OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

“We are convinced that employees should feel valued. When work has meaning and you’re proud of what you’re doing, you feel happy and are more productive,” explained Frédéric Goncalves, Director of Operational Excellence and Quality (Lorette, France). The Yello program thrives on the Let’s Dare Together vision: it allows employees to adopt innovative actions on their own initiative.

Patrice Métairie, Industrial Director, added, “we knew our quality procedure had to change using the operational excellence approach, and Frédéric is going to guide us in the launch of this serious transformation.” The Yello program plays a supporting role in the activation of our strategic map. “Now is the time to use all the resources that can help us work better. The Yello program is the drive belt and the oil needed for the machine,” Patrice described. In other words, the Yello program offers a method and the tools that can put flesh onto our new strategic direction and our values.

Getting our ideas together

Since May, about thirty champions have participated in the roll-out of the Yello program, some in their business line and others in a subsidiary or their production unit. Their mission has been to pinpoint the existing knowledge base and organize the improvements suggested by employees. Each person can make suggestions or try out new practices that could improve their productivity.

 “We’re part of an international group, and standardization has its limits. Yet, by taking into account the plurality of ideas, we can give each person the chance to meet their own needs,” Frédéric explained. As part of ensuring everybody benefits from this dynamic, experiences can be shared among subsidiaries through the program. For example, employees in Europe will be able to directly pick up a good practice that has emerged in the APAC region or adapt it according to the culture of the particular subsidiary.

Based on trust and listening to those involved, the Yello program renews an individual’s commitment. Patrice Métairie affirmed, “It has nothing to do with what’s in place in other businesses. The goal is obviously continuous improvement, but here we’re placing the person at the heart of the program. It’s an innovative program because it is constantly renewing itself. There is no standard to be achieved, instead it encourages the development of ideas and the creation of conditions conducive to initiatives. All the innovation is there in creating new solutions to problems that have long been with us.” In the end, by combining fun and effectiveness, the Yello program will inject new energy into everyone so they can work better. “It’s a fresh approach, quite unlike our usual methods. But the Executive Committee is enthusiastic about the Yello program with its broad-based scope that goes beyond the industrial context to help all employees,” Patrice Métairie concluded.

The Yello program has been fully incorporated into our new strategic map.