Maple Leaf Foods Six Sigma

employees on what Six Sigma actually is, how to use, and how it helps them perform

1. Six Sigma is a management philosophy that sets objectives, collects data and analyzes results as a way to remove wasted expenses from its processes and help reduce the number of defective products produced. Six Sigma uses quality measures to strive for near perfection by eliminating errors and variables.

The driving factors for a success or failure of implementing Six Sigma is largely dependent on the inputs set forth at the conception and duration of the integration. This whitepaper will compare and contrast these critical inputs for a successful deployment. In order to accomplish this five various companies: GE Electric, W.R. Grace, Royal Chemicals, Diversified Paper and Lemforder. Some of these organizations had very successful results while others failed to reach their full potential. What is clear is the similarities of those that succeed and those that failed.

Six Sigma can help companies achieve performance levels that externally are invaluable to customers and internally can reduce costs. These projects can now be found in very diverse industries and can span far-reaching …these two initiatives can be complementary, especially for "Greenfield" process improvements… UPS Supply Chain Solutions 2 business processes and geographies

Six Sigma is the business strategy and a philosophy of one working smarter not harder.

Maple Leaf Foods initially announced restructuring of its meat products as well as the agribusiness operations in 2006 in order to reduce its exposure to foreign currency fluctuations as well as to increase its profitability in the meat industry. This policy adopted by Maple Leaf Foods led to the sale of Rothsay, a biodiesel business, followed by the sale of Olivieri Foods, a fresh sauce and pasta business, and ultimately concluding its restructuring with the sale of its bakery division, Canada bread in order to pay off its debt and complete the long due restructuring of its meat business. Sale of these subsidiaries in 2013 and 2014 led to excessive focus on its protein business. As a result, the present as well as the future earnings of Maple

A quantitative study conducted by Lifvergren, Gremyr, Hellstrom, Chakhunashvili, and Bergman (2010) analyzed the experiences and from a hospital group during a three-year period after the introduction of Six Sigma. It reports on 22 large Six Sigma improvement projects, their results and influence on other improvement activities. The study shows that 75% of the completed projects reached their goals within 18 months. The average net cost savings per completed project/year was $55,300. Overall, the results showed that Six Sigma is a useful concept when trying to improve healthcare processes. They recommend that Six Sigma should be an addition to the improvement practices used in healthcare development initiatives. It was also observed that the Six Sigma program can create much organizational pull regarding quality management and improvement efforts if teamwork is applied.

• This coursework is worth 70% of the overall module marks. • The assignment questions are based on the main case. Supplements A and B provide useful insights into previous Six Sigma initiatives in the organization. • Preferably your write-up may not exceed 5000 ± 10% words. • This coursework should adopt academic conventions in terms of writing style, be supported by research, with proper attribution of sources and be fully referenced. • Do not submit an

is the role of Six Sigma in the Maple Leaf Foods organization? Is it a set of tools or a manufacturing philosophy? Is it strategic or tactical?

The author juxtaposes the two management philosophies Six Sigma and Total Quality Management and, therefore, perceives that they have chief components indistinguishable. Gibson & Tesone (2001) demarcated five stages in the fad’s life cycle and on comparing with Six Sigma & Total Quality Management cycle found the analogous pattern being trailed by them. On the

Brassard, Michael, and Diane R. (2001). “Sailing through Six Sigma: How the Power of People Can Perfect Processes and Drive down Costs”. Marietta, GA: Brassard & Ritter, 2001.

Many companies attempt to advance through Six Sigma, Lean, or other initiatives. However, some studies have been reported that two-thirds of other initiatives fail to meet the expectations of the organization leaders (Ghodrati and Zulkifli 2013). Learning about the certain methods of the different systems is not the issue when putting these into play, but putting them into their daily organizational actions is. Some of these situations where they fail to put these into play is process improvement, continuous improvement, and the procedures of the initiatives not being long-standing.

SEC’s strategic objective is to create both qualitative and quantitative growth and deliver competitive value to all stakeholders, customers and partners while maintaining profitability. With its strategic objectives established, the foundation was ready for the Six Sigma process to begin in late 1999 and early 2000. Starting in 2000, the use of the Six Sigma began in manufacturing using the define, measure, analyse, improve and control (DMAIC) discipline. This was then expanded to use design for Six Sigma using the DMAIC phases for designing new products. Transactional Six Sigma was applied next to business and support processes internally and externally where customer needs and interactions have become increasingly critical. This helped in optimizing cycle time and equipment usage, having fewer rejects or errors, improving response time to customer inquiries; reducing inspection, maintenance, inventory and other high costs, providing more employee development ,and boosting the bottom line. These impressive numbers have certainly played a major role in Samsung’s recent growth. Some indications of this include the following: • By 2001, SEC had earned net income of $2.2 billion on total revenues of $24.4 billion. Market capitalization stood at $43.6 billion. • According to SEC’s 2001 annual report, SEC now is one of the top 10

In 1990’s Jack Welch launched Six Sigma in GE in a big way. He implemented Six Sigma in all areas and ensured that the entire organization participates in the initiative. He changed the performance incentives and made them based on individual’s ability and enthusiasm to take part in Six Sigma initiatives. He transformed GE to a state where Six Sigma had become the culture of the organization and not just a methodology for brining organization-wide improvements.

The above four were the main reasons for the company to put together a set of processes which would formally combine SCM and six sigma, by training and developing supply chain people become capable of leading innovations. Over the last years of implementation, SCM six sigma became a unique and useful component of Samsung’s strategy for systematic and continuous improvement of its SCM