Performance and Productivity Initiatives: A Tale of Four Companies

Mary Ethridge of the Beacon Journal investigates four regional companies in Northeast Ohio who are implementing a variety of efficiency and productivity initiatives to remain competitive in increasingly difficult markets. One company has hired a local business professor to investigate streamilining possibilities, another has developed its own program, while the final two have implemented the Six Sigma program.  The success of the Six Sigma program is evident in a number of very tangible examples of costs savings.  Akron Beacon Journal Reports:

In another case, a [Six Sigma] team noticed an unusual number of service calls on some newly installed ATM machines.

The dispensers appeared to be in working order, so the team began to hunt for a reason for the calls.  They found the new ATM’s were set to generate a repair call if they didn’t spit out cash within 30 seconds.  By resetting the parameters, the company saved 4,049 hours of labor.