The Mars Wrigley Confectionery plant in France produces soft gum paste and gum packaging. The directors wanted to digitize the management of daily operations to support the objectives of Mars Wrigley’s operations system.

Objectives

By using the Tervene platform, Mars Wrigley Confectionery aimed to

✓ Centralize all field management tools

✓ Structure communication between teams and support groups

✓ Standardize the escalation of information to the management committee

✓ Streamline problem-solving and daily follow-up of corrective actions

The objective was also “to get an efficient tool for our field management processes and to be more proactive in our decision-making.” Says Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager at Mars Wrigley.

Results

Tervene has provided us with an easy-to-deploy tool to fit our daily management and structure of operational meetings.

With Tervene, we’re proactive. We have better control over our operations.

– Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager at Mars Wrigley Confectionery

The Digitization of the Operations’ Management System at Mars Wrigley Confectionery

Audits and Inspections

✓ So far, more than 1100 audits and inspections have been performed with Tervene.

The departments perform weekly and monthly audits for safety, quality, environment, production and maintenance. The goal of these audits is to inspect standards across different categories, such as: personal protective equipment (PPE), hygiene, work environment, management of hazardous materials, conditions of tools – machines – equipment, fire assembly points, as well as the 5S.

Digital audits allow managers to use the latest versions of forms, attach photos and use pre-established question formats to identify the noncompliances. By digitizing their audits, Mars Wrigley gained a better visibility of inspection reports, noncompliances, corrective actions and levels of compliance. Managers completed nearly 95% of the tasks and corrective actions out of more than 1,100 audits performed so far with Tervene, while the remainder is in progress.

Gemba Walks and Floor Supervision

✓ So far, more than 6500 Gemba Walks have been performed with Tervene.

Supervisors perform daily Gemba Walks through the gum and gum process production lines, as well as, through the packaging area at a set frequency: in the morning; in the afternoon; and, at night. With the validation checklists, supervisors can go on the floor and identify gaps and opportunities in efficiency, quality and food safety, safety and work conditions, general improvement, customer impacts and employee commitment.

Once managers identify and document issues, they quickly handle corrective actions with their teams or escalate the information at higher levels through meetings. This floor supervision structure allows Mars Wrigley to ensure that operations go according to plan, while anticipating potential issues for each shift. So far, they have performed more than 6,500 Gemba walks and resolved, converted into tasks or opportunities over 97% of the issues identified.

The supervisors perform Gemba Walks in our organization. We have four axes: employee commitment, safety, quality and efficiency.

– Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager

Structure of Meetings and Team Communication

Tervene helps managers transfer information and streamline communication between different shifts to control operations day and night. Meetings are organized for the different management levels and support teams to properly support the cascade of information. Meeting types include:

• Daily operational meetings
• Weekly meetings
• 1-on-1 meetings
• Directors committee

With Tervene, we’ve got a structure of meetings, and we can escalate our points in different sessions while keeping visibility on the discussions.

– Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager

Cross-Team Collaboration and Problem-Solving

With its daily management system, Mars Wrigley Confectionery connects all managers and support groups while involving production employees. As Michael, Lean Manager, said: “Tervene is a very good tool for connecting different teams. It has become our DMS tool.” As a result, frontline teams follow corrective actions, assign tasks and prepare meetings with better tools. These actions accelerate problem-solving. Finally, top managers keep traceability on issues and follow-ups in real time.

The issues that we identify and escalate with Tervene are faster to handle. We can share the corrective actions with all the teams.

– Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager

The Benefits of the Digital Management System

✓ Standardization of management and supervision practices

✓ Proactive identification and management of issues

✓ Better prioritization of problem-solving

✓ Efficient monitoring of corrective actions

✓ Traceability of audits and compliances

✓ Escalation of issues to higher management levels

✓ Involvement of all levels, from production employees to top management

It’s the 4.0 tool for companies seeking a structured organization with better team collaboration and production employees at the structure’s front line.

– Michaël Menzi, Lean Manager

About Mars Wrigley

Mars is an American multinational manufacturer that produces confectionery, pet food and other food products with its subgroups: Mars Petcare, Mars Wrigley, Mars Food and Mars Edge. Mars Wrigley is the world’s largest chocolate, gum, mints and fruity confectionery manufacturer with 34,000 employees. The company manufactures well-known brands such as Skittles®, Extra®, Mars®, M&M’s®, Juicy® Fruit®, Lifesavers®, and much more.

About Tervene

Our connected manager platform empowers frontline teams and top management to reach operational excellence with stronger daily control, collaboration, problem-solving and improvement processes.

Manufacturers, operation leaders and many SMBs digitized their management practices with our help: Gemba walks, daily checks, audits, inspections, operational meetings, digital procedures, improvement management and much more.

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