Jabil Wins Lean Best Practice Award

Jabil Shanghai was recently named the winner of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Lean Best Practice Award in recognition of its efforts to drive innovation and Lean Six Sigma capabilities in optimizing manufacturing processes at its facility.

The award was presented to two of the Jabil Shanghai team members, Jack Chen and XuYu Feng, at an awards ceremony in Montreal, Canada. The Jabil team beat out finalist projects from IBM, American Fidelity and Tata Group. Judged by IIE members and lean experts from various industries, the team was ranked based on their innovation, clarity, tools used, results and the project's sustainability.

"The IIE 2014 Best Practice Award is truly a credit to the Shanghai team," said Walter Garvin, vice president of global Lean Six Sigma. "The team exemplifies how lean can impact our customers and our employees to create new opportunities and a better society. We are very grateful for this award and all the hard work and dedication that it represents all across Jabil."

The IIE competition was established four years ago to recognize the innovative and effective implementation of lean principles and practices that deliver exemplary performance improvements. Past winners include IBM, Xerox, the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and MAS Linea Aqua.

"I was extremely impressed by the Jabil team presentation in the IIE 2014 Lean Best Practice Award competition," said Dave Harry, IIE lean division board of directors and president and CEO of Process Whisperer. "Jack Chen and XuYu Feng gave a clear and compelling story of Jabil's remarkable and effective lean transformation in the Shanghai plant. It was evident there was strong Jabil commitment at the top, great teamwork and an excellent use of a range of lean tools and concepts throughout their innovative presentation. I have judged many world-class team excellence presentations, and this ranks among the best."

Jabil's lean program was officially launched four years ago and now spans the company's 90 plants in 33 countries, with more than 71,000 improvement projects in 2013 alone. The company has been able to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce variations, defects, costs and non-value added activities, enhancing process value stream flow and delivering customer products in the most effective way.

For more information, visit www.jabil.com.