by Shane Henson — June 13, 2012—ASQ, a global quality community that seeks to advance the professional development, credentials, knowledge and information services, membership community, and advocacy on behalf of millions of individual and organizational members in 140 countries, recently recognized companies during its annual International Team Excellence Award Process.
Since 1985, more than 1,000 teams from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and the United States have participated in this team recognition process— the only one of its kind in the United States, says ASQ.
This year, Argentina’s TGestiona was awarded Gold-level status for implementing quality tools to improve the company’s image and the service it provides to customers. Tgestiona’s Delivering Quality team, based in Buenos Aires, used Six Sigma to increase efficiencies and save the company more than $600,000 annually. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects in any process—from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. Tgestiona is part of the Telefonica Group, which won the Gold award in 2010 and 2011.
Teams that reached Bronze-level status included:
- Alcoa, Inc.; Morristown, TN—Alcoa’s Transformation to the Core team drove significant culture change, improving delivery time by 63%, and reducing costs by 26% annually.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev; Oklahoma City, OK-Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Liner Continuous Improvement Team reduced potential quality issues by optimizing the placement of a liner compound used to create an airtight seal on cans.
- CSX Transportation/General Electric; Jacksonville, FL—CSX and GE partnered to create the Fuel Conservation Team, which documented a 6.9% fuel savings for its pilot trains—a reduction of approximately 390,000 tons in harmful greenhouse gases every year.
- National Reconnaissance Office; Chantilly, VA—The company’s Media Services Center used Six Sigma to reduce production defects, increasing accuracy and generating significant cost savings.
- Reliance Industries Ltd. Hazira; Surat, Gujarat, India—Reliance Industries’ Mission Excellence Six Sigma team increased productivity and achieved annual savings of $3.1 million.
- The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans; New Orleans, LA—The location’s Housekeeping Defect Reduction Project diagnosed the cause of defects, specifically missing room supplies, which reduced the cost of guest supplies by 25%.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev; Oklahoma City, OK-Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Liner Continuous Improvement Team reduced potential quality issues by optimizing the placement of a liner compound used to create an airtight seal on cans.
No companies were awarded Silver-level status, says ASQ.
