Discover Value through steady improvement in profitability

NET BENEFIT BY CLARIANT EXCELLENCE

in CHF m

The employees were again the focal point of this initiative. More than 4 750 or roughly 28% of the total workforce was trained using the Clariant Excellence Programs by the end of 2015. Full-scale active involvement of as many employees as possible as project managers or project employees (known as belts) who relay the optimization measures to all organizational areas was crucial to the success of the initiative. At the end of 2015, there were 90 Black Belts, around 970 Green Belts and close to 3 000 Yellow Belts. These employees were involved in about 1 000 CLNX projects during the year under review which resulted in additional net benefits of more than CHF 144 million. Over the past five years the positive effects from cost savings, additional revenues from efficiency improvements and optimization of net working capital have accumulated considerably to approximately CHF 564 million. And the project continues: In 2016, another CHF 100 million should be added.

CROSS-LINKING OF THE FOUR AREAS OF EXCELLENCE

as a key to success

Implementation of Global Business Services

After the conclusion of the Lean Service Operations (LSO) project, the Clariant management decided to establish Global Business Services (GBS) to further enhance cost efficiency and effectiveness of the internal services processes. It is a logical outcome for a global company to make the corresponding back-office functions lean and efficient. The existing structures were changed using a shared service transition so that the entire service organization will be coordinated via two service centers in Lodz, Poland, and Mumbai, India, which are supported by local service departments. This enables for instance the entire order and invoicing process, payment management and the corresponding documentation to be handled around the clock at a significantly lower cost. Overall, the project should save around CHF 20 million per year in the medium term.