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"DRIVE - npower's approach to performance improvement, from concept through to success"

As part of on organisational transformation programme towards Business Excellence npower recognised the need to get greater engagement from their people and create a more empowered work force. One of the key enablers needed to achieve this was a Continuous Improvement framework.

The npower story is one of rapid growth, customer centricity and differentiation through it's people. Therefore it was important that their chosen approach to Continuous Improvement fit with the culture of the business. It was clear from the beginning that a one size fits all programme would not have worked at npower. For design and implementation the board commissioned a team of high performers with the following mandate:

• Don't just come back with a Six Sigma package with the npower logo on the side.
• Create something that our people can buy into and aligns with the way we do things around here.
• Demonstrate how it will fit into the business model.
• We want rapid implementation and some early wins.
• Keep it simple - no awards for complexity or something that 90% of the organisation can't use.

The key measure of success will be the number of small projects our people are doing - not the big projects we need specialised resource for.

Two of the npower Business Excellence programme team will talk through the design and implementation of their Continuous Improvement agenda [DRIVE]. And follow this up with a live case study of an early DRIVE project.

Npower are looking forward to sharing their experience of what has been a highly successful programme and answer any questions you have.

This presentation will be delivered by:

Trevor Yeoman - Business Excellence Programme Manager
Trevor has a background in electrical engineering and has ten years in key management roles in the energy industry. He has spent the last three years operating at board level implementing the npower Business Excellence model.

Massimo Stanghellini - Integrated Business Change Manager

Lean Evolution – the ongoing development of Freudenberg’s continuous improvement culture.

Changing a business culture is not something that happens overnight. Indeed, once the change starts, can we ever allow it to stop? The challenge of introducing a Lean programme into an organisation very quickly changes into ‘How can it be sustained and developed?’

Freudenberg recognised the need to change many years ago. As a tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry, we soon found out we had no choice!

In the early 1990’s Freudenberg launched its own in-house continuous improvement initiative - GROWTTH (Get Rid Of Waste Through Team Harmony). The focus was on eliminating waste from all processes using the Kaizen tools and empowering the workforce.

Within several years most of the ‘low hanging fruit’ had gone and identifying the waste was becoming harder.

The periodic introduction of new and often more sophisticated tools (but all under the same GROWTTH umbrella) has allowed us to develop our culture to a higher level, identify new opportunities for improvement and keep the workforce motivated.

One of the more recent – and possibly most important – developments has been the introduction of Six Sigma. By collecting good process data then carrying out statistical analysis using Minitab, we are now far better equipped to find the root cause of any given problem. Furthermore, we have been able to move away from detection to prevention for many issues.

A brief run through the development of the culture over the last 15 years will be augmented by reference to several project examples. There will then be an opportunity to discuss the issues arising from the story and to answer any questions.

This presentation will be delivered by:

From global presence to global leader - how Allianz is transforming itself

Allianz SE, the Munich headquartered financial services group, is carving out €3 bn worth of corporate and specialty insurance business from its regional subsidiaries worldwide and moving this into Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), a one year old business entity managed as a single global carrier and integrated global firm. The business logic behind Allianz' decision to create AGCS is simple, but the practical challenges of transforming a company from "having a global presence"" to "being a global leader" remain complex. Successful transformation requires a combination of radical change and continuous improvement efforts which needs to be sustained over several years without disrupting ongoing business. We will show how a layered Business (Process, Application, Information) Architecture and reference to the familiar notion of Architect and Engineer creates acceptance with key stakeholders of the roles and responsibilities required to continuously transform the organisation into a radically different target state.

This presentation will be delivered by:
Dr Thomas A. Louis - Head of Global Business Solutions, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS)