Danfoss beat huge international companies such as the transportation manufacturer Bombardier and the leading medical company Baxter to win the operational excellence award. The jury panel included the Lean expert Mark Graban who has worked for companies such as General Motors, Dell Computer and Honeywell.
Mark Graban explains why Danfoss won the award: "I am impressed with how Danfoss has implemented Lean in its manufacturing operations as part of a complete 'business system' rather than just a 'production system' for the shop floor. It struck me that Danfoss started back in 2004 with some pressing business needs. Lean success comes not from implementing Lean methods, but rather from using Lean to meet business improvement goals, and it appears that Danfoss has had that proper focus. Their results of improving productivity and capacity by more than 30 per cent are impressive."
Over the past four to five years, Danfoss has aimed to set up a shared, cross-divisional business system to improve the company’s profitable growth rates and make it more competitive. It started with the Danfoss Productivity Program in the production. Since then more programs have been launched within sales, procurement and, most recently, product development.
Bendt J. Jørgensen, head of Danfoss Business System, says: “We have come a long way in creating continuous improvements and all of the employees and managers who have been involved have made a huge effort to make this happen. Winning this operational excellence award is a clear recognition of this effort.”
Facts about the award:
Danfoss received the award at the Strategic Manufacturing Awards 2008 in conjunction with the European Manufacturing Strategies Summit. The summit was arranged by the international organisation World Trade Group. The award for operational excellence was one of seven awards that companies could nominate themselves for in advance. In addition to the honour, Danfoss was presented with a diploma and sculpture.
For further information:
Bendt J. Jørgensen, tel. +45 5156 1657