The Yuga CI system begins and ends with meeting and exceeding customers’ expectations through optimized, efficient operations with quick turnaround time and high product quality.  The Yuga CI system has initiated many new changes each of which encountered different challenges and obstacles at the beginning of the deployment.

Find out how Yuga has implemented its system.

Why is CI important?

Any serious change effort requires commitment at the highest level of an organization. Yuga Group's CEO, Victor Wu, is committed to the improvement of the Group’s operations in various aspects and created a dedicated CI position to bring the Group to the next level with new process, approaches, concepts and tools.

Kelly Ma joined the company in October 2018 to fill the position, with over a decade of related experience in multinational and consulting companies across different sectors including automotive, aerospace and cosmetic packaging. Through her extensive knowledge and experience in identifying continuous improvement opportunities according to strategy deployment and business objectives, as well as the establishment and deployment of cross-function teams and activities, Yuga has been making changes.

What is Yuga's CI system?

The Yuga CI system is an integrated business approach to drive sustainable and optimized performance in safety, quality, delivery and cost etc. It leverages the foundation structure of Six Sigma plus Lean production and is based on the Quality Management System. Moreover, the Yuga CI system is more about providing new concepts and continuous improvement thinking rather than simply applying a toolset. By truly changing the way we act, work, lead, learn and think can we assure a self-perpetuating CI system.

The system process is: Plan - do - check - action - PDCA cycle. Each part of this process is pivotal to the success of the system in order to engage with our teams and build on our capabilities.

How has Yuga's CI system been integrated across its factories?

Top management commitment and leadership are the foundations of a successful CI system implementation, however, the engagement of employees at all levels is critical for its success.

To show full support of the system, CEO Victor Wu has actively been providing coaching, guidance and leadership to the Group's 4 cosmetic packaging factories. The process is continuous and it involves the entire YUGA team.

The first step is the alignment of the CI objectives and plan. This is then discussed with plan GM's as an open dialogue to work out the CI activities, processes and approaches which will be the most beneficial. This open dialogue with managers ensures both a full understanding of how CI activities are aligned and also their support of the processes so that they can lead by example.

The next step in the CI integration is overcoming resistance during the implementation phase. With different teams across 4 factories clear communication from management to supervisors, engineers and operators is key to surmount and offset initial resistance quickly and effectively.

The system is then adjusted and optimized according to the effectiveness of each activity based on employee feedback —at all levels— to ensure that the steps and details are efficient and productive.

How has performance improved since the implementation of the CI system?

The company's yield improved by 2.3% from 2018 to 2019 whilst defects were reduced by 1.4% for the same period, marking the lowest level achieved in 6 years. The Continuous Improvement system can also be credited with enhanced performance and sales revenue.

What other key achievements have been achieved?

One of the primary achievements has been the culture transformation. Raised awareness, enhanced communication and the monitoring of problems mean that it is now easier to take immediate action when situations occur. For example, by the end of 2019 one factory had identified close to 800 undesired opportunities and immediately solved them.

The leadership teams spend time in the workshop every day to ensure full comprehension of processes for external benchmarking and this has streamlined opportunities in addition to opening up more communication as Yuga's management both lead and guide the workforce.

The open communication has also ensured that Yuga is an environment where everyone participates in continuous improvement. Every employee faces different challenges and undertakes different processes in their role and can therefore offer the best feedback about how to improve on them. The workshop, potential safety hazards, waste, time and cost savings can all be identified more effectively. Alongside the company's systematic incentive system to motivate employees, the deployment of sharing best practice and learning is abundant at Yuga.