Manufacturing quality and efficiency

What it means to be agile

In a culture of continuous improvement, there’s no end point to optimization as it’s a journey and not a destination. For us, that means we always seek a better way, move fast and always do the right thing - all in the service of creating more reliable, repeatable manufacturing processes for you. When you partner with us, you can have confidence in maximum levels of quality and efficiency as we drive excellence through Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing.

By eliminating waste in our processes, we’re always getting faster according to Lean principles. But we also make sure faster does not mean rushed, using Six Sigma to drive data-driven decision making and process improvement toward a reduction in variation. Plus, our learnings are yours - we make sure the knowledge transfers through customer workshops that build more trustworthy partnerships.

For us, quality manufacturing isn’t just a vision. Measuring is believing - so we benchmark progress on a monthly basis using our Continuous Improvement Maturity Tracker (CIMT), which measures Lean Six Sigma engagement in our organization across 19 elements in 7 categories. Additionally, our efforts to continuously optimize our manufacturing models enjoy robust support from our Global Business Excellence (GBE) and Quality organizations. GBE supports 100+ sites worldwide, applying our Lean Six Sigma Agile methodology across all of the industries we serve.

Less waste, more speed - and no mistakes

Staying Lean means amplifying value-added activities so manufacturing operations can move faster and produce less waste. For example, why automate what’s not useful? Using proven Lean tools, we can identify and reduce the number of non-value-added activities so you can maximize the value and effectiveness of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Through best practice sharing, industry benchmarking and a global Lean Six Sigma competition with more than 300 participating teams, we make sure we’re advancing the latest in efficiency and mistake proofing.

Consistently improving performance

When it comes to your critical requirements, consistent performance is everything. We deploy systematic process improvements at our ISO certified manufacturing facilities using define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) and design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodologies to reduce variation, eliminate scrap and rework, and implement process control.

For regulated industries like healthcare and automotive, you can have confidence in our compliance in product creation and scaling. We have also made impressive progress on our Quality 4.0 implementation, putting us on par with fewer than 30% companies worldwide that have taken this leap. Our Quality 4.0 program is built on a strong foundation of our quality management system (QMS) across multiple standards.

Double the good, halve the bad

Triple the speed - and sustain. These are the goals driven by our Kaizen to Business Needs (KTBN) workshops. We’ve set quality targets for productivity improvement, inventory reduction, lead time reduction, scrap elimination and defects elimination. And because people are our most valuable asset, we regularly hold internal Kaizen workshops to equip our teams with the resources and tools they need to reach those targets - and then set even higher ones.

Partners in continuous improvement

We leave no stone unturned in our continuous improvement journey. That means suppliers and customers are vital contributors in our end-to-end process. We’re constantly engaging both parties to deliver the highest quality products and reduce manufacturing cost through improved efficiency.

We start by choosing the right partners through our Preferred Supplier Program (PSP), which helps us select supplies that meet or exceed our quality and cost standards (among other factors). And ask any employee - internal team involvement spans all levels of our culture of continuous improvement.