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INDUSTRIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRY:
Six Sigma Deployment |
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Client: |
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International
specialty chemicals and materials company with approximately $2 billion
in revenue from the sale of catalysts for the refining, construction
chemicals, coatings and absorbents industries. |
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Problem: |
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New
CEO committed his organization to adopt Six Sigma as the mechanism
to improve the productivity and growth of this company, leading to
an immediate need to get a Six Sigma approach up and running. |
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Approach: |
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The
top down deployment began with an executive workshop involving the
top executives from all the business units. A deployment plan was
developed and areas of opportunity for improvement were identified.
This was followed by champion training in the U.S. and Europe, and
a wave of Black Belt training, which was held each year for the first
3 years. High- performing BBs were trained as Master Black Belts and
BBs served as mentors for Green Belts. Recognition and rewards systems
were put in place to support the effort. An internet-based project
tracker was put in place to monitor the status and impact of each
project. After the first wave of BB training was completed, GB training
was initiated followed by Design for Six Sigma and Yellow Belt training
for process operators. The initiative was started in manufacturing
and quickly spread to nonmanufacturing processes including finance.
The Six Sigma training quickly involved sites throughout the U.S.,
Europe and Asia. |
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Results: |
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Approximately
80 projects were completed in the first year with 40 BBs and 80 GBs
trained. The company documented financial impact of $26 million in
hard savings, and another $7 million in cost avoidance. By the end
of the second year one key business alone had about 50 Black Belts,
almost 200 Green Belts, and almost 500 Yellow Belts (process operators
trained primarily in measure phase methods). Results in the second
year were even better than the first year with $50 million in hard
savings, and $9 million in cost and capital avoidance. The next two
years produced bottom-line savings of approximately $40 million per
year. |
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