“Our performance improvement programmes involved 500 staff members in 100 or so work groups. The profit margins from our main activity have already been recovered, and the programme contributed 39 million euros to our annual results. These changes in our business culture will be the basis for the Total Quality Plan we will launch next year.”

The CEO, quoted in the annual report

Our client, a leader in packaging systems for the agribusiness industry, operates in five continents. They wanted to substantially increase their performance in all their activities.

Our mission was to manage the overall programme with a Client Project Manager. The Executive Committee was the sponsor of this programme.

By the end of the first year, the results had surpassed the objectives. Performance rose by 39 million euros, broken down as follows: procurement costs (50%), productivity (15%), inventory reduction (20%) and cut of costs of quality downgrades (15%) (see opposite the quotation of the CEO in the parent company’s annual report).

Our main counterparts were the Divisions Managers and the Functional Managers (Finance, Procurement, Manufacturing and Quality) .They were all members of the Executive Committee.

The assignment lasted 18 months and was organised into 3 phases.

1. Diagnosis

• confirm financial stakes by topic and by division,
• identify the actions to be carried out,
• launch thirty-seven projects subdivided into about one hundred improvement plans,
• mobilise the organisation through a series of communication events called “brown paper fair” in France, Italy, the United States and Canada.

2. Implementation

• reorganise key processes from end to end, e.g. business management and new product development,
• monitor the key indicators of each improvement plan

3. Roll-out and communication

• set up a communication plan to mobilise employees. This involved fifteen sites in eleven countries: Italy, Portugal, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, India, China, Malaysia.
• organise "Oscars”, winning awards for the most innovative projects or those with the fastest pace.

(red squares: the sites involved in the mobilization phase )

Our day-to-day work …

Daily activities consisted of performing analyses, coordinating meetings, challenging operational behaviours, helping departments work together, assisting work group leaders and overall project management etc.