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Good Start
For Lean Six Sigma

IBT's Lean Six Sigma business process improvement group has notched its first major accomplishment with the completion of an inventory efficiency program. This initiative was created to maximize IBT's inventory coverage through positioning goods where they were most likely to be required - while eliminating excess, obsolete, slow moving or redundant stock, thus freeing resources for better use.

"We had a main objective - the inventory - and a secondary objective - the learning process," reports LSS project director Jon Prince. "We wanted to have absolute impact on the inventory we carried, and we succeeded. But, almost equally important was to energize the people in the company toward this goal and have them learn and understand how to mobilize toward our future goals. We succeeded here, as well."

During the stock control activities the LSS teams looked at virtually every SKU in the company's vast inventory and analyzed its importance. Questions about stocking levels, optimum location, obsolescence, volume, urgency, and the like were asked and answered. As a result, more than 6000 SKUs were consolidated in Central Distribution Center (CDC), while others were relocated from branches where they were not required to other company locations where they might be regularly needed. Still other items were returned to vendors or sold off into the MRO marketplace.

The process employed in the LSS project was similar to the one IBT Integrated Services Group (ISG) offers to its clientele.

In both instances, the goal is to look for ways to free up resources without harming responsiveness - and, in fact, actually improving response time through proper goods positioning and deployment.

"By using our own inventory disciplines on the company's stock of goods, we were able to improve our internal process, to be sure," Prince explains. "We also reinforced the lesson for our internal culture: regularly question how and why you are doing something, because the answers may change. When the answers do change, other responses are needed. By regularly adjusting the business process, it is possible to stay a step ahead of the evolving situation and, therefore, operate smarter, smoother and more efficiently than the other guys."

Although the inventory initiative has reached a milestone, the organization will continue to look at inventory on a regular basis. At the same time, additional LSS activities will apply the learning to other company areas, and the LSS team will continue to train associates to be "white belt" individuals with a focus at the work cell or team level who are trained and motivated to minimize waste and resources while increasing customer satisfaction.

For more information on lean Six Sigma and how it is working at IBT, contact Jon Pince.




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Good Start For Lean Six Sigma

Good Start
For Lean Six Sigma