Market leader in automotive interiors wanted to deploy rigorous continuous improvement

The company

We worked with a $30billion global market leader in automotive interiors which was recently named by Forbes magazine as one of the best managed big companies in the United States and by Fortune magazine as the most admired company in motor vehicle and parts sector.

Their needs

The company wished to develop a rigorous Six Sigma training deployment to allow a company wide transformation, including very extensive replication of successful process improvement projects across its plants around the world.

How we helped

At the outset we trained and certified 90 Black Belts from UK, France, Czech Republic and Italy in their local language. Next, we participated in the selection process and trained their first wave of Master Black Belts. Thereafter a robust process was put in place for mentoring practitioners with their projects. We certified Black Belts from 75 factories across Europe. Finally, we mentored the Master Black Belts to internalise training, support and certification of practitioners throughout Europe.

Benefits

266 projects were completed, delivering a 105 fold return on investment on subjects including:

• Eliminating unnecessary airbag inspection
• Reduction in interior scrap and rework
• Product and Process Design
• Reducing process cycle times
• Increasing sewing throughput
• Reducing machine downtime
• Improving IT system reliability
• Improving staff effectiveness