Sealed Air: Continuous improvement as an oil slick through organization

Diversey in Enschede was acquired in 2011 by Sealed Air known for its “bubble wrap. Shortly after the acquisition, Sealed Air’s new general manager Jerome Peribere reviewed the entire organization. This resulted in the creation of three divisions. The Food Care division is responsible for the distribution and sale of high-quality packaging and cleaning products for the food sector. The second division, “Product Care,” deals with high-quality packaging for sensitive and expensive products. The third division is Diversey Care.

This division is engaged in the sale of hygiene solutions and cleaning agents. The facility in Enschede manufactures cleaning products. 20% of these resources are supplied to the Food Care division and 80% are for its own Diversey Care division. There is a trend within the cleaning product market toward more and more customization in smaller and smaller packages. At Diversey Enschede, they produce and manage more than 1,500 sku’s (stock keeping units) in 450 different formulations (cleaning agents). This places demands on production, which must be increasingly efficient.

Alco de Heer himself received his Black Belt training At Sealed Air in Portugal. Alco explains, “We could have trained the other colleagues elsewhere in the world. But I myself found it difficult that the coach would be far away. You also have to deal with a time difference and explanations in a foreign language. That’s why we looked for a local partner. That’s how we got in touch with Symbol, also after a tip from a former colleague at Grolsch.” Continue reading below.

The Projects

“We very enthusiastically started training eight employees as Green Belt and eight employees as Orange Belt last year. The idea was to use these people to also directly tackle 8 projects with the Green Belts as project leaders and the Orange Belts as team members in a project. In practice, this proved too demanding on the organization because the same people often had to be called upon. In the end, after a selection, we pushed through 4 projects. The projects all started in early 2015.

Three of the four projects focused on reducing Waste (losses), that is, actually preventing waste. The fourth was in the area of planning and improving Flow in the organization. The greatest amount of loss was found to occur during our “mixing” process and our “filling” process. In the first process, raw materials are mixed into a finished product. In the second process, the final product is packaged.

1st project: Mixing

“In the ‘Mixing’ route, the pipes and matrix are cleaned when switching to a different semi-finished product. The substances lost in the process are offered as waste. In this first Green Belt project, a new way of cleaning was devised that resulted in much less rinsing loss. The Enschede branch will invest €80,000 in this project in 2016 to achieve savings of €100,000 per year!

This was also an excellent example project right away within Sealed Air internationally. To encourage organizations to continue to implement improvement projects, we have an international program, “Key to Success. All completed projects within Sealed Air can be submitted here. A jury of experts then reviews and judges these projects. The project can then earn a ‘Gold Key,’ ‘Silver Key’ or a ‘Bronze Key.'”

2nd Project: Filling

“Our semi-finished product is filled into vials as a finished product. The content should be at least the amount indicated on the package. A measurement revealed that our filling systems are not very accurate. For safety’s sake, we then put plenty in the vial so that we would never deliver below the prescribed amount. However, the customer does not pay for the excess delivered. So that’s waste that we want to avoid. We have since improved the plants to the point where there is minimal overfill. Unlike before, instead of looking at an average, each individual filling pipe is precisely adjusted at the beginning of a badge according to a set procedure that is the same for every operator.

We implemented this project on 5 production lines. The largest saving has been €20,000, the smallest saving has been €4,000. So with 12 production lines, there is still a savings opportunity on the remaining lines. The concept used with the first 5 lines can be carried over to the others.”

3rd project: arriving and leaving

“The third project focused on the loss during the run-up and run-down of the semi-finished product. The substances used during the start (run-up) and finish (run-down) are waste and therefore wasted. Here we are paying for raw materials that do not end up in the final product. Operators turned out to work in different ways; one had 8 cans run out, another, say, 12. A standard has now been devised jointly so that everyone does the same thing and loses minimal amounts of product. In addition, we have to pay for processing this waste. Finally, the entire waste stream has been reviewed. Because it will contain less dirt, there are also cost advantages to be gained from the waste processors.”

The waste stream

“All the waste ends up in rinse boxes. We then examined the total waste stream. In total, processing the waste stream now costs us € 320,000. If we could save 10% on this, that’s already €32,000. Now we are investigating whether that is feasible. We are well on our way and will soon be able to make a good estimate. We have already indicated to the water board that we expect to supply fewer units of polluted water. And if we deliver fewer units of polluted water, we will be in a different category and the rate we have to pay will be reviewed. The savings this will bring is still unknown.”

4th project: Planning

“Planning is a complex process with us. For example, we plan on an expectation of 500 pallets. If that ends up being more or less, it means there are too many or too few trucks available. One of our Green Belt employees is now investigating exactly what happens in this process. Using Lean tools, he is mapping out the entire process in a Value Stream. Based on the ‘Pull’ principle, it must ultimately be possible to coordinate the transport properly. So no more trucks too many or too few and a better flow in the factory. This project is currently underway.”

“Lean Six Sigma like an oil slick through the organization”

“Internal communication about the projects and the results achieved is a very important aspect. Only a small group of people initially carry out a project. But because these people enlist the help of others and because there is a lot of communication about it, you see that the idea of improving processes spreads like an oil slick throughout the organization. As a result, interest in the projects has grown. More and more employees are also eager to take the Orange Belt or Green Belt training themselves. We already have at least 10 requests to take a Lean Six Sigma training course. We are keen to stimulate this interest and would like to train people with the aim of being able to continue to improve and further implement the Lean Six Sigma idea and techniques in the organization. However, we need to keep the trajectories manageable internally. For this we have employed a training coordinator, so we now know exactly who does what training and when. Coaching is also more closely aligned. It takes place only when there is a concrete need. We have seen that coaching is very important for people. Coaches look from a different perspective and come with different input from other companies. We ourselves are very inclined to direct and give assignments from a managerial role instead of letting people figure it out for themselves.”

Many more own initiatives from employees

“You now see a movement in the organization that employees are starting to think for themselves from being directed, working together much more and coaching each other. As a tip, I would advise other organizations not to tackle too many projects at once. Set a deadline, but plan for it to be missed. People are in a learning process and need to be able to step back from time to time when things don’t work out. You have to accept that. That’s part of a learning journey.

A lot of staff time and energy goes into it. They do not always have this time available due to production pressures. The risk then is that the accumulated knowledge sinks in. That’s unfortunate. You have to be careful about that as an organization. You also have to give people the peace of mind to follow a learning path.

Before engaging with Symbol, we compared several providers. We also looked at several websites. For us, the whole concept of Symbol was the deciding factor. The culture of continuous improvement is also in Symbol’s own genes. We really like Dick Theisen’s “Climbing the Mountain” series of books, combined with the focus specifically on people and mindset. Theory can offer anyone, but people have to do it. We really enjoyed the coaching from the Symbol consultants. I have already distributed several books from the “Climbing the Mountain” series at all of our European locations. In fact, we are going to roll out the whole Lean Six Sigma concept Europe-wide. The timing of this rollout depends in part on the results in Enschede. Enschede is serving as a pilot.”