For several years, Fiat Group has worked to align itself with one of the highest manufacturing standards globally, World Class Manufacturing (WCM). This is an integrated model for the complete organisation of a factory: from environmental management and occupational safety to maintenance and logistics, with a particular focus on eliminating waste. WCM applies to all areas of production and aims to optimise results through the continuous improvement of processes and product quality, the control and gradual reduction of production costs, the flexibility to respond to market requirements and the involvement and motivation of employees.
The system is centred around ten technical pillars and ten managerial pillars. An external audit assesses the degree to which a plant has applied and achieved the standard, producing a score upon which one of four different levels of certification is assigned: bronze, silver, gold and world class. At the end of 2009, 114 of the Group’s plants were participants in the WCM programme, of which 17 had achieved bronze level and 6 silver level certification.
All activities are oriented towards projects having the following objectives: zero accidents, zero waste, zero breakdowns and zero inventories, which translate into value creation for the business and satisfaction for customers.
WCM replaces traditional reporting with Cost Deployment, which serves as the directional guide for the entire system. Based on a systematic analysis of losses and waste, it enables corrective actions to be planned and prioritised and facilitates the final reporting of results.
With respect to the environmental and safety dimensions, the WCM standard is based on a risk prevention approach. In the event of an accident, WCM calls for a rigorous analysis of the causes and application of the most appropriate procedures to avoid a reoccurrence.
The success of World Class Manufacturing is based on the participation of employees, who are periodically involved in targeted training programmes.
Everyone in the Group is continually encouraged to contribute suggestions and every suggestion is considered and its potential application evaluated. In 2009, a total of 890,000 proposals for improving processes were received, representing an average of 13 suggestions per employee.