Read this article about Faurecia Clean Mobility, one of our finalists, in the category Best Achievement of Operational Excellence in Automotive & Transportation, selected by the independent judging panel, for the 2019 Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards program. Click here to read articles on other finalists.

Defying all conventional wisdom regarding the “best way” to deploy cultural change with a top-down approach, Lean Six Sigma at Faurecia Clean Mobility (FCM) is redefining the operating culture from the middle out.  FCM is a tier-1 automotive supplier of emission control systems with global operations, and one of three divisions of Faurecia, based in Nanterre, France.  This deployment began at the grass roots of a North American product validation testing facility with a small, cross-functional Steering Committee of practitioners who, with passionate commitment above and beyond their own functional roles, endeavored to change the way their organization solves problems.  Their work eventually accounted for the delivery of over $32M in project savings in 2 years and their passion has inspired hundreds of colleagues to learn and apply analytical methods for problem solving.  As a result, they have gained the attention of Faurecia C-level executives and customers alike. 

LSS at FCM has seen remarkable engagement and growth due to the value it delivers: to the customer, to the employees through skill development, and to the business.  This value creation aligns directly with Faurecia’s corporate strategies and flows from a simple philosophy: develop the people, focus on the customer, and let the business results be a natural consequence of disciplined execution.  It should be noted that in this deployment there are no LSS job titles.  Yellow Belt, Green Belt, and Black Belt are levels of certification which represent skill sets, not functional roles.  This means that all participation in the training is voluntary; people want to learn the tools and complete projects because they recognize that bringing tangible value to the organization promotes their own careers.  Consequently, Green Belts and Black Belts become internal entrepreneurs with their own portfolio of accomplishments through LSS projects. 

With no formal budget for training, the program has acquired capital from its own results and the training has been funded by those seeking skill development through internal departmental cross-charges.  There is no LSS organizational chart or functional bureaucracy; all the work invested in the deployment has come from people with other functional roles who intuitively understand and believe in the power of LSS. 

This culture change is robust and self-sustaining, as it has been demanded by the organization where opportunities to release trapped value are discovered.  Recognition of this success has spread throughout the entire Faurecia organization across all business units to the extent that in October of 2018, the Senior VP of Customer Satisfaction, who reports directly to the CEO of all of Faurecia, announced that deployment of LSS will be a key strategic initiative in 2019.

This deployment is truly exceptional on multiple levels.  Outstanding results, a self-sustaining cultural foundation, and broad recognition across the entire corporation for work within one division are rare achievements.   Most notably, this deployment is truly unique in its unorthodox evolution that radiates from the middle of the organizational chart to all levels of the company.