Six Sigma Improving Processes at Procurement
Posted by: meikah | 17 December 2007 | 12:31 am
Are you handling the spending in your company well, yet not being able to make a few dollar savings at all?
Well, you could learn from Farley Blackman, the vice president of indirect procurement and Six Sigma at UK-based BP. Mr. Blackman manages the company’s $8 billion spend on facilities, travel, information technology, consulting, human resources, and financial services.
That’s a huge amount of money to handle on important, if not crucial, processes. Yet Blackman is still able to save a lot. How does he do it? He streamlines internal processes through Six Sigma, and what’s commendable is that he does this on top of all his other tasks. It’s not really part of his job.
His first step was to initiate a Six Sigma project in his own department. When others saw his progress, they decided they wanted to launch projects too, so Blackman detailed members of his own staff to help them. Among the projects: working with BP’s solar business to increase yields from manufacturing operations. Demand for solar modules is outstripping supply. Getting more product from the same amount of raw material is critical since silicon, the material required to make photovoltaic cells, is a constrained commodity, he says. The Six Sigma projects have reduced silicon-wafer breakage, increased power output from modules and reduced scrap. Results: $1.6 million in savings so far. He says the company is on target to deliver more than a 15X return on investment on the incremental costs.
Source:
Purchasing.com
