Vought Ranked Fifth in Nation as Best Places to Work for
Six Sigma Professionals
Places First in Supply Chain Project Category
DALLAS, FEB. 5, 2010 – Vought Aircraft Industries, a leading manufacturer of airframe structures, received the No. 5 ranking on the list of iSixSigma's Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals at the iSixSigma Live! Summit in Miami this week.
In addition, Vought placed first in the Best Supply Chain DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) project category for its work on the C-17 Globemaster III transport program. This is the same project that was recognized by The Boeing Company in 2009 with its Gold Eagle Award, which honors significant accomplishments in continuous improvement and operational excellence. Vought employees and its industry teammates earned the award by reducing product lead time on the C-17 program from 29 months to 20 months.
“It is an honor knowing how our Six Sigma program and continuous improvement projects stack up against the best of the best,” said Ruben Coronado, Vought’s Six Sigma master black belt. “I am confident that we will be able to build on this momentum and continue driving toward breakthrough improvements throughout our organization.”
Vought is one of three companies that remained on the Top 10 list from 2008. Last year Vought received the No. 2 ranking on the list of iSixSigma's Top 10 Best Places to Work for Six Sigma professionals.
Here are the rankings of the Top 10 list of iSixSigma's 2009 Best Places to Work:
- Starwood Hotels and Resorts (North America Division)
- McKesson Corp.
- Xerox Corp.
- Ecolab Inc.
- Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.
- Pfizer Inc.
- Merck & Co. Inc.
- Piramal Healthcare Ltd.
- Cardinal Health Inc.
- Computacenter AG & Co. oHG
iSixSigma.com and iSixSigma Magazine sponsors the list, which received more than 40 nominations from throughout the world. Sixteen companies met all the entry requirements and completed a two-part online survey. The senior Six Sigma leader submitted answers to an employer survey, and the full-time Six Sigma personnel at each company submitted answers to an employee survey.
Companies were ranked 1 through 10 by totaling the scores from the two surveys. The greatest weight was given to the employee survey, which asked questions in five main categories: job satisfaction, culture, compensation/rewards and recognition, training and career development, and Net Promoter Score®. Of these categories, the most weight was given to job satisfaction, as that is what employees said was the most important factor to them when it comes to a working environment.
In just three years, 287 Vought employees have completed the Six Sigma green belt training, with 102 receiving certification. Thirty-four employees went on to complete black belt training, and 12 of those people are now certified. Projected savings of all black and green belt projects combined exceeds $48 million.
Vought has a long history of applying Lean strategies to its operations. The focus of Lean is to improve the flow and velocity in everything a company does by systematically eliminating waste. The focus of Six Sigma is to improve business by reducing process variation through the use of statistical methods. “These two complementary improvement methodologies, working together, establish the main elements of our Vought Operating System (VOS)," said Coronado.
About Vought
Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. (www.voughtaircraft.com) is one of the world's largest independent suppliers of aerostructures. Headquartered in Dallas, the company designs and manufactures major airframe structures such as wings, fuselage subassemblies, empennages, nacelles and other components for prime manufacturers of aircraft. Vought has annual sales of approximately $1.8 billion and about 6,000 employees in eight U.S. locations.
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