Lean Six Sigma in Action - Jabil Shanghai

Quality Magazine featured an article (web only) highlighting a lean six sigma effort at Jabil (Jabil Circuit Inc)
The Personal Side of Lean Manufacturing: Shanghai Project Helps Team Members
I was hoping to read a case of application of lean and six sigma principles at a factory where the methods had been integrated into the culture with results.   What I got is a sponsored content press release devoid of substance and rife with key words.

The article gave me that same sinking feeling when I discuss a quality problem or a new product launch with a plant team and get shallow talking points. Before I puked on my keyboard I thought I would look deeper into Jabil and their award-winning Manufacturing Process Optimization Program.

I found that the award won was apparently the Institute of Industrial Engineers 2014 Lean Best Practice Award. Jabil put a little video online touting their win:

Jabil did send a team to Montreal to accept the award.  The team members' enthusiasm is evident.  If the initiative in Shanghai helped institute the tools deeper into their process, that is important.

I also found a nice article from the Tampa Bay Times (Oct 2014) that helped to ease my cynicism:

Inside Jabil's competitive culture, a global contest to maintain its edge

The article's author, Robert Triqaux, added more of the story about Jabil's lean six sigma efforts. There seems to be more substance to Jabil's efforts than I first picked up from the Jabil press release in Quality Mag. Jabil has an active program to highlight and share projects across Jabil's worldwide footprint. Money quote from Robert in the article:

Is this just some feel-good exercise, some HR stunt to inspire corporate loyalty in a far-flung corporation? That's a small piece of it, but then that's what all well-run businesses do.

Final word goes to Jabil's Lew Gordon, Director Lean Six Sigma, Taken from the video:

One of the response Jack Chen gave to a question; was that Jabil, with 190,000 people, 90 plants, 33 countries, 17 or 18 essential languages, found one universal language that helps connect them all, and that is the language of the lean program.