Quality Workforce

DEI's Continuous Improvement Program Saves Nearly $17 Million Since 2000

Our efforts to make our business more efficient extend beyond the shores of North America. A Duke Energy International (DEI) continuous improvement program encourages employee teams to identify ways to improve DEI’s safety procedures, enhance revenues, reduce costs, simplify work processes and increase productivity. Employee teams submit projects annually as part of a competition that takes place in each Latin American country where DEI operates. The projects must meet certain eligibility criteria, including the requirement that projects must be implemented to be considered.

Since the program’s launch in 2000, approximately 400 completed projects have generated savings of nearly $17 million. One recent example illustrates how a good idea can save time and money. Frustrated by inefficiencies in the process for reconciling natural gas supplies with demand, several Duke Energy Argentina employees built a new online tool that reduced the time it takes to “dispatch” natural gas by 30 percent. The improvement streamlined communication, boosted efficiency and strengthened data security.