Continuous improvement at DTE Energy is part of the fabric of the culture says Bob Hemrick Director of Continuous Improvement Strategy Group at the company. Today it's about people and developing their skills and capability to do continuous improvement. But it hasn't always been like that, he says.

In this Process Perspectives podcast, Hemrick describes the evolution of continuous improvement at DTE - how it has moved from tool-based to much more strategic in focus - and how the company has made continuous improvement one of six corporate priorities. DTE won PEX Network’s Best Process Improvement programme, this year at our annual flagship event PEX Week, which takes place in Orlando, Florida – an award the recognizes process excellence programs that have generated exceptional results through process.

Interested in what it takes to be an award winner? Download a presentation about process excellence at DTE: Program Award Winner 2013: DTE Energy's CI Journey of Learning

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Questions addressed in this podcast::

• Have you also seen the challenges that confront you within the continuous improvement program also change as the organization matures?
• One of the things that sounds quite unique about continuous improvement at DTE Energy is that it’s tied in very closely with your company’s overall goals. How does that work?
• Do you think that your program could be as successful without linking CI to strategic goals at such a high level?
• What do you think is unique about DTE’s approach to continuous improvement?
• You also have an employee portal dedicated to CI networking. How does it work and have you found it a useful way of helping keep continuous improvement front of mind?
• What has it meant for DTE to win best process improvement project this year?