Quality levels improve 17%.
Profit contributions exceed target by 114%.
Strategic Intent
To reverse trend of escalating costs and significant EBITA erosion, new CEO’s goal is to transform the company’s reactive, unresponsive culture into a more results-oriented organization that seeks to continuously improve.
Situation
- $240 million U.S. subsidiary of a multi-billion-dollar European industrial chemical manufacturer
- Produces titanium dioxide for paint, paper, plastic and rubber industries
- Mature market is plagued by severe price erosion, a slowing economy and excess capacity
- CEO exasperated by lack of sustainable improvement after recent large investment in quality-based initiative
- Inherited strongly autocratic organizational culture
Issues and Barriers
- Low executive consensus on goals and direction
- Conflicting quality versus quantity priorities
- Poor cooperation and communication between departments
- Quality management process not implemented after five years and over $2 million
- Ineffective, reactive plant and machine maintenance
- Workforce lacks motivation and desire to improve
- Executive compensation plan has real and perceived inequities
Key Implementations
- Organization-wide alignment of goals and priorities
- All key business processes are fully upgraded
- Development of total-quality-based behaviors
- Resources are redeployed to reflect new process controls
- Reward and recognition practices are redesigned to link with new quality, productivity and throughput goals
Results
Profit contributions exceed target by 114%
- Maintenance costs reduced 30%
- Quality levels improve 17%
- Reduce scrap and waste by 50%
- Reduce workforce by 20%, by shortening cycle times
- Streamline management organization, reducing levels 25%
- Dramatically improve overall asset reliability
- Reverse years of poor hiring and training practices
Client Perspective
Our people not only participated in the change process, they own it! Our problem-solving process has been decentralized and freed from the bureaucracy that made it ineffective. Brooks has done a superb job of helping us define and establish our new environment.
— President & CEO
