Barloworld, the Hyster distributor, says it is seeing fewer breakdowns, faster engineer response times and less waste as a result of its Six Sigma continuous improvement programme.
Continuous Improvement Manager Phil Marles said the quality of new truck handovers has also improved further with a revised process and checklist.
“One key positive is that we have used the Six Sigma process to strengthen our working relationship with Hyster, helping to improve the reliability of trucks in the field and introduced improvements in both manufacturing and quality testing, said Marles who is black belt qualified and has led a number of Six Sigma project teams.
Six Sigma was first introduced into Barloworld Handling in April 2008 and by last month eleven Barloworld employees had achieved their green belt qualification.
Angelo Sarzola, service director for Hyster said: “This initiative, with the tight collaboration between the Barloworld and Hyster teams, has been a great opportunity to have an even greater understanding of the cost of ownership in the life cycle of our product, allowing us to strengthen Hyster’s position as market leader for reliability and service cost of ownership”.
