Siemens Traffic Controls (STC) is a fast-growing company within Siemens UK and in order to maintain their current success and maximise future results, the Excellence Model provides the company with a clear and proven framework within which to pursue their improvement strategy.

Gordon Wakeford, STC’s managing director, explains why: "The Excellence Model and its benefits have been proven many times before within world-class organisations and in STC we are keen to follow their lead and achieve similar levels of success. The Model is recommended in Siemens UK and many of our businesses have benefited from its use. When I was managing director of Siemens Standard Drives, we used the Model and achieved fantastic results - including winning the BQF's UK Excellence Award in 2004 - so I am confident that it will provide us with great benefit in STC."

STC began its Excellence journey in February of 2007 with its first assessment and Excellence Model score. The assessment process involved a large cross-section of participants from across the business that enabled as many people as possible within company to be involved. This process resulted in ten key improvement initiatives that the group felt could make the biggest impact.

Although the main assessment for Committed to Excellence (C2E) took only one day, it required a lot of preparation internally to ensure that the company was ready. The initial application contained details on three of the ten improvement initiatives along with the impact, relevance and timescales of each of these. The C2E assessment day then required representatives from across the organisation to share their experience of these initiatives with an assessor from the BQF and to answer any of his questions.

Says Lindsey Turnbull, business improvement and diversity manager: "Going through the process of preparing for C2E and actually achieving it was an obvious progression for STC and a good stepping stone towards Recognised for Excellence which we aim to achieve in 2008. It has also provided us with many business benefits. We continue to maintain the Excellence Model momentum."

"People sometimes find it difficult to focus on improvement initiatives while carrying out their ‘day jobs’ and C2E has proved to be a very effective focus and a goal for people to strive for. Anything that keeps the Excellence Model message at the forefront of people’s minds is valuable and C2E has done exactly that.

"Having an experienced practitioner giving us the benefit of his wisdom was also a key asset because people are still learning about the Excellence Model and the 'best' way of doing things. The assessor and the resulting report provided us with some excellent feedback at an early stage and gave everyone involved a real boost and a desire to continue."

STC completed a Highways Agency CAT (Capability Assessment Toolkit) audit shortly before C2E and found that much of the process that was followed for the CAT assessment was mirrored in preparation for the C2E assessment, and links between the two helped reinforce the messages in individuals’ minds. Achieving C2E has provided the company with many benefits, including cost reductions, as a result of the improvements they introduced.