Cummins employees earn city award

A group of Cummins Inc. employees have received an award for their work with the Columbus Police Department on a project to make the department’s hiring process more efficient.

The Cummins employees received the Cummins Components Business Impact Award on May 31, the police department announced.

Collaboration began in the fall of 2015 when the police department approached Cummins about starting a Six Sigma project to assist with increasing the efficiency of the police department’s hiring process, which can take more than a year to complete. Six Sigma is a set of management techniques used to increase quality and reduce errors.

Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde, Deputy Chief Todd Harry, Sgt. Curtis Nelson and officer Matt Martindale worked with the Cummins employees to examine the police department’s hiring process in detail, police said.

By changing the order of some aspects of the hiring process, the department noted as much as a 40 percent reduction in time for an applicant to complete the testing process.

The new process was used during the spring 2016 hiring process and had positive feedback from candidates as well as the officers assisting with the testing and interview process, police said.

Rohde congratulated Cummins employees Mike Tinsley, Megan Henry, Tina Noronha and Jason Maddix, a former Columbus police chief, on the award and thanked them for their assistance.

“In the 18 years I have been here, this project was the most rewarding that I have had the chance to work on,” Tinsley said.

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop said the city was thankful to Cummins for its contribution of employee time and talent to the project.