Large Scale Makigami in FMCG

How one of worlds largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods enterprises did it:

Makigami as the basis for process-oriented work

How was Makigami in FMCG rolled out in a multinational?

One of worlds largest FMCG companies (>50 billion turnover, almost 20% EBIT) started using TPM in 1996 in one of its Dutch factories to increase productivity and reliability in its plants. What was learned was quickly rolled out to other factories, first locally in Europe, later globally.

It all started with TPM in the factories

From ‘EQUIPMENT improvement’ to ‘PROCESS improvement’

Through the measurement of OEE and countless kaizen (improvement) workshops, it was discovered again and again that the sources of many problems in production and with customers, originated in the offices. It was decided to broaden the focus. However, there appeared to be hardly any expertise worldwide on how to tackle this.

The question ‘how to integrate the information flow from the offices with the physical flows in the factories’ was put to Arno Koch.

Japan Study Tours

First, guided by Arno, a study trip to Japan was organized to several leading Japanese companies. Participants came from all disciplines and all hierarchical layers.

6 returning keys

The visited enterprises all demonstrated:

An uncompromising focus on ‘Value’: for customer, but also for ALL other stakeholders.
All had extensive methods, tools but above all focus on everything that did not bring value: ‘Losses’.
There was a culture of non-acceptance for such ‘losses’ and a highly developed ability to root out such losses. Visiting participants were sometimes confused because things we see as normal were seen there as “organized problems”
However diverse, each company strove for some form of one-piece flow. Quick response and short reliable throughput were standard. Process-oriented operations, whether in the form of small process-oriented teams or not, were often the basis for this.
Reliability, speed, low cost and safety were the result of a high degree of standardization.
Many companies talked over and over again about ‘respect’; for people, the environment, nature. Putting the employee in the position of not having to make mistakes was seen e.g. as a form of respect for that employee.

Using Makigami in FMCG as a vehicle for Monozukuri

The Makigami method was chosen as the leading method to introduce these elements into the companies processes. Partly as a result of the vertical Japanese script, Arno redesigned the method to its current form.

How was Makigami transferred

Oil Spot Approach: ‘Do it once and spread oud’

Starting with ONE focuspoint

At first, a European factory was chosen as the guest site. This host chose 4 administrative processes they wanted to see improved. Guest participants (multidisciplinary and -hierarchical) from other sites were invited to analyze the chosen processes together with their own representatives.

Team – Achievement

In one week:

The current situation was visually represented
the value and loss elements were identified and
the ideal state designed.
Each of the 4 teams prepared a “100-day implementation plan.
The result was presented to management and all other stakeholders
The requested facilities (from management) and the guarantees to be provided (by the teams) were ‘negotiated’ with each other
The Go or NoGo decision was made

Halving or Doubling

Each of the four teams succeeded in making plausible that-and how-the set goals (such as halving throughput, doubling value, etc.) were achievable.

Because the teams had a very high acceptance of their own designed change, and they were able to answer the -sometimes very critical- questions of the listeners well, all 4 got the GO to start.

Multiplicating in other sites

After the guest returned to their own sites, the participants from the host now had to transfer the work from the guests to their own colleagues (which was sometimes not easy…) and the guests went back to their sites to do the same work now there for their own processes.

Spreading to more than 100 sites

With support from the TPM organization, more than 300 people were thus trained through hosted workshops at guest sites and more than 100 sites were able to improve their own processes using Makigami, founded on the principles of Monozukuri.