Jabil Shanghai Beats Out IBM, American Fidelity and Tata Group in Institute of Industrial Engineers’ Lean Best Practice Competition

Jabil Shanghai was named the winner of this year's Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Lean Best Practice Award in recognition of its efforts to drive innovation and Lean Six Sigma capabilities in optimizing manufacturing processes at their facility.

The award was presented to two of the Jabil Shanghai team members, Jack Chen and XuYu Feng, by IIE Executives at an awards ceremony in Montreal, Canada.  The Jabil team beat out three other finalist projects from IBM, American Fidelity and Tata Group. Judged by IIE members and Lean experts from various industries, the team was ranked based on their innovation, clarity, tools used, results and the project's sustainability.

Needless to say, many were impressed with the Shanghai team's presentation.

"The team exemplifies how Lean can impact our customers and our employees to create new opportunities and better society," said Walter Garvin, Vice President of Global Lean Six Sigma.

Dave Harry, IIE Lean Division Board of Directors and President & CEO, Process Whisperer said he was impressed by the Jabil Team's presentation for this year's contest and that both Jack Chen and Xu Yu Feng gave a clear and compelling story of Jabil's remarkable and effective Lean transformation in the Shanghai China plant.  

"I have judged many world-class team excellence presentations and this ranks among the best," Harry said.
Four years ago, the IIE competition was established to recognize the innovative and effective implementation of lean principles and practices that deliver exemplary performance improvements.  Past winners come from some of the world's leading organizations, including IBM, Xerox, the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and MAS Linea Aqua.

Jabil's Lean program was officially launched four years ago and now spans the company's 90 plants in 33 countries delivering more than 71,000 improvement projects in 2013 alone. The company has been able to improve manufacturing efficiency and reduce variations, defects, costs and non-value added activities improving process value stream flow and delivering customer products in the most effective way. Many industry experts have recognized the Jabil Shanghai site for their Lean program and powerful capabilities.  Jabil Shanghai produces various highly specialized medical and networking products.