McCormick Continuous Improvement CCI drives cost savings

McCormick deploys continuous improvement initiative to drive down costs and sustain its enterprise performance. ...

... "The Company achieved an increase in both operating income and operating income margin in the first quarter with higher sales, a favorable sales mix and CCI-led cost savings. Comprehensive Continuous Improvement (CCI) is an ongoing initiative to improve productivity and reduce costs throughout the Company's global operations. " ...

Via McCormick: Record Profit and Cash Flow for Fiscal Year 2009

Management discusses the company's results and mentions CCI: McCormick Q4 2009 Earnings Call via Seeking Alpha: "On the same basis, we increased operating income for our consumer business 12%. These results were driven largely by progress for CCI, our comprehensive continuous improvement program. Cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter was particularly strong, exceeding our expectations with further achievements in working capital management. "

CCI targets: McCormick First Quarter Results: "CCI-led cost savings are on-track to reach $35 to $40 million in 2010. "

Sypris Six Sigma Electronics

Sypris sees margins expand from lean and Six Sigma efforts. ...

... "Mr. Gill added: The outlook for our Electronics Group remains positive, with this segment of our business expected to benefit from further gross margin expansion during 2010 as a result of new program launches, process improvements, increased productivity and lower costs driven by LEAN and Six Sigma quality programs. " ...

Via Sypris Solutions: Gross Margins Continue to Expand

Walmart Green Supply Chain Will Target Manufacturing and Raw Materials

to drive goal eliminating 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain. Walmart will implement a program to drive action in the supply chain processes. ...

... "Action -- For a project to be included as part of this goal, it must reduce GHGs from a product in either the sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, customer use or end-of-life disposal. Walmart must demonstrate it had direct influence on the reduction and show how that reduction would not have occurred without Walmart’s participation. " ...

Via Walmart Stores: http://bit.ly/daVXIu

Lean Six Sigma Program Office for Operational Performance Enhancement

Lean Six Sigma foundation is built into the Defense budget through a program office with tangible objectives. ...

... "Initiative #7: Establish agency Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Program Office to enhance agency operational performance and ensure common approach on LSS projects.
Performance Assessment - Progress towards the end state is assessed with performance indicators such as contract closeout timeliness, reducing cancelling funds, forward pricing rates, contract audit follow up reports, Lean Six Sigma implementation, quality assurance surveillance plans and eBiz electronic processing utilization. " ...

Via Defense Contract Management Agency: Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Estimates (PDF)

Lean Six Sigma Cost-Cutting Program

Lean Six Sigma integrated into an enterprise program can be used to drive operational efficiencies across an organization. ...

... "Nevertheless, a large proportion of respondents note that company-wide-improvement programs -- such as lean or Six Sigma -- were strong motivators as well. " ...

Via Forbes: Cost-Cutting

Haynes Lean Six Sigma Program

Mark Comerford, President and CEO of Haynes International, discusses the company's results and highlights its Lean Six Sigma program which is focused on delivering operational efficiency. Haynes improvement culture extends to the environmental discipline where its has driven energy cost savings. ...

... "We’ve also expanded the use of key metrics across our business focusing on cost reduction initiatives and extending our Lean and Six Sigma programs. During the year, we were also nominated for the 2009 Indiana Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, and we were recognized by Indiana Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman, for environmental stewardship. Furthermore, working with Purdue University and US Department of Energy, we’ve taken on initiatives in our plants, which we estimate will result in savings of approximately $300,000 in annual energy costs. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: Haynes International Earnings

More on the Haynes and Purdue collaboration ...

Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership project with Haynes International: "Haynes implemented a five-person Energy Savings Team to identify and implement energy savings projects ... Haynes expects to see natural gas cost savings of nearly $360,000 annually upon the completion of all the EES projects. "

Rapid Six Sigma Goes Green

Local mill uses Lean Six Sigma to generate benefits from recycling. ...

... "Hopefully, our recycling project will generate interest and enthusiasm among our employees that will carry over into their waste disposal habits at home, concluded Curtis. A Rapid Lean Six Sigma team was formed to develop the Luke mill’s recycling program. " ...

Via Mineral Daily News-Tribune: Luke mill program

Six Sigma Strategic Cost Cutting

Petrochemical company, Equate, sees positive performance in 2008 and leverages Six Sigma to identify strategic sources of operational efficiency. ...

... "One way to define areas for improvement and enhance our strengths, EQUATE continues executing its Six Sigma program with a target to qualify more persons in addition to the 23 green belt holders who were certified in 2008. " ...

Via Zawya: EQUATE 2008 performance

Flowserve Six Sigma CIP

Flowserve focuses its Lean Six Sigma program on activities that will improve the customer experience, increase productivity, and expand margins. ...

... "We continue to focus on improving on-time delivery and quality, while reducing warranty costs as a percentage of sales across our global operations, through the assistance of a focused Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) initiative. The goal of the CIP initiative, which includes lean manufacturing, six sigma business management strategy and value engineering, is to maximize service fulfillment to customers through on-time delivery, reduced cycle time and quality at the highest internal productivity. This program is a key factor in our margin expansion plans. " ...

Via Flowserve Corporation: 10K SEC Filing

Clariant Lean Six Sigma Excellence

Clariant confronts its decline in demand and profitability with a program based on Lean and Six Sigma methods to drive margin improvements. ...

... "former Hoechst man Kottmann, who took up the reins four months ago, highlighted further cost saving efforts to be initiated under the Clariant Excellence banner. This will focus on a Lean Sigma regime, a combination, he explained, of Six Sigma statistical process control and Japanese influenced lean manufacturing techniques. " ...

Via Plastics and Rubber Weekly: Clariant Efficiency Program

Lean Restart of Manufacturing Line at Bell Textron

Bell Helicopter uses lean principles to accelerate its performance on defense manufacturing program. ...

... "As workers prepared to restart the line for Lot 11 in May 2008, they applied Textron Six Sigma processes and tools to accomplish a lean restart of the SEP line. " ...

Via Defence Professionals: Bell Helicopter

Six Sigma Portfolio Management

Buhler AG will monitor the execution of its Lean Six Sigma program in a key division using Instantis' project portfolio management software, EnterpriseTrack. ...

... "EnterpriseTrack was selected by Buhler AG to manage and track the execution of its Lean Six Sigma program in its Engineered Products Division across all business functions. With corporate headquarters in Uzwil, Switzerland, and a presence in 40 countries around the globe, Buhler is a technology group and global market leader in food processing, chemical process engineering, and die casting. Buhler's objective is to improve its customers' performance and competitiveness by applying Lean Six Sigma methodologies and tools to its customer-facing business processes. " ...

Via Instantis: EnterpriseTrack for Lean Six Sigma Project Portfolio Management

Furniture Manufacturer Plans Lean Initiative

Natuzzi plans to use the challenging economic environment to retool the company for growth and operational efficiency, by launching a lean program across the enterprise. ...

... "Launching a lean manufacturing program for all facilities. " ...

Via Furniture Today: Natuzzi North American furniture plant

Quest Diagnostics Lean Six Sigma

Quest Diagnostics discusses its operational efficiency program, which includes leveraging Lean Six Sigma in the company's operations. ...

... "That program, which we expect to reduce our cost structure by $500 million is on track, and we expect to have delivered over $300 million in annualized savings as we exit this year, with the balance in 2009. Last quarter, I outlined the major elements for our program which include using Lean Six Sigma to increase productivity in our labs. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: Quest Diagnostics Q3 Conference Call

Manufacturing Capacity Increase through Lean Program

Electronics manufacturer uses lean manufacturing to drive capacity improvements, using the methodology and tools. ...

... "The Leicester-based power resistor manufacturer Cressall Resistors is claiming that a lean manufacturing programme has helped increase turnover by 100 percent in 18 months ... " ...

Via Works Management: Lean

Lean Six Sigma Program Management at Gulfstream

Gulfstream Aerospace appoints Charles Wood as program manager for its Lean Six Sigma initiatives. ...

... "As such, he is responsible for developing and implementing the Lean Six Sigma program throughout Gulfstream and General Dynamics Aviation Services facilities. Wood is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and a master’s degree in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Wood reports to Max Mills, director, Corporate Quality and Product Safety. " ...

Via Gulfstream Aerospace: LEAN SIX SIGMA PROGRAM MANAGER

Lean Six Sigma Program Tool Wanted

Requirements for DOD's lean six sigma program tool are described ...

... "The DoD LSS Program Office is seeking market capability statements, no longer than 15 pages in length, which provide insight into commercial capabilities to enable visibility and alignment of improvement efforts across the DoD enterprise using web-based tools. Areas of focus are the ability of product(s) to address: (1) strategic linkages between organizational objectives and improvement projects; (2) organization management via a strategic value hierarchy; (3) executive visibility of status, benefits, risks, savings and top-down driven metrics; (4) manageable and configurable templates based on best practice methodologies (.e.g Lean Six Sigma, Business Process Re-engineering, Business Genetics and Theory of Constraints, to name a few); (5) ability to set and track metrics for both financial and operational factors that portray our enterprise key performance indicators to effectively measure outcomes; " ...

Via Federal Business Opportunities: Lean Six Sigma Program Tool - Follow-up RFI

Predictive Equipment Maintenance

Sikorsky Aircraft, leader in design and manufacture of advanced helicopters, will use SPSS Predictive Analytics software to predict maintenance needs driving customer satisfaction and aircraft safety in its helicopter fleets. ...

... "Sikorsky offers customers various maintenance assurance programs to help improve aircraft availability and operate their fleet at a known cost. Included in this offering is the Total Assurance Program (TAP), covering up to 98 percent of costs related to parts and services. The organization sought a software solution to help identify and predict equipment maintenance for helicopter customers, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. Sikorsky selected SPSS Predictive Analytics text mining and data mining software and its Predictive Analytics enterprise-wide enabling platform to analyze helicopter and pilot data collected by the aircraft health and usage monitoring system and flight maintenance log records. " ...

Via SPSS: Predictive Analytics

UPDATE 4/28/2008: Here's another example of company that uses service innovation to drive customer differentiation: Rolls Royce. ...

Service Innovation: "Spohrer says he was told at a meeting, don't buy the engines. Instead, they buy a service level agreement and a service, so that every time a plane lands Rolls Royce technicians work to improve the engine's performance from a command centre that knows where all the engines are and at what altitude."

Nordam Group Lean Six Sigma Journey

Nordam Group continues its journey applying Lean Six Sigma by levarging its talent. ...

... "In the last two years, NORDAM has introduced Six Sigma and LEAN principles throughout its businesses to maximize efficiency in manufacturing and repair processes. Since, 13 stakeholders have successfully completed training projects and are now certified Six Sigma black belts. The team of expert problem solvers and process improvement leaders have completed or initiated 50 Six Sigma and LEAN programs companywide. Gardner is the second full-time black belt at NORDAM Transparency. " ...

Via Nordam Group: Six Sigma Coordination Role

Lean Manufacturing Enables Xerium Growth Program

Global manufacturing company, Xerium Tech, supports the paper production industry with products and reports its financial results. It is executing a turnaround plan that includes lean manufacturing to lay the operational efficiency foundation for its strategic growth plan. ...

... "These growth program costs for the year ended December 31, 2007 include expenses incurred for our lean manufacturing initiatives, expansion into Vietnam and other growth programs. " ...

Via Xerium Technologies: Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2007 Results

Six Sigma Pilot Approved

County approves investment in Six Sigma improvement. ...

... "Erie County Control Board's finance committee making recommendations to approve $120,000 for a pilot version of the Six Sigma program. " ...

Via WBEN: Pilot Six Sigma Recommended

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Course Starts February

Forsyth Tech offers Six Sigma Black Belt certification starting in February. ...

... "the college's corporate and continuing education is offering a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Program. Successful completion of this 105-hour program provides a black-belt certification from Forsyth Tech and QMA Inc. " ...

Via Winston-Salem Journal: Business Calendar

Contract Manages Lean Six Sigma Support

Naval Sea Systems Command has extended contract with Alion Science and Technology, to provide acquisition management support to its Program Executive Office, including support of Lean Six Sigma efforts. ...

... "The option, which runs from June 1, 2007 through June 6, 2008, covers ship project directive (SPD) execution planning and financial execution; government furnished equipment (GFE) acquisition, delivery management and production management; configuration management; program management and Lean Six Sigma support; and business and financial planning. The contract runs for a total of five years, including a one-year base period and four, one-year options. The total value of the contract, if all options are exercised, is $33 million. " ...

Via Alion: Contract Option to Support Navy's Program Executive Office

Motorola SixSigma Leader Speaks This Week

Motorola Six Sigma program manager to speak this week. ...

... "Burford will explain how the company improved the new product demand to order conversion with Six Sigma methods. " ...

Via Racine Journal Times: Six Sigma Meeting This Thursday

Workforce Involvement in Lean Six Sigma Program

Army base involves civilian workers in their Lean Six Sigma program. ...

... "The Lean Six Sigma process allows workers to identify paperwork, standard operating procedures and bureaucratic waste that undercuts customer service and makes jobs harder to do, he said. " ...

Via Stars & Stripes: Involving Workers in Eliminating Waste through Lean Six Sigma

Select Continuous Improvement Program to Compete Globally

Embrace continuous improvement to compete effectively in your industry and marketplace. Be prepared to staff a program management office and support the culture change necessary for a lean manufacturing or Six Sigma journey. Business process focus comes first. But, software systems can support change, automation, reduction of manual efforts. ...

... "Six Sigma uses statistical analysis to reduce variation. By reducing variation, the probability of producing a defect is less. " ...

Via IndustryWeek: Which Continuous Improvement Program Is Appropriate For Your Enterprise?