Challenging ourselves

"Six Sigma as a methodology and as a philosophy has changed our mindset from reactive to proactive. It has provided the tools that guide us in identifying possibilities and effecting the changes that deliver significant improvements throughout our management and production processes, globally. Six Sigma is helping us to improve our performance, our products and our service to customers. These improvements are transparent and measurable, and most importantly they are not one-offs, they can be repeated and continuously expanded into all areas of our operations. With the competent help of Six Sigma Plus to set us on the right course, we are using Six Sigma to challenge ourselves to create more value for all the stakeholders in our business."

Mondi Packaging Bag Division
 

Creating value

The need to be continuously improving products, processes and people is essential to the survival of any organisation. Improvement brings better competitive positioning, reduces wastage, enables greater efficiency and profitability, and a higher return on capital invested. Crucially, it is the key to satisfying customers' needs and expectations. The method chosen to effect improvement is a critical management decision that impacts an entire organisation and exerts the most influence of any single decision, positively or negatively, on eventual outcomes. In considering the available options Mondi Packaging chose Six Sigma as the route to achieving its performance objectives, principally because the process puts customers' needs at the centre of all improvement goal setting and decision taking. To help it understand the tools and to structure and train to use them, the company partnered with Six Sigma Plus.

First, Six Sigma Plus thoroughly familiarised itself with Mondi Packaging, its processes, stakeholders and markets. Then, in conjunction with the company's management it devised a programme to introduce the principals of the Six Sigma concept to all employees, together with the role all would play in maximising its advantages. Next, training was given to develop the first groups of Green Belt facilitators who would initiate and guide improvement projects. Simultaneously, critical-to-quality measures (CTQ's), representing the business drivers for both external and internal customers, were identified and Houses of Excellence (HoE's) were established. The HoE's provided the framework within which CTQ's could be used to define measurements, establish current performance levels and identify gaps, and set priorities and the targets to be achieved. Essential to planning was that having created the procedural base centrally, it could be easily rolled out to all local Mondi Packaging companies and effectively integrated into their operations.

A key value to Mondi Packaging was the innovative, practical approach Six Sigma Plus brought to training and guidance within the company, moving rapidly from a theoretical concept to an active training and improvement initiative. This emphasised the importance of prioritising objectives according to the value they could potentially deliver. By concentrating on vital projects rather than engaging in trivial pursuits, Mondi Packaging began achieving significant improvements almost immediately. In addition to the positive contribution the results made to the bottom line, they helped consolidate a Six Sigma culture throughout the company, inspiring new thinking and fuelling the collective desire for continuing improvements.