Avery Dennison

Avery Dennison began using Six Sigma in the Fasson Roll operation in 1998. It didn’t take long for the initiative to stick, and it soon spread throughout the company. Today, Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing are the foundation for driving productivity improvements across the company. The annual reports and press releases continually highlight the impact Six Sigma has on the company, their suppliers, and their customers.

Six Sigma is front page news in their most recent annual report. Along with the vital company stats (revenue, employees, and number of operational facilities), the number of Six Sigma trained personnel throughout the company stands tall at 1,600 Green Belts, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts.

To drive top-line growth, Avery Dennison began an initiative in 2003 called “Horizon 1”. To date the company has undertaken 1000 growth projects.

“Our Horizons growth program is our premier initiative for achieving top-line growth. Horizons is a disciplined process for accelerating sales growth by developing a steady pipeline of new products and services, as well as identifying new business ideas.”

2004 Annual Report

Savings and Benefits

"After several years of relatively heavy acquisition and divestiture activity, we now have the right portfolio of businesses to drive long-term value creation, we have the right assets in place globally to maintain our competitive advantage in our businesses, we have the proven tools in our Horizons and Six Sigma programs to execute our growth and productivity improvement strategies and we have the right people to make it all happen."

Philip M. Neal, Chairman and CEO, Annual Security Analysts Meeting, March 16, 2004

“Six Sigma continues to be the foundation of productivity improvement at Avery Dennison. With thousands of Six Sigma-trained employees throughout the Company, we have extended the program into virtually every facet of our business, making continuous productivity improvement a way of life. By aligning our Six Sigma activities with lean manufacturing concepts, we are able to more accurately assess where our greatest opportunities for savings, productivity improvement and enhanced customer satisfaction lie, as well as more effectively manage our total supply chain. In addition, we are increasingly reaping the benefits of applying this methodology to our internal business process improvement initiatives.”

2003 Annual Report

“Our Six Sigma program continues to be the cornerstone of our Company-wide productivity improvement efforts. The cost savings we are achieving enable us to redeploy resources to invest in growth initiatives.

“In fact, the benefits we have realized from Six Sigma, and the productivity improvement expertise that we have gained as a result, are now being offered to our key customers. Our Fasson Roll North America business has created a new service called ’Avery Dennison Optimum Performance . . . Six Sigma Working for You’, which involves consulting with our customers on their toughest business issues and using Six Sigma tools to help improve their operations.”

2002 Annual Report

“The Six Sigma program has resulted in improved productivity throughout the Fasson Roll operation, leading to lower costs and increased production capacity at a number of facilities. In total, the Six Sigma program generated more than $10 million in savings in 1999, with an additional $10 million in savings projected for 2000.”

4th-Quarter and Year-End Results, Jan. 25, 2000

Articles and Links

Never Ending Story, British Industry, May 2005

Sticking to Quality Goals, Chemical Week, March 01, 2000