Pall Corporation’s quality successes in Puerto Rico are as captivating as a bomba dance in full swing. Hyperbole perhaps, but consider what this East Hills, New York, based global leader in filtration, separation, and purification technologies has accomplished since 2004 at its Puerto Rico facility, where key filtration components are manufactured for use in biopharmaceutical and medical-grade applications:

• Fifty percent improvement in product and process quality as measured in defects per million
• Launching of Vendor Managed Inventory programs through Pall’s supply chain to achieve inventory reduction and 98.5 percent on-time customer deliveries
• Reduced product cycle time of more than 25 percent to meet customer requirements
• Implementation of online statistical process control
• Emphasis on organizational excellence, leading to the certification of 11 Six Sigma Black Belts and 23 Green Belts

What happened to bring these results? Pall developed “Process Excellence,” an approach to applying lean and Six Sigma methodologies, complete with effective metrics and ways to engage employees.  

In 2004, a push began at the Fajardo, Puerto Rico, facility to transform it into the company’s first Center of Excellence. “At the time, there wasn’t a continuous improvement program in place,” says Felix Negron, vice president of manufacturing, who joined Pall in November of 2003 as general manager of operations in Puerto Rico. “We recognized that we needed to change the culture.”

Shortly after arriving at Pall following 12 years with Johnson & Johnson, where he held various positions within Operations and Quality Assurance, including director of Process Excellence, Negron convinced Pall Life Sciences President Roberto Perez that the Puerto Rico facility could benefit from a Process Excellence program and the hiring of a Process Excellence Leader. Negron got both, and together with fellow Black Belt Ricardo Gonzalez, now Pall’s global director of Process Excellence, Negron was able to document important improvements at the Puerto Rico plant within a year, which is virtually overnight in many manufacturing circles.

About Process Excellence

Process Excellence, or PEx, is Pall Life Sciences’ continuous improvement methodology. As Figure 1 depicts, PEx has four key components:

• Lean – driving material and process flow
• Six Sigma – resulting in capable and predictable processes
• Dashboard Metrics – ensuring right metrics and right behavior
• Team Involvement – ensuring employee engagement

Figure 1 What is PEx?

“The key behind PEx is that it is a systematic approach to problem solving using the DMAIC methodology [define, measure, analyze, improve and control],” says Negron. “And while the methodologies are not unique to Pall, the PEx effort is unique in that it is tied directly to Pall’s business imperatives.” Figure 2 illustrates the importance of the following business imperatives to PEx:  

• Assurance of Quality. Excellence in everything Pall Life Sciences does.
• Assurance of Supply. Timely delivery of commitments.
• Assurance of Responsiveness. “Can be done” attitude for internal and external customers.
• Assurance of Total System Cost Competitiveness. Bottom line profitability.
• Assurance of People. Organizational excellence.

Figure 2 Process Excellence Strategy

“We spend a lot of time at the beginning of each fiscal year,” says Negron, “on setting the right targets before deploying those objectives to the individual teams that then use the PEx methodologies for achieving the results, which are aligned with our business imperatives. It’s this approach that’s making a difference.”

Continue On: A Culture of Accountability

About the Author

Joe Jancsurak is a Cleveland-based freelancer who writes on business and manufacturing topics for a range of publications and organizations.