EVALUATION DEPARTMENTS AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN THE POLYTECHNICAL SCHOOL OF THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF BAHIA (Atena Editora)

Abstract

This article presents an initial process of evaluation (benchmarking) of the seven departments and of continuous improvement that is being implemented in the Polytechnic School of the Federal University of Bahia. Data from the seven departments was collected to disseminate information throughout the school. In addition, a list of TQM continuous improvement tools was searched to choose which ones to implement and the order in which they were implemented. Meetings with the seven departments were held to carry out a Shake Down in search of problems/opportunities for improvement. More than 600 issues were listed and more meetings were held to prioritize issues. A seminar was organized for professors, employees and some of the main student leaders to approve the methodology and choose the main problems to be worked on in 2019. Four committees were formed made up of professors, employees and some of the student leaders. A ranking was produced among the seven departments composed of 13 indicators. The prioritization of topics / problems to be worked on were: Infrastructure = 82%, Management = 55%, Financial resources = 42%, Security = 38%, Lack of laboratory technicians = 35%, Interpersonal relationships = 19%, Commitment and motivation = 9%, training = 8%, lack of teachers = 8%, communication = 7%, teaching = 5%, undergraduate and research courses = 3%, external relations - 3%. This article has practical implications for other engineering schools/polytechnics and universities as many of the findings can be shared with them. This article can start the cooperation between the 32 schools of our university, with 45,000 students, 2,500 professors in 125 courses, which can lead to a better understanding and implementation of Continuous Improvement in their units and get a better evaluation in the annual ranking of universities. The originality of this study is that, to our knowledge, there is no other public Polytechnic School with a Continuous Improvement program like this one in Brazil. Huge involvement was realized as most of the 170 faculty and 70 staffs were present and participated in the brainstorming of problems and helped to prioritize them.