With over 40 locations on six continents and 5,000 employees, MSA Safety is the global leader in the development and manufacture of safety equipment designed to protect people in industries such as construction, the military, fire service, and chemical, oil, and gas production.
The Continuous Improvement team faced difficulties in handling the growing number of improvement projects with spreadsheets. That’s why they began searching for a more efficient solution.
Objectives
MSA Safety sought a CI digitization platform due to the impracticality of managing increasing idea flow and projects with Excel.
The project goals included:
- boosting idea generation
- ensuring transparency
- standardizing processes globally, aiming to scale from 20-30 improvements annually to over 350.
eKaizen was selected for its user-friendly interface, global scalability, and cost-effectiveness.
Solution
In implementing the platform, key stakeholders were involved such as CI global and regional leaders, VP of Operations, plant managers, and CI plant leaders, ensuring comprehensive buy-in across all locations.
As the MSA Safety team required a high level of visualization, the decision was made to integrate eKaizen with PowerBI, which had a significant impact on user engagement and accelerated the process.
Regarding idea submission, all employees (whether they work at the shopfloor or in the office) have access to web-based submission forms (also via QR codes).
Results
- eKaizen facilitated a significant increase in idea generation, surpassing our target to over 350 annually.
- It enhanced employee engagement – not only in manufacturing but also e.g. in sourcing and logistics.
- MSA Safety uses eKaizen to reach their 5% productivity increase, with some departments achieving double-digit percentage gain.
