Renowned for always going the extra mile, our team is dedicated to helping businesses improve performance, even if it means travelling half-way around the world to do it.
Recently, our head of assessment solutions, Jo Dowdall, travelled to Pune, near to Mumbai, to assess the Indian arm of Midlands-based Haldex Concentric – a world leader in oil, fuel and water pumps for diesel engines.
Having used the IiE Standard successfully in the UK for over three years, Haldex was keen to apply the same principles of excellence to its operations in Pune. With support from IiE, the team in India first achieved accreditation in 2008, so Jo’s recent visit was an opportunity to re-evaluate progress and ensure standards were still being met.
“The site visit included a review of progress since 2008, interviews with members of the team and the opportunity to observe practices first hand,” said Jo. “I was extremely impressed with the organisation and its leadership.
“Haldex Concentric has taken the Standard to its heart and it’s using it to underpin everything it does, making it a real ambassador for excellence.”
It’s a view that’s shared by the managing director in Pune, Nitin Pagrut. “The Investors in Excellence Standard is a key business tool for us and it’s firmly embedded within our culture,” he said. “Jo’s visit helped reinforce our commitment to continuous improvement and we’re looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the IiE team.”
But it’s not just Jo that’s been taking her suitcase to work.
As part of our commitment to rolling out the IiE Standard internationally, we have established a franchise agreement in Abu Dhabi and our next areas of focus are Japan and India.
Support has also been provided to companies in Dubai and Latvia and our certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Adrian Hughes, has been running a 12-month process improvement programme for one of Russia’s largest companies.
During the course of this year, Adrian has so far made three visits to Russia. As well as educating our customer’s senior management team about the Six Sigma process, he has been working closely with the dedicated in-house quality department. This has enabled him to identify potential improvement projects and internal champions that can take responsibility for making them happen.
“This is an exciting project for IiE as it takes us into a new geographical territory,” said Adrian. “Already, the customer is seeing the benefits of our involvement in terms of increased efficiency and improved performance. Going forward, further coaching and training will arm them with the skills they need to grow their business successfully in today’s tough economic climate and it’s great to think that IiE is helping spread the excellence message across the globe.”
