Juno Beach, Fla. – Tom Kipp learned just how serious Florida Power & Light is about safety and reliability when he stopped by a booth at the company’s 18th annual Quality, Safety and Innovation Expo.
An FPL business client and the vice president of Production for Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc., Kipp was given a hands-on demonstration of how to safely cut metal cables by the employees of FPL’s Distribution team.
“One of the things I noticed was the enthusiasm of the FPL employees,” said Kipp of the Expo. “The Operational Excellence’s focus on continuous improvement appears not just to be a flavor of the month here. Whether it’s an engineer or a technician or someone from Human Resources, all those I met have the same commitment to improvement. The leadership has managed to make it a culture, rather than a program.”
The Expo is a companywide showcase of projects created by FPL employees to improve efficiency, reliability and safety. Welcoming thousands of people and featuring nearly 70 exhibition booths at the Juno Beach headquarters, the Expo spanned FPL’s customer-focused capabilities, ranging from advancing electric-vehicle technology to reducing power outages caused by pine and palm trees. Kipp was one of 98 business clients invited to attend the day-long event on April 27.
Sponsored by FPL’s departments of Corporate Operational Excellence and Corporate Safety, the Expo is an opportunity for teams of employees to share how they’ve employed Six Sigma-based quality techniques to solve process problems and improve existing programs. FPL offers employees an extensive Six Sigma program that awards certifications for varying levels of training, helping to create a network of more than 1,000 efficiency experts.
“The projects you’re seeing on display here today are just part of FPL’s relentless pursuit of efficiency,” said Jim Robo, chief operating officer for FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy. “Our operations and maintenance costs are 30 percent better than the industry average. That’s a testament to our innovative employees and it’s one of the ways we offer such a great value proposition for our customers – bills that are the lowest in the state and 25 percent lower than the national average.”