Success Stories
Andrew Corporation Expects to Save Millions
The Andrew Corporation, a Joliet manufacturer, recently completed a five-day Six
Sigma Green Belt program designed to save them millions of dollars.
"We were contacted by Keith Burgh, HR director of shared services, to put together
a Six Sigma Green Belt program for his HR staff," said Bruce Kuzmanich, contract
training manager for Joliet Junior College's (JJC) Corporate and Community Services
Division. "Burgh was already sold on the program because he is a certified Six Sigma
Black Belt and used this training in his previous job at GE."
In response to this request, Joliet Junior College put together a Green Belt Six
Sigma Program for Andrew. JJC also invited the Chicago Manufacturing Center (CMC)
to participate and, together with Praveen Gupta, president of Accelper Consulting,
designed a solid five-day workshop in Six Sigma methodology.
"The beauty of Praveen's approach," said Kuzmanich, "is that he formed four teams
among the students and looked into specific problem areas. The combined estimated
cost savings of all four teams at the Andrew Corporation is over $5 million. Even
if they save one quarter of that amount, it is a significant savings and more than
justifies the cost of the training."
While $5 million is a great start, it is only the beginning of the cost savings
experienced by companies trained in the Six Sigma program. For example:
Motorola saved $17 billion from 1986 to 2004, reflecting hundreds of individual
successes
General Electric saved $750 million by the end of 1998, cut invoice defects
by 98 percent, and improved productivity
Allied Signal/Honeywell saved more than
$600 million a year by 1999 and reduced project turnaround from 42 to 33 months.
"The best way to achieve dramatic cost savings is for top management to be committed
to the Six Sigma methodology," explained Corporate and Community Services Director,
Amy Murphy. "Implicit in the goals of Six Sigma is the desire to improve to a high
level of quality and stay there."
Burgh agrees. "Now we've raised the bar because this becomes our standard way of
doing things," he said to the participants from his department. "I'm impressed with
this type of learning; this thinking generates the right kind of questions which
helps us to understand our process better."
For Praveen Gupta, workshop instructor and president of Accelper Consulting, the
best way to understand a company's process is to solve a problem using the Green
Belt techniques to develop relevant solutions that succeed. "My objective was to
generate an interest to explore something, to move toward perfection," said Gupta.
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