Large European Automobile Company in Brazil

A European leader in the global Auto Industry wanted to introduce substantial and lasting change in their Brazilian Operations while closing lines, reducing suppliers and launching a new vehicle model every year. They wanted active participation of the employees and a structured follow up plan of actions to be taken.

The situation lend itself to the use of work-Out: General Electric was a supplier willing to share its methodology with their Customer, a common practice in the GE system.

EDI, which had successfully introduced work-Out to the GE Brazil Operations, was invited to present the concept and possible deployment strategy to the Company Executive Committee. After an in depth presentation of the concept, mechanics and challenges, the Executive Committee agreed on implementing the work-Out methodology throughout the Company. EDI trained facilitators, conducted the first five work-Out Sessions and then trained Master Facilitators to completely transfer the technology to the Customer. A follow up software application was included, to support the infrastructure of the resulting projects.

Thanks to the Customer outstanding level of commitment (The CEO participated in the review panel at the end of all sessions) and to the strict deployment process devised by EDI, the savings in the first year were calculated in the millions of dollars and the European headquarters emulated the process in different parts of the world.