Customer Endorsements

Molex

What appealed to us about Luftig & Warren International's approach was the linkage — the method of tying key business initiatives together in a more structured way. First Luftig & Warren (LWI) would focus on the use of statistical process control in the plant. What LWI showed us was, that this was not necessarily the most important thing, but to also focus on generating data in various operations, analyzing and understanding the data, and using experimental design to find out what it is the data is telling us.

Our errors have gone from around 20,000 PPM (parts per million) to about 1,500 PPM.

LWI has helped us improve the quality in the factory by decreasing error rates to one tenth of what they were; improve time to market; and institute effective advanced quality planning (AQP). They are a data-based organization and we are a far more analytical company then we were ten years ago because of it. The improvements have been hugely beneficial to the company.

In terms of customer satisfaction, market share growth is two times the industry average, which is some indication that our customers are happy.

Employees have responded really well. One of the things that is really exciting is the involvement at all levels of the organization. Whether it is a natural work team or a cross-functional team, our employees take on a problem, make presentations, and the way they use data to solve problems and make the business better is impressive. Our people have made improvements such as reducing downtime by 90 percent. Many of them have never had the opportunity to do that before. The key from a management standpoint is not to have them working on the wrong thing.

The value from LWI has been terrific.

John Krehbiel, Jr.

President Molex

Earthgrains

We weren't getting anywhere with internal solutions.

Luftig & Warren International (LWI) achieved fairly dramatic results, which got everyone's attention. Word spread quickly throughout Anheuser-Busch.

Our objectives in working with LWI have very definitely been met or are on the right track to be met. Our objective was to achieve a focus on the customer vs. an internal focus; to get people to deal with data vs. opinion; to utilize everyone in the company vs. a few “experts”; and to achieve continuous improvement vs. improving in fits and starts.

In general, LWI has met expectations and in some cases exceeded them.

At Earthgrains, there have been several “a ha's.” Three years ago we were looking at internal measures of how well we were doing. No one had any customer data. LWI drove us to do customer research. Of the 32 measures we thought were the most important, none of these were the things the customer thought was important. We started customer partner teams and have measured their satisfaction. We are definitely showing improvement in customer satisfaction.

Our employees have responded tremendously. Especially at the operating front line level, they take LWI's message and eat it up. At the top executive level they have readily adopted an approach to operating the business that is very common sense.

LWI's customer service has been excellent. We have had our ups and downs and LWI has been extremely willing to change schedules, change the curriculum to make things work. It is my personal belief that the return on the investment from Luftig & Warren is far greater than what we have ever done, or are likely to do, in the history of our company. The accounting is difficult, trying to measure the value of quality — there are a lot of intangibles. I would estimate a 2 or 3 to 1 payback in 2 to 3 years. At the can-company, the payback has been 10 to 1 over fees, and if you include the intangibles it is probably more like 50 to 1.

Todd Brown

The Earthgrains Company

ISPAT Inland, Inc. (formerly Inland Steel)

Luftig & Warren International (LWI) has provided the structure to help get things done. We are good planners at Inland, but not implementers. LWI has brought the discipline and the process to get things done. I particularly liked that LWI has put all the things that were previously done piecemeal under an umbrella we could all understand. LWI has provided the direction for becoming a TQM company.

I can sum up the uniqueness of Luftig & Warren this way: Most of us hate consultants. Our experience in the past with the consultant has not been good. In fact no other consultants we've had has lasted even six months (except maybe McKinsey working with ISI). LWI has lasted much longer. They bring a flair and a process that are hard to deny.

LWI made a difference in our organization right from the beginning. LWI methods are totally encompassing, not the bits and pieces you usually get from various consultants. They had it all. I bought in after the few first days. LWI made the concepts simple, so I can understand.

A specific experience was in the area of customer quality assurance. Luftig & Warren helped us to really understand customer requirements — what we do well and what we do poorly, then identified activities to keep customers out of the danger zone. LWI is responsible for helping the company maintain relationships with main customers, which last year were in jeopardy. I characterized it as an “in the nick of time, diving save” situation with customers such as Chrysler and Ford. We have not only saved those clients but have grown our business.

Another key difference between LWI and other consultants was that LWI brought us into the process. We felt like part of the solution.

Dale Wiersbe

President & COO

Inland Steel Company

I have worked with other consultants before and found that Luftig & Warren International (LWI) is unique in three ways. First, the pictorial model LWI has constructed is the most comprehensive, understandable description I've seen. Most quality consultants are either a Deming person, a Juran person or a Crosby person. LWI has managed to construct a picture that blends the best parts of Deming and Juran, and completely ignores Crosby…which is good, he should be ignored.

Second, Jeff Luftig is an unusual individual, I call him an “in your face” consultant. He doesn't say what you want to hear, he tells you what's going on and what you should do about it. That's refreshing.

The people LWI have working here have actually worked in real circumstances, they are not just theoretical people, they have worked for real companies, usually in quality departments. That's appealing to me. Other consultants know what to do in theory but don't have the real world experience.

Our company has strong antibodies towards outsiders and LWI got over that resistance very well.

A specific experience in which LWI made a difference — that may seem small but is very important — is the standardization of processes. LWI brought to the table that all work is a process to be continuously improved, everybody uses the same format. We're actually succeeding in doing that 99% of the time. It sounds trivial but it does cost more money to have everyone doing things a different way. It's important to have the discipline to do it.

There have also been a number of technical areas in which LWI has made a difference, such as getting us to recognize the difference between doing what's worked before vs controlled experiment. It has been a process of moving from gut feel to rigorous experimentation. Some gut feelings have proven to be in totally the wrong direction.

Reliability has improved. It's more a matter of things we don't do, such as disruptions in manufacturing.

Most of the LWI people who have come in here have had practical experience in industries similar to ours. That has been a big plus.

Customer service has been very good. I believe there is a lot of potential value in the service that LWI has provided. They have gone a long way to build the systems to drive the engine to get money and I expect the rate of return to increase.

Peter Southwick

Vice President Operations

Inland Steel Company