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A Foundation for the Future
October 2008
El Paso, TX & Juarez, MX
2008 Event Details To Come. Read About Our 2007 Event Here!
With the successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma and continuous improvement methodologies and practices ExpressPoint hosted our first one-day educational summit. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement of our processes and the quality of work we provide to our customers, we at ExpressPoint have incorporated the Six Sigma methodology and practices into our culture. According to Tim Duckworth, ExpressPoint Director of Quality, "Six Sigma focuses on stabilizing processes and removing process variations and defects. This ensures a quality product is produced every time and eliminates cost associated with rework or field failures. In short, Lean Six Sigma Principles = More Value for the Customer."
The ExpressPoint Six Sigma Summit began with an extensive tour of the El Paso, Texas distribution center and Juarez, Mexico repair depot facilities. These facilities are a part of our ongoing strategy to provide industry leading repair quality and service parts logistics fulfillment at the lowest cost. Both facilities are ISO 9001:2000 certified. Kelly Dudek, Senior Vice President of Operations for ExpressPoint explains, "I think it’s important for customers to lose the perception that with Mexico you trade quality for cost. You get both top notch quality and the lowest price with our Mexico facility."
ExpressPoint’s Juarez secure, 50,000 square foot facility produces 16,000 repairs per month with 140 employees. This facility has the same process capabilities as our Golden Valley, MN facility including, but not limited to, whole unit, subassembly and board level repair, advanced exchange and repair and return, inventory planning as well as staging, integration and deployment.
After lunch in Juarez, our Six Sigma Project teams began their presentations. Each team presented their project and the results to a panel of judges comprised of ExpressPoint customers and winners were chosen. One customer noted that ExpressPoint had, "exceptional deployment of the Six Sigma techniques" and "the people were on board and delivering results". One of the goals for implementation of Lean Six Sigma in the Juarez facility was to create a culture shift that would encourage the adaptation and ownership of the process. The main idea was to make Lean Six Sigma techniques ‘part of their job’ not ‘another job they have to do’. To accomplish this, Plant Manager Rafael Contreras and Trainer/Director of Quality, Tim Duckworth empowered the employee participants by allowing them to select and direct their own projects, creating ownership. This peer group approach took the fear out of Six Sigma and the teams composed of multiple disciplines
encouraged the development cross-functional teams working together.
Creativity was also encouraged, each of the teams had a little fun in creating their team names and putting their presentations together. The Summit created some friendly competition and drove the teams to work harder to ‘win’ by conducting the project which produced the best results. Rafael Contreras, Plant Manager, said, "When we opened this facility two years ago we shared the idea with our employees that we are building a facility that will be here for a very long time. And to do this, we need to be constantly learning and improving. I was so extremely proud of my people and for them to present the projects they have been working on for the last 10 months. They put a tremendous amount of effort into their projects and by presenting their results to our customers they show their commitment to continuous improvement."
The winning team, "Sigma Heroes" presented a project on eliminating non-value-added activities on printer repair programs.
Other teams included:
- Second Place – "Sigma Target" – Optimizing Inventory and Production Control
- Second Place – "The Home Improvement" – Increase Juarez Facility Utilization to 85%
- Third Place – "Super GEAVY Repair" – Reduce Out of Box Failure Rate for Printer Programs to Less Than 1%
- "Alfa Omega" – Improve Reliability and Efficiency of Test Equipment
- "Six Pack" – Overall Packaging Material Cost Reduction
- "Bulldog" – Reduce Electricity Consumption in the Plant by 30%
- "Sigma HD" – Reduce Out of Box Failure Rate for Monitor Programs to Less Than 1%
- "The Workers” – Reduce "Part Not Found"
Del Johnson, a member of the ExpressPoint Board of Directors, said "What impressed me the most was the Juarez/El Paso team’s continuing effort to improve the best electronic repair facility I have ever seen. Their processes, procedures and quality are remarkable. I believe the customers who attended the 2007 Six Sigma Summit shared my impression. I was proud to be a part of the ExpressPoint team during this visit. I congratulate the staff and management on their achievements to date and their focus on the future goal to continue to make improvements."
Mr. Duckworth also added, "ExpressPoint is focused on quality and performance in a lean environment, and this was an opportunity to demonstrate our achievements in this arena to our customers." So far 52 employees have been trained with 14 projects completed, 9 were chosen for the First Annual Summit. And, this is only the beginning. Part of creating a true culture shift is making it a part of every day, not just "Flavor of the Month". Each trainee is required to be involved with at least one project per year. Our teams in all our facilities are working on a variety projects for our next Six Sigma Summit. Future plans include adding an additional Summit in our headquarters in Golden Valley, MN for 2008.
David Anderson, Chairman and CEO for ExpressPoint, was very pleased with our First Annual Six Sigma Summit. He said, "Our customers reinforced our decision to deploy Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing as our long term strategy, they saw numerous examples of improved quality and complemented us on the rapid deployment of these tools and techniques."
