Building a culture of Continuous Improvement

SUSTAINABILITY
Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Building a culture of Continuous Improvement

AMETEK is a proud leader in designing and manufacturing cutting-edge technologies that make our world better. Since 1930, we’ve been at the forefront of innovation, and continue to strive for excellence through sustainable growth.

Operational Excellence is at the heart of our strategy. AMETEK leadership collaborates with our businesses to incorporate an agile methodology centered on continuous improvement at all levels of our organization. Our focus on these principles drives operational efficiency, process improvements, and overall better solutions for our customers.

As a global company made up of industry-leading brands that innovate in highly-niche, highly-customized markets across 31 countries, AMETEK’s continuous improvement strategy is nimble, scalable, and adaptable.

“It’s a purpose-based strategy,” said Jose, AMETEK’s VP of Operational Excellence. “What is the purpose of the business? What are their needs? We use specific tools to help those needs.”

Jose (second from right) is AMETEK's VP of Operational Excellence. Here he is pictured at the opening of Vietnam's Customer Solutions Center.

AMETEK’s continuous improvement adoption is, at its core, based on the Kaizen process. The Kaizen methodology is a collaborative experience that brings together personnel from across our organization in pursuit of a common goal: to make AMETEK the best it can be.

Our organization focuses on Kaizens in three different areas: New Product Development, Operational Excellence, and Growth. Each event is tailored to specific team needs. Some of these events include 5S Workplace Organization, Value Stream Mapping, and Strategy Deployment.

These Kaizens go beyond simple meetings. They are comprehensive audits of our business practices that encourage collaboration amongst personnel at all levels. Teams use fact-based data gathering, problem solving, and future state solutions to achieve desired outcomes.

Team members from AMETEK businesses around the world come together to participate in Growth Kaizens.

AMETEK leadership is also focused on empowering individuals from across the company to become stewards of continuous improvement. Employees can become certified Kaizen facilitators, helping fuel sustainable growth by hosting events with AMETEK peers across the globe.

Jose and AMETEK’s Operational Excellence Committee are dedicated to leading the coordination and organizational efforts to give the businesses the support they need in their continuous improvement journeys.

“By using the tools in our OpEx toolbox, we can stay flexible in our evolving industry,” Jose says. “Continuous improvement is at the heart of achieving truly sustainable growth.”