In striving to consolidate and maintain high standards of excellence in its manufacturing systems, CNH Industrial applies principles of World Class Manufacturing (WCM), an innovative program for continuous improvement originating from Japan. WCM is an integrated model for managing all the elements of an organization, focused on improving the efficiency of all its technical and organizational components with the aim of maximizing market competitiveness.
WCM is a structured system encompassing the most effective manufacturing methodologies, which include Total Quality Control (TQC), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Total Industrial Engineering (TIE), and Just In Time (JIT).
Through precise methods and standards, WCM seeks to eliminate all types of waste and loss, by identifying objectives such as: zero injuries, zero defects, zero breakdowns, zero waste, reduced inventories, and suppliers’ punctual delivery of parts to plants, and subsequently to dealers and end users.
These objectives require a strong commitment from plant management and all relevant departments, reinforced by continuous interaction across all organizational levels.
Some of the benefits of WCM implementation include greater competitiveness, the development of new and improved technology and innovation, increased flexibility, increased communication between management and production personnel, enhanced quality of work, and increased workforce empowerment.
The WCM system cuts across all Company boundaries and is applied to all departments, embracing numerous topics (known as pillars) including safety in the workplace, the environment, quality, logistics, in-house and specialist maintenance, human resources, and process and product engineering (involving the reorganization of work stations, the installation of new machinery, and new product launches).
WORLD CLASS MANUFACTURING FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES:
One of the main features of the WCM program is the direct relationship between an activity or project and its cost benefits. Continuous improvement initiatives, in fact, are driven by the Cost Deployment pillar, which accurately identifies all plant waste and loss, guides the Corporate functions tasked with containing and eliminating the sources of waste, evaluates project feasibility, and assesses and certifies the results achieved by carefully monitoring specific performance indicators (KPI). Such a methodical and structured approach ensures that the process for evaluating initiatives is genuinely effective, in that it measures and correlates all factors affected by the initiative itself.
The widespread use of WCM principles at all CNH Industrial plants allows the entire Company to share a common culture based on efficient processes and on a language universally recognized across all plants and countries in which CNH Industrial operates.
WCM leverages knowledge development through employee participation, through which implicit knowledge becomes explicit and codified, and subsequently incorporated into new products, new services and new ways of working.
WCM PILLARS
The WCM system is also implemented outside CNH Industrial: on the one hand, it enables the Company to meet its customers’ needs with maximum flexibility and effectiveness; on the other, by sharing it with suppliers (see also page 162), it allows the Company to ensure high product quality and process efficiency. WCM seeks to instill and reinforce the idea that everyone who is part of an organization must know their customers and strive to satisfy their needs, as well as those of all other stakeholders, in terms of products, order processing, delivery, quick response services, and after-sales assistance. After all, the aim of continuous improvement is to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, while also ensuring long-term profitability, by developing processes and adding value to products and services.
One of the system’s strengths is its ability to motivate people - who are an intrinsic part of the model - to engage and take responsibility by contributing directly to process optimization via a well-established system of suggestion collection. People are an integral part of target achievement, and are involved throughout the entire improvement project (universally known as kaizen) from definition to realization. This allows them to acquire and develop skills and good practices that are then shared across plants, forming a network of expertise and knowledge at the service of the Company. WCM plays a role in creating an organization that is both engaged and free of barriers, where ideas, knowledge and talent are shared between working groups, both within and across different plants.
THE 10 TECHNICAL PILLARS ANALYSIS OF CORRECTIVE ACTION PLANS
| Technical Pillar | Purpose | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| Safety | Continuous improvement in safety |
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| Cost Deployment | Cost and loss analysis (loss as a cost component) |
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| Focused Improvement | Intervention priorities to manage the losses identified in cost deployment |
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| Autonomous Activities | Continuous improvement at the plant and in the workplace | This comprises two pillars:
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| Professional Maintenance | Continuous improvement in reducing equipment failures and downtime |
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| Quality Control | Continuous improvement in meeting customer needs |
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| Logistics and Customer Service | Inventory optimization |
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| Early Equipment Management and Early Product Management | Optimization of time and costs for installations and optimization of new product features |
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| People Development | Continuous improvement in employee and worker skills |
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| Environment and Energy | Continuous improvement in environmental management and reduction in energy waste |
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At CNH Industrial, the use of tools for sharing information and collecting suggestions is well established; in 2014, about 395 thousand suggestions were collected across the plants where WCM principles are applied, with an average of 11 per employee. In 2014, 14,277 projects were implemented within WCM, generating savings of $195.6 million.
Each pillar involves a seven-step approach and auditing process, culminating in a series of awards (bronze, silver, gold, and world class). Increasingly challenging targets are reached by means of a rigorous approach comprising three progressive levels: reactive, preventive and proactive.
As of December 2014, 53 plants were participating in the program, involving 83% of Company plants, 97% of plant personnel, and 98% of revenues from sales of products manufactured by Company plants. Nineteen of them received bronze awards and six silver awards, the latter in Bourbon Lancy (France), Foggia, Suzzara, Torino Driveline (Italy), Madrid and Valladolid (Spain).
During 2014, internal auditing training courses were offered to plant managers, hence supporting the continuous spread of WCM.
WCM initiatives are coordinated by a steering committee (established in March 2012), consisting of Top Manufacturing Management and CNH Industrial WCM managers, which drives the relevant strategies and develops the necessary methodologies for the entire Company.
WCM PLANTS
