Best team improvement
Whether it’s within teams or sites, across divisions and functions, or even different countries, teamwork and collaboration are key to achieving our shared goals.
This award recognises those teams who have worked effectively together, leveraging each other’s strengths and overcoming challenges, to deliver exceptional results for our customers, colleagues and our business. Through demonstrating our values, these finalists have shown just how important teamwork is and what we can achieve when continue we work together.
Olawa DS Smith Way Team
Iwona Zając, Rafał Jacak, Maciej Howis, Krzysztof Socha, Krzysztof Michałowicz, and Krzysztof Kuś
Olawa, Poland, Packaging East
Our Olawa plant in Poland was the first in the East Europe North subregion to implement the DS Smith Way. Despite being unfamiliar with the programme initially, within just three months they managed to implement the DS Smith Way across the entire site, resulting in significant cost savings.
They analysed data, observed production, met with departments to identify potential savings, ran intensive training sessions, and developed four Focus Improvement Project (FIP) teams to support with the implementation.
Overall, the results have been outstanding. They optimised pallet configurations to reduce transport and warehouse costs, minimised downtime and improved the flow of pallet transfers, decreased setup times and unplanned downtime – all whilst increasing productivity and delivering around 725,000 EUR in saving in just over 12 months.
Sweden Cyber-attack Response Team
All of Sweden & Håkan Andersson, Clas Cronlund, Eva Hansson, Anne-Louise Levinsson Nordin, Anita Davidson, Peter Berglund, Sten Petersen, Stefan Skoglund, Ann-Marie Andersson, Veli-Matti Luukko, Jan Rohde Knudsen, Richard Evans, Colin Cooper, Robert Podevin, Ken Lake, Gareth Richardson, Natalie Condon, Sam Robinson, Craig Bruce, Katie Friis, James Gooch, Shola Oduntan, Geoff Sydenham, Cameron Rogers
Cross-functional team comprising all of Sweden, Digital and Cyber Security, Shared Services, Divisional I&T teams, Nordics Operations & Legal.
Over four weeks, our I&T and Packaging teams came together to combat a cyber-attack on our operations in Sweden, displaying unbelievable resilience and professionalism to overcome every obstacle thrown their way.
When our third-party partner’s data centre was compromised, we had a huge problem. We were under threat of not being able to run our machines and technology as normal, halting production.
We produce almost five thousand pallets of product every week in Sweden and within 24 hours we were set to be at a standstill if we didn’t act quickly.
As described by Thorbjörn Sagerström, Managing Director of our Packaging operations in the Nordics, it was ‘when the power of people kicked in’.
With no programmed data available, they had to manually get our machines running through what our teams knew by memory – starch levels and paint measurements included. Within a week we were running at three thousand pallets and by the end of week three, we were at 95% fulfilment.
Thanks to this quick reaction and colossal effort that further risk to our business was avoided.
Turin Depot Team
Lucia Moretti, Luca Braggio, Enrico Mariano Pace, Daniela De Stefani, Monica Patrizia Bassani, Fabio Mezzo, Valter Agaliati, Gianpiero Angelillo, Richard Casafina, Gian Carlo Dall'armellina, Nicola Ferrara, Antonio Vizziello, Nicola Napolitano, Stefano Bonfiglio, Ornella Plicato, Matteo Rizzato, Javier Augusto Andrade, Facundo Emanuel Carrazan
Turin, Italy, Recycling
Our Turin Depot took positive steps to deliver opportunities in a number of key performance areas and embed a culture of success on site.
Throughout the process, the site leadership team made sure that all colleagues got a chance to express their views and ideas. As an example of the output from this collaborative approach to improving site performance, working hours are now organised in a new way, which optimises resources during the day, leading to increased efficiency.
Improvements in health and safety were also a key part of the cultural reset. The site introduced new barriers and other safety initiatives to help achieve our VisionZero ambition through a culture of accountability and responsibility.
In 6 months, the depot doubled their EBITA results by introducing new ways of cost savings. Following requests from the changing market, they now source new grades of material, also contributing to the result.
Torrejón de Ardoz Management Team
Luis Millan, Gabriel Rubio, Alicia Rodriguez, Simon Da Corte, Manuel Gómez, Cristian Diaz, Cristobal Leon, Luis Miguel Tirado, Luis Palmier, Marina Valle
Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain, Packaging South
The management team at our Torrejón de Ardoz site in Spain recognised the critical importance of strong communication, engagement and collaboration between their different functions and the impact this has on the overall working environment.
They developed a new ‘People Project’, deploying several initiatives to overcome existing challenges faced across the site. A newsletter for operational colleagues – centred around topics such as safety, production, quality, sales and people – a functional rotation plan which gives colleagues the opportunity to spend a day in another department and a wall of recognition to celebrate colleagues who have dedicated decades of work to DS Smith, each of their initiatives has played a part in increasing engagement, improving working relationships and enhancing the way colleagues collaborate with one another.
Through ongoing conversations with the site team and by measuring the impact of their efforts, they have built a strong culture of feedback, continuous improvement and a shared responsibility that the whole site can get behind. The team have demonstrated true leadership in this critical area of our business and I’m sure we could all learn from this successful project.
