sdhost posted on March 22, 2011 15:35
Executive Summary
Customer Profile
Bluffton Motor Works, located in Bluffton, Indiana is a global leader in custom-engineered fractional motors. Bluffton Motor Works serves a wide variety of OEM manufacturers and industrial production facilities.
The Challenge
Bluffton Motor Works (BLMW) needed help identifying highly important, high-impact initiatives for their business.
The Solution
Six Disciplines helped Bluffton Motor Works narrow the number of initiatives, better allocate limited resources, and provide a framework for accountability.
The Benefits
- Employees now have clear and visible guidelines regarding what is important.
- Employee Satisfaction is up 10%.
- Customer requirements and requests are being heard and worked into the plan.
- BLMW is bringing their initiatives to closure more quickly.
The Result
Six Disciplines helped Bluffton Motor Works refocus on the most important initiatives, be accountable to a plan to achieve those initiatives, and reduce the amount of time it takes to achieve an initiative.
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Detailed Customer Profile
Bluffton Motor Works (BLMW) manufactures fractional horsepower electric motors for commercial and industrial markets. Located in Bluffton, Indiana, the privately owned company originally began as a division of Franklin Electric Company, Inc. in 1944. Bluffton Motor Works serves a wide variety of manufacturers and industrial production facilities, across many industries. The company began using Six Disciplines in 2010.
The Problem
Bluffton Motor Works needed help deciding what initiatives were most important and had the biggest impact on their business. They needed help allocating limited resources to achieve the best results. Most importantly, they needed to be accountable for meeting milestones in the plan via weekly meetings and reporting to peers on progress against objectives.
The Solution
Through the continued coaching, Six Disciplines helped Bluffton Motor Works to narrow down the number of initiatives. This helped BLMW to place focus on those items that would have the greatest impact on the business. The increased focus led to allocation of their limited resources to those areas that were most important to the company.
Additionally, Six Disciplines provided a solution that included the accountability for which Bluffton Motor Works was searching. The solution included status reports, weekly meetings, and reporting progress in a way that was visible to other team members. All of this helped the company stick with the plan, rather than planning and then ignoring the plan during day-to-day activities.
The Benefits
The employees, customers, and management of Bluffton Motor Works have recognized great benefits from using Six Disciplines. These benefits include the following:
- Employees – The employees now have very clear and well documented guidelines regarding what is important, where the company is headed, and the path to get there.
- Customers – Customers are now being heard, and their requests and requirements are being included in strategic planning.
- Management – Six Disciplines helped Bluffton Motor Works narrow the number of initiatives, and as a result bring these fewer initiatives to closure in a significantly shorter amount of time.
Additionally, in the first 12 months of working with Six Disciplines, Employee Satisfaction ratings have improved by 10% while Bluffton Motor Works has grown market share, seeing revenue increase more than 13%. The organization also achieved an outstanding “Meet or Exceed” score on 8 out of the 10 key goals in their 2010 plan, thus proving a focused approach does produce desired results.
What Bluffton Motor Works has to say about Six Disciplines
"After a year of using Six Disciplines, we feel validated in our decision to implement Six Disciplines. It is not just the software, but the coaches and their involvement that really add value.
I have zero hesitation recommending Six Disciplines to anybody.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have started using Six Disciplines a year earlier and not lost a year.
I am very impressed with the atmosphere that exists at Six Disciplines. If your coach is unavailable, the other coaches are just as helpful.
Six Disciplines has been able to facilitate the planning process in an organization with several type "A's" each wanting things their way. It was the challenge of these differing views that prevented past attempts that were tried internally.
The difference between Six Disciplines and other planning software is that Six Disciplines is a living, breathing plan that you live on a daily basis. Other planning software allows you to plan, and then ignore the plan. Six Disciplines helps you to create discipline."