Brandix produces Lanka's top six Sigma black belts

by Surekha Galagoda

Sri Lanka's first Six Sigma Black Belts in the apparel sector have been produced by the Brandix Group. It is another milestone for the country's biggest apparel exporter.

Brandix's 'magnificent seven' - six of the group's brightest young men and one woman - have received international certification in the Six Sigma process improvement methodology promoted worldwide by management guru Jack Welch.

They all received scores in excess of 90 per cent from BMG; the US headquartered Six Sigma Certification Company, said Vice President Process improvement Ed Fleischer.

"This is a tremendous achievement by these seven associates and an important milestone in the Brandix Group's efforts to continuously enhance the processes across all member companies.

He said the seven associates, the cream of the crop hand picked, moved away from their regular duties and got them involved in process improvement.

This was a key factor in their success. The Six Sigma training was conducted online via group study sessions and also involved the practical application of Six Sigma in live projects. This greatly enhanced the adaptation of Six Sigma best practices across the Strategic Business Units (SBUs).

The first team of Six Sigma aspirants was formed in November 2004 and training commenced in May 2005. The Black Belt certification was completed in January 2007.

The Brandix Group already has three more associates undergoing Black Belt training who will be receiving their certification early this year. There are many others at present undergoing Green Belt training and the Group expects to have 50 Six Sigma Green Belts by 2008.

Dushan Dayaratne, a Six sigma black belt winner said that "Six Sigma strives towards" finding solutions for troublesome problems. As everything is data driven there is very little room for errors but there are no quick fixes.

Therefore if an organisation is keen on implementing this methodology everybody including the top management should be dedicated while every member has to make a commitment. Most importantly everybody should know that all projects are not Six Sigma projects.

Three of the seven Black Belts have been selected to go on to Master Black Belt status, with official certification to impart Six Sigma training, while the other four have returned to operational positions in the Group and will drive the implementation of process improvement methodologies that will continue to lead to significant savings.

The combined savings to Brandix from seven projects undertaken by the Black Belt aspirants during their 18-month training period alone has exceeded US$ 1.3 million (over LKR 140 million), Fleischer said.

He said that a key feature of the groups adoption of Six Sigma methodology was that the first batch of seven Black Belts received instructions and sat for the examinations via BMG e-learning, a first for Sri Lanka.

This was possible only because the Group had a strong foundation of process improvement methodology that began two years earlier with TCT, which complements Six Sigma.

The selection process for the program is exhaustive and designed to ensure that the best of the best are identified. The first Black Belts came from two groups of Management Trainees hired by Brandix in 2002. About 2,000 applicants in the first group were interviewed before 13 were selected. In the second hiring 10 were selected from another group of 2,000 applicants.

The Six Sigma Black Belts who have returned to operational positions in the Brandix Group will apply the methodology in many areas including yield improvement, marker efficiency, cut-to-ship ratio, machine utilisation and on-time delivery, Fleischer added.

These are critical aspects in process improvement that will contribute to enhancing quality, efficiency and ultimately customer satisfaction.

A fully-integrated total solutions provider in the apparel sector, the Brandix Group comprises the holding company Brandix Lanka Limited and 14 Strategic Business Units that produce casual bottoms, intimate and active wear, textiles, knitted fabrics, sewing and embroidery thread, accessories and hangers and offer wet processing and finishing and fabric printing. Brandix is the single largest contributor to Sri Lanka's export portfolio.

The Group is a preferred solutions provider to some of the world's best brands, including Gap, Marks and Spencer, Victoria's Secret, NEXT and Abercrombie and Fitch.

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