Committed to Quality – Electrolux’ recipe for success.
CHALLENGE
Over the past years, times have never been tougher for consumer electronic appliances. The competition is fierce with an oversupply of long lasting and smart products.
The IoT (Internet of Things), connected devices, predictive maintenance, high quality and fast performing products set the pace. Platform businesses let customers to make purchases directly from the manufacturer. Today’s predatory market forces companies to step up their game.
Key challenges to consumer electronics manufacturers in the home appliance sector are: Keeping up with the ongoing globalisation of the business, managing processes, innovation development, an increasing scarcity of resources, the ripple effect of global bottlenecks and the increasing demands of the consumers.
Consumers are switching brands at unprecedented rates and prioritize quality over prize. The products need to evolve in the consumers ownership and consumers are constantly and instantly judging how satisfied they are with the overall experience on the web.
This feedback needs to be collected to be able to react accordingly and influence current and future products and services. On top, Global trends in the use of natural (re)sources, technological breakthroughs, fulfilment of the market and strong competition direct us towards new innovations and services which consider the social and environmental aspects.
This information helps us to better understand what the future of quality in the electronic appliance industry will look like. It will require quality to be prioritized and applied across all functions and departments of companies, not just within the quality department. Technology and digital innovation will be a key enabler toward this transformation to a more proactive, and ultimately predictive approach to quality.
MISSION
With increasing competition and the analysis of their own potential for improvement, Electrolux set out to strengthen their Quality back in 2016.
Empowered by the overall purpose of the company, “Shape living for the better”, the companywide Quality initiative “Committed to Quality” was brought to life.
QUALITY JOURNEY
Electrolux has been relying on the know-how of Rabl & Hahn for the support in creating and executing a strong communication strategy for their Quality transformation plan since 2016.
The year 2016 marked the beginning of the collaboration between Electrolux and Rabl & Hahn. The Electrolux Quality Journey was kicked off with the launch of the Committed to Quality program and an emotional campaign.
As a first step, Quality was lifted to a whole new, unprecedented level through
the establishment and standardization of classic methods like 8D or SPC in the company as well as the introduction of global quality KPIs and a visual management system.
Within just one year, the Electrolux Quality Journey had already shown great first successes internally and externally.
After reaching historic quality levels and exceeding the expectations of employees in the previous two years, Electrolux and Rabl & Hahn built on past successes while increasingly using online solutions
in 2018: A digital workplace and trainings were implemented, and a Quality Policy based on the standard in automotive was phrased.
2019 was a special year for Electrolux as it marked the company’s 100-year anniversary. Within the Quality Journey, bold actions and striking themes were used to take the employees on a journey through the past 100 years and ahead to future ambitions and opportunities. All this led to even higher results and an engagement from all business areas and functions worldwide.
For many companies this would have been satisfactory, and they would have stopped their actions here.
But Electrolux’ ambition was higher. They digged deeper and for example implemented Full Control instead of statistical process control and made it their goal to automate the receiving of consumer feedback.
Therefore, the “Consumer Star Ratings” tool was created and implemented companywide.
This tool designed to using star ratings to improve business performances, marked
another milestone in the quality journey.
The Quality Journey continued in 2020 and 2021 by lifting communications and engagement to a new digital level, once again setting an internal benchmark.
2022 marked another milestone in the committed to Quality Program and the start of a new era of Quality with a focus on the Consumer as well as Prevention.
Since the pandemic, online learning has become even more centric in people's lives.
Privately, each of us has already become used to appealing applications, understandable content real added value.
For most organizations, this past year has required a complete overhaul of how they think, how they operate, and how they enable their people to be productive, ensure high quality and put the consumer first.
In a fully connected world, a digital workplace that combines news, lessons learned, learning material, tools and data, and enables cross-collaboration is probably the most important aspect.
- Make full use of our SharePoint possibilities and provide a state-of-the-art platform
- Focus on the consumer and provide simplified learnings, knowledge sharing and tools
- Prepare communication material multiplicators can use to reach people offline
- Comprehensive roll-out plan with release updates and building up tension
- Flank the initiative with guerilla marketing actions and a roll out plan
Central point of the upgraded Committed to Quality program is the all-new Digital Quality World (DQW) – the new go to place for everything related to Quality. One of the main focus areas of the (DQW) is the Consumer Room which brings the employees closer to the consumers through Consumer Insights, Voices, Testimonials and Market Peculiarities in different markets.
Paolo Faraldi, Head of Quality [2022]
The best professionals, the best team players! R&H shows together a strong hands-on and can-do attitude along with state of the art professional skills; Phillip’s outstanding charisma is in itself a drive to success!
Danielle Llewellyn Communications Specialist, Operations [2022]
This is truly a world-class team! They are incredibly accommodating and enthusiastic with new ideas, and they add such value to all the events that we do. I would give 10 stars if I could!
Duccio Bastianini, Group Care Quality Director [2022]
Professional, customizing, fast and always smyling :) Love working with them!
Jan Brockmann, COO [2019]
Thank you for always delivering above and beyond expectations.
Renzo Savoia, Head of Quality [2017]
“I appreciate working with the Rabl & Hahn team to improve the quality of our products and develop initiatives for change management. And then to focus on the mindset in order to achieve the goals. All of this is supported by committed and excellent communication in the team, which is essential for creating commitment. "
EXAMPLE OF MEASURES IN THE YEARS 2016-2022 FOR ELECTROLUX
Digital Quality World
The all-new Digital Quality World, implemented on the customer´s internal SharePoint, provides the employees at a glance with everything there is to know about Quality in a fun and engaging way.
With a focus on the consumer and prevention, it provides simplified learnings, knowledge sharing and tools.
The implementation of this state-of-the-art platform directly into SharePoint allows continuous improvement and updates.
Campaign & cOMMS toolkit
To highlight the importance of quality and give it a distinctive standing within the company, a campaign was launched.
The Quality Journey was from then on linked to the slogan “Committed to Quality” throughout the whole company.
A complete communications toolkit with annually updated visual graphics is provided to sites worldwide for Quality Day communication and beyond.
Top Management Commitment
Annual top management support and involvement through video messages, appearances in events and newsletters to show the importance of Quality and strengthen its position within the company.
QUALITY DAY
The heart of the Electrolux Quality Journey has always been the annual Electrolux Quality Day.
It has become the most anticipated internal event of the year with annual Top Management involvement.
While the first Electrolux Quality Day, held locally in the Electrolux headquarters and locations around the world, the concept was improved, extended and above all emotionalized over the years to reach and engage as many employees around the world as possible.
In 2019, during the company’s 100-year anniversary, the founder of Electrolux, Axel Wenner-Gren, played by an external actor, was brought back by a time machine.
Electrolux Quality Day 2020 was streamed online from a virtual 3D Studio created by Rabl & Hahn. Over 40,000 viewers watched the pre-recorded 3D studio experience and joined virtual events held by their respective business areas.
By now, for Electrolux Quality Day, there are around 200 events being held around the globe, involving a majority of Electrolux employees.
TOOLS/ SUPPORT & TRAININGS
Quality Booklet with Rules & Tools
Creation and roll-out of an overarching Quality Booklet providing an overview of all Quality related tools, easy to grasp through graphics, examples and templates.
Visual Management
Introduction of visual management in production and planning. A Global Quality Visual management board in which KPIs were defined and standardized, was introduced throughout all sites worldwide.
CONSUMER STAR RATINGS
A historic milestone was the introduction of the Consumer Star Rating tool. For consumers, star ratings help in the decision-making process when buying a new product.
Rabl & Hahn supported in the introduction and communication of Consumer Star Ratings at Electrolux and supports in the deployment through webinars and videos.
With the help of this analysis tool, employees can evaluate ratings and generate specific improvement measures.
engagement
Over the years, plenty of engagement actions were introduced.
Besides award ceremonies such as the Quality Award or the Global Teamship award, the introduction of the so-called Quality Superstars and Product of the Month initiatives were a huge success.
quality hall of fame
Appreciation of the achievements of the company’s Quality Superstar teams through a campaign on internal communication channels and an introduction in the “Quality Hall of Fame” that highlights individual employees or teams and their efforts regarding Quality.
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
Recognition of the achievements of certain teams regarding a product that performed extremely well.
Display of the product, its highlights and the team involved in the intranet.
STAY TUNED IN 2023
Things will remain exciting in 2023 as well. Of course, the Digital Quality World will remain the heart of the quality program "Committed to Quality", with numerous, continuous updates and emotional highlights to make the topic of quality tangible for all employees.
The quality team for example plans bi-monthly Quality Nights with interesting TED talks and much more.
Besides quality, the consumer and their experience are still the focus of the Digital Quality World.