After the successful achievement in Poprad, Wroclaw and Cassinetta plants had their first World Class Manufacturing (WCM) audit in October, concluding with great results the first Whirlpool Production System (WPS) Evolution wave in the EMEA region.
World Class Manufacturing is a process-driven approach that sets one of the global manufacturing industry’s highest standards for integrated management of manufacturing plants and processes. It is a pillar-structured system based on continuous improvement and designed to eliminate waste and loss from the production process by identifying objectives such as zero injuries, zero defects, zero breakdowns and zero waste. To certify improvements, a system of periodical audits is used to evaluate a selection of WCM pillars, forming an overall score for each plant that is the basis for three levels of excellence: Gold (80 points), Silver (60 points) and Bronze (50 points).
On October 12-13, Wroclaw refrigeration plant reached the first milestone in its route map, scoring 19 points, as planned and requested by the plant self evaluation. Since the beginning of the journey in November 2016, a big investment has been done on involving people at all levels of the organization with thousands of hours of training delivered. This was a great achievement for a first-time audit, considering that the most proficient plants entering WCM for the first time, on average, score 17 points. It is now in Wroclaw plans to reach the bronze certification (with 53 points) in 2019 with a continuous work along the WPS Evolution path.
“This audit was a privilege and an extraordinary opportunity to check the robustness of our organization during our World Class Manufacturing transformation journey. The very good score obtained is a great start to continue improving and reaching even more ambitious goals,” commented Fabio Pommella, Wroclaw Site Leader.
Two weeks after the Wroclaw experience, Cassinetta refrigeration plant celebrated the first WCM Audit moment with a score of 18 points. A lot of people have contributed to this, at all levels of the organization. The commitment of the leadership has played a strong role, but this result would not have been possible without the engagement of all employees. The passion and knowledge demonstrated on the shopfloor was a differentiating element. Cassinetta has in fact been pioneering the adoption of the WCM methodology at global level since September 2016, with more than 9200 hours and 110 days of training and several Kaizen events which translated into measurable results in safety, quality and productivity.
“The very good score obtained is the result of the hard work done in the last 12 months by the integrated Team, Site & Operations Excellence, leading the program and living Whirlpool beliefs of Have Passion, Play to Win, Be Bold, Own It, One Whirlpool. We, as professionals, learned a lot and experienced the potentiality of the new method. We, as individuals, have caught the unique opportunity to be leading actors of a structural change, leaving a mark which enables to influence our future. This represents an important step to transform Cassinetta into a more competitive Site achieving more Safety, more Quality and reducing losses.” said Raniero Portaluppi, Cassinetta Site Leader.
These two great successes were made possible also thanks to the strong WPS culture that has always characterized Whirlpool’s manufacturing world. This continuous effort will be key to reach the excellence in journey towards 2020 Manufacturing Strategy, the company’s global program to reinvigorate its manufacturing operations.
“This great result brings us closer to achieving our goals in the execution of our Operating Excellence strategy. I would like to thank all the people who contributed to this transformation process, and hence have lean, efficient, cost-effective manufacturing practices in our Wroclaw and Cassinetta plants,” said Davide Castiglioni, Vice President Integrated Supply Chain, Whirlpool EMEA.
The Wroclaw plant manufacturers free-standing cooling products and built-in ovens, while the Cassinetta site represents the EMEA hub for built-in products manufacturing microwaves, ovens and refrigerators. Both plants produce more than 2 million units yearly.