Issue:
Company manufacturing plants were experiencing supply chain quality and shipment issues causing operational and financial challenges. Performance transformation required in organization to support manufacturing plants globally
Implementation:
Interviews with operational and supply chain leaders, suppliers, and team members globally, identified the following global shortcomings:
1. There were no consistent processes globally
2. The team did not have a consistent problem solving and decision-making methodology
3. The personnel in each of the regions had significant performance variation
4. There were no clearly defined KPIs to measure supplier performance
5. Supplier development and quality footprint wasn’t consistent with the company manufacturing footprint.
Changes were made over a one-year period to address the shortcomings:
1. All of the engineers and staff, globally, were evaluated against a clear set of performance requirements and their performance was communicated regularly.
2. KPI’s were put in place for objective evaluation of supplier performance and recovery plans were being developed and tracked.
3. Kepner Tregoe became the global standard for problem solving and decision making.
4. Supplier Quality Engineers were added to Mexico, Eastern Europe, China and India while cutting the overall manpower budget globally.
5. Alignment discussions were initiated with regional manufacturing plants to better understand specific issues
6. Process improvements made in supplier development to pro-actively communicate requirements with supply base
Results:
Discrepant material notifications and shipment delays significantly reduced
Globalization and standardization of processes, problem solving, KPIs and structural alignment completed in 18 months
Supplier Development focus enhanced and relationship with key intra-company stakeholders improved
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