The program had to be designed to allow, at some future time, members of different business units to look through the quality ideas of their own or other business units, searching for ideas that can be converted for their own use. When a quality team agrees on an idea it wishes to pursue, the team leader enters the idea on the team's file within the tracking program. The team files are available for viewing by anyone in the company, but only the team leader can enter changes of any sort. If the team decides not to proceed with the solution and implementation process, the idea is not simply deleted. If they decide, for instance, to not pursue a particular idea, their notes may serve to warn another team of potential pitfalls.
Soft dollars are mostly time and capacity savings.
The quality analysts are, of course, available at any time in the cycle between idea generation and idea implementation, but their involvement is assured once an idea is implemented. To certify the idea. To ensure that no good-faith errors were made. Very few are expected. People know their jobs, know who they affect and are very protective of their empowerment.