving many different aspects of the company such as safety, risk management, service, environment and productivity, always with the overall benefit of customers in mind. The 5 best SQS teams from Hong Kong would present their project this year. Moreover, one of the Group’s joint ventures, Mianyang Towngas China Co., Ltd. had joined us to share their winning SQS project in “China National QC Convention 2015”.

Mr. Matthias Li (Deputy Chief Executive cum Chief Financial Officer, Ocean Park Hong Kong) gave a guest speech named “Service Excellence at Ocean Park”. Firstly, he briefed the history of Ocean Park that over 38 years since 1977. There were close to 130 million people had visited Hong Kong’s premier park since inception in 1977 and welcomed 7.4 million guests in FY 2014/15. Moreover, Ocean Park’s attendance record was ranked the 13th in the world, 4th in Asia and 1st in China.

Mr. Li briefed their Vision, Mission, and Core Values, as well as Brand Pillars to us. Their vision focused on Guest Experiences connecting people with nature. Mission provided memorable experience and the highest standards of guest service. Core Values and Brand Pillars showed in the following diagram. Ocean Park’s guests profile was 50% of Mainland China, 35% of Local and 15% of Overseas.

Then Mr. Li discussed their service challenges such as Total Guest Experience, high expectation on operation, adverse weather, human capital, etc.

After that Ms. Mimi Fu (Operation, Ocean Park) continued the talk to explain their Service Delivery System included Vision/Mission, Guest Policy, Guest Service Committee, and different systems.

The overall structure of Service Delivery System was showed below.

They had two key guest policies for identify customer and commit to them. In order to achieve their policy, they formed Guest Service Committee and their terms of reference (TOR) were:
- To review, align and raise the overall guests service standard
- To review guest comments and trends
- To explore the establishment of departmental guest service targets
- To identify and recommend service training/enhancement opportunities

One of challenges mentioned from Mr. Li was delivery service excellence with full time staff over 2000 and part-time staff about 2000 in the park. Ms. Fu explained their HR system from staff hiring, training and recognition. They had 3-day pre-job training for both full-time and part-time staff to ensure more than 200 touch points were not missing. Moreover, they conduced different surveys such as Education Exit Survey (Annually), Teacher Focus Group (Quarterly), Guest Satisfaction Survey & Education Programs (Daily) and some ad-hoc / project-based survey (e.g. Halloween Fest).

At the end, Mr. Li told us that Ocean Park received 2015 Traveller’s Choice Awards for Amusement Parks and Water Parks around the globe 2nd in Asia. 

Mr. Alfred Chan (Managing Director, Towngas) presented souvenir to Ocean Park guests and gave words of thanks.

The presentation of SQS then started. The first team named “Green Quality” and “Towngas League of Innovators” was showed in the beginning.

Their problem was to handle of site inspection records and electronic site photos of distribution gas pipe project which was not than 200k pieces of paper used annually.

Then they employed quality tools like fishbone diagram and force field analysis to develop a new system for conducting site inspection using tablet PC and electronic record to replace digital camera and paper.

The second team named “Smart Riser Jacket”. The replacement of large among of defective gas service risers for non-chargeable accounts and each work caused 3-hour gas supply interruption.

Their solution was to apply metalized putty and sealant directly to the location of gas leakage to stop the leakage and covered the corrosion area with plastic casings and then injected expanding foam to seal up the area to prevent further corrosion.

After the tea break, some awards were presented included poster winners and creative fill the blank winners.

The third team named “Kitz Generation” and they showed their traditional installation method and devices. Their customer always complained about the gas emergency shut-off valves were too bulky and difficult to turn that might cause risk act.

Then they sourced a new valve with less torque, lower cost and smaller size. It estimated annual saving upto HK$376,500.

The fourth team was “Tin Ho 13” and their problem was insufficient working space in the trench hinders the proper pipe clamp application for electrofusion of PE pipes.

They employed fishbone diagram and 40 Innovation Principles to find the solution. Then computer simulation to verify the parts was employed. Finally, device was developed using internal alignment clamp instead of traditional external pipe clamp.

The fifth team named “Service – Outdoor W/H” and their problem was over 300 outdoor water heaters installed in residential market and most of them were over 15 years. No new outdoor water heater could be replaced due to requirements of GU03.

Ir. Chan Chak (Customer Enquiries and Installation Services Manager, Towngas; Past Chairman of HKIE – MI Division) had also joined the SQS team for presentation.

Their solution was provided a simple and fast installation method to replace water heater.

The last performance was from the Joint Venture Best Team named “The Explorer” from Mianyang Hong Kong and China Gas Co., Ltd.

Firstly, they song the problem that no standard process for installing water heaters and then a poor or misconnection between the gas pipe and the hot water pipe caused water to leak into the gas pipe that damaged the gas equipment.

The team developed Gas Pipe Water Ingression Protection Device made up of brass cylinder, small ball and bracket secured within the water heater. That small ball called “Small Red” in the drama.

Finally, different awards were presented. The champion was the second team named “Smart Riser Jacket”.

During the tea break, we met a CityU TQE student who was intern in Towngas named Ms. Moon Yuet-Wah Lo. Our secretary Ms. Minda Chiang took a photo with her for memory.

Minda and I also took a photo with towngas cartoon for memory.

Towngas League of Innovators was creative and very interest.

Reference:
Towngas - http://www.towngas.com/eng/cust/index.aspx
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/
20140425 - HKSQ Technical Visit to Towngas - Quality & Innovation - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/04/hksq-technical-visit-to-towngas-quality.html
20141216: Towngas Quality Day 2014 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/12/towngas-quality-day-2014.html
20150730: Towngas CPD Seminar - Quality & Innovation Management System - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/07/towngas-cpd-seminar-quality-innovation.html