HD Supply took top honors, winning the Gold Award in the 24th International Team Excellence Award Process at the 2009 American Society for Quality World Conference on Quality and Improvement, held May 18-20, in Minneapolis. A dynamic finalist competition included 27 teams from around the world, vying for international recognition and the ASQ Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.
“This is our first experience with (the) Team Excellence (Process),” said HD Supply team captain Sheri Espinoza. "We were extremely impressed with the caliber of the presentations and the team spirit. We are honored to be among these professionals.”
The award winners were recognized in a spirited ceremony at this year’s conference in Minneapolis:
2009 International Team Excellence Awards
Gold Winner
Company: HD Supply – Facilities Maintenance – San Diego, Calif.
Team: Voice of the Customer Captains Team
Project: The HD Supply Team developed an innovative approach to use voice of the customer data to drive customer loyalty, continuous improvement and operational excellence. Benefits realized included development of a cross-functional team that executed company strategy and provided foresight in setting operational goals. Other tangible benefits included an impact in customer loyalty via a 6 percent increase in the net promoter score and a 22 percent improvement in the top 10 customer defects, which resulted in $3 million in savings.
Silver Winner
Company: Littelfuse Phils. Inc., Lipa City, Malvar, Batangas, Philippines
Team: Square Nano Quality Project Team
Project: The Square Nano Quality Project Team used the Littelfuse Lean Six Sigma methodology to reduce hazardous material, improve product quality, reduce cycle time and increase profitability. The project achievements include elimination of the use of hazardous material, improvement of cap retention strength by 166 percent, reduction of cycle time by 52 percent and reduction of manufacturing cost by 9 percent.
Bronze Winners
Company: Pershing LLC, Jersey City, N.J.
Team: Quality Management Office
Project: Two years ago, Pershing identified a project to develop and implement Pershing’s service level management infrastructure and culture. The results produced two quality tools: the quality scorecard and the service level dashboard, which Pershing leaders use to drive service excellence. This created a framework for continuous improvement that increased service level performance to 100 percent and reduced cycle time on 50 percent of service targets.
Company: The Boeing Company, Long Beach, Calif.
Team: C-17 PWIT Team
Project: The team designed, developed and fielded a portable wire integrity tester that automatically verifies wiring on the C-17 after a major retrofit, with the goal of seeing a significant time and cost savings. This project impacted numerous sites and focused on reducing the time necessary to perform the function, resulting in less rework and wire modifications.
Since 1985, more than 870 teams from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the United States have participated in this outstanding process. Well-known companies such as Humana and Alcoa, Inc. have showcased proven results with long-term implications, resulting in cost-savings of millions of dollars.
Next year’s International Team Excellence Award Process Final Round will be held at ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and Improvement in St. Louis, Mo. For information on how to participate in the 2010 International Team Excellence Award Process, visit http://wcqi.asq.org or e-mail gbalagopal@asq.org.
ASQ, www.asq.org, has been the world's leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As a champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.
