Jabil Circuit Inc., a Fast Growing Global Manufacturer, Incrementally Transforms Itself with Intelligent Supply Chain Processes

Imagine transforming a manufacturing organization that is growing very fast while maintaining completely satisfied customers. This is a risky proposition that is happening now at Jabil Circuit Inc. because of a culture change enabled by an intelligent business process management technology. Top management wants to move from a program based lean six sigma culture to a culture of 150,000+ problem solvers and innovators. This means that everyone needs to feel enabled for great results while super-charging lean six-sigma to a real time response focus.  IT will have to change along with the business from a utility to an enabler. See http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/07/incremental-transformation-is-here-today.html for an explanation of incremental transformation.

The Challenge:

The problem not only lies in the culture change, but the ability to enable rapid change in and around brittle systems. Leveraging doing by design and mistake proofing (Poka-Yoke in Kaizen thinking) in this speed of adaption and adoption without negative impact on customers will require a change in the way IT and business work together. How to leverage BPM around SAP and a global enterprise service bus(ESB) while making “shadow IT” legitimate.

The Solution: Partnering Around New Goals and an iBPMS:

The new goals need to be set to transform IT and its partnership with the business

The iBPMS provided Jabil with the tools to handle compliance and cooperation through localization with core inherited practices (Situational Layer Cake) and combine application layers into one platform. It also managed all the necessary technical ingredients for success in a real time Lean environment (Data Persistence, Process Modeling, Business Rules, Decision Making, User Interface, Metrics, Reporting) while providing enforcement of guardrails and standards.

The iBPMs also supplied the Lean Six Sigma needs of the following:

·        Process metrics are gathered automatically

·      Capabilities embrace Visual Management

·        “Design for change” makes Kaizen easier

·         Automated process controls are easier to Poka-Yoke

·         Browser-based tool eases IT deployment burden

Net; Net:

This aggressive use of culture change enabled by an iBPMs is paying dividends for Jabil as the organization continues to grow rapidly without customer issues that can’t be resolved at the “speed of need”

This is a highly summarized case study based on Jabil’s Success Using Pegasystems technology