Collective thinking
The Work Improvement Team (WIT) scheme was established in 1988 with the aim of creating a continuous improvement culture to build staff competency, enhance morale and improve communication between staff and management.

The Scheme has since been adopted corporate-wide as well as broadening in scope of projects to be both cross-departmental and cross-functional. Team membership also has expanded across divisions and more recently, to include external organisations such as the Hong Kong Productivity Council and The Quality Control Council as team members. Parallel to this development has been the trend of many projects migrating from cost savings to revenue generation schemes and a move toward value creation and smarter working practices.

Teams (Circles) organised from volunteers within departments and often according to work functions examine their work practices and propose projects that address better working procedures, improved technologies or new management approaches that seek such benefits as better task efficiencies, cost reductions, environmental best practice and other similar improvements. The projects are submitted to a committee for assessment and at the awards ceremony is held each year in which the finalists creatively present their projects.

In support of the WIT initiative, training courses are provided to team members to enhance self-management and project management skills, problem solving and decision-making capabilities. Teams are also coached in presentation skills and public speaking to help them effectively present projects in the awards forum.

Currently, there are more than 350 WIT teams engaged in about 355 projects, representing about 43.5% of the workforce. The most recent 2004 "Project of the Year" finalists included six projects ranging from office energy savings, to rail maintence, to enhancing rail system reliability to more efficient controls in air quality and temperature in selected stations. Awards were presented in three categories -- Servicing, Cross-functional and Engineering. In a Hong Kong-wide WIT competition, the Corporation's submission on "M-train L check rationalisation using DMAIC approach" took the Six Sigma Prize for 2005. In 2004 cost savings of HKD 13.5 million were realised through the application of WIT projects.

Enterprising initiatives
The initiative to empower staff with enterprising spirit, work ethics and sustainable mindset has fostered other innovation programmes over the years. The Staff Suggestion Scheme awards innovative thinking from individuals across the organisation for simple, cost-saving ideas. In 2004 a record 750 submissions were received covering a wide spectrum of creative ideas including changes in administrative procedures, re-organising the sequence of work tasks to improve efficiency, modifications in on-site maintence systems, and protective measures and additions to the workplace environment for better safety of staff and customers. A cash prize was given for the best suggestion and a total of 39 trophies were awarded.

The Self Initiative Scheme (SIS) introduced in 2004 within the property division solicited over 50 proposals for job-related improvement plans or new property management ideas. Already half the proposals have been adopted across the estates, shopping malls and commercial buildings owned by the Corporation. Amongst the most successful have been environmental programmes including the improvement of indoor air temperature in shopping mall entrance areas by using out-swing doors, energy saving devices for staircase lighting and the replacement of manual for automatic water taps in shopping mall restrooms.