Volunteer Trains Black Belt in Romania - Robert Lochner

QUALITY PROGRESS I APRIL 2005 I 67

n 2003 and 2004 I spent a total of seven monthshelping 10 companies in Romania implementSix Sigma. My visit was sponsored by the

International Executive Service Corps, a nonprofitorganization that sends volunteers, mostly retired

executives and professional people, to developingcountries to promote economic growth.

This assignment gave me the opportunity towork closely with many managers and engineersin Romania (see “Romanian Management,” p. 68)and provided insight into how modern qualityconcepts and methods can be implemented in aculture that, until 1990, had been subjected tomore than 40 years of communist totalitarian rule(see “Romania Yesterday and Today,” p. 70).

I was in Romania at the request of NCH Advisors,a management company that administers invest-ments made in Romania by several American invest-ment funds.

Leadership SupportSiminel Andrei, the CEO of NCH Advisors and a

man of considerable vision, initiated the implemen-tation of Six Sigma in companies in which NCHAdvisors had controlling interest. He is convincedthat to compete successfully in domestic and inter-national markets, it is necessary to dramaticallyimprove productivity and the quality of productsand services.

I

In 50 WordsOr Less

• Europe’s poorest country is attempting to make

the leap from communism to a market economy.

• A retired American shares his experiences

there as a volunteer trainer of Black Belts for

10 companies.

• Despite language and cultural differences,

he found hardworking, technically oriented

students.

Volunteer TrainsBlack Belts In Romaniaby Robert Lochner

INTERNATIONAL QUALITY

Andrei knew productivity and quality improve-ment would involve major changes in managementphilosophy from what had been the practice undercommunism. He was also aware of the obstacles toachieving transformation.

Andrei appointed Carmen Zarzu, an NCH engi-neer with extensive management and internationalexperience, as full-time coordinator of Six Sigmaimplementation. She was made responsible forrecruiting outside consultants and developing atraining program for management and employees.

Several consultants were involved in the project,

but most of the initial training and support wasprovided by Paul Lindhorst, another quality man-agement consultant, and me. Andrei participated ininitial executive workshops with the general man-agers (the Romanian equivalent of CEOs or COOs)of the companies controlled by NCH Advisors.

Andrei also found other ways of demonstratinghis support—such as by showing an active interestin improvement project selection, meeting withBlack Belt (BB) trainees, attending recognition cere-monies for Six Sigma teams and announcing thatSix Sigma training would be a requirement for all

68 I APRIL 2005 I www.asq.org


Romanian management is a mixed

bag. Some business leaders are very

progressive and are implementing

modern approaches to management.

Expectations of European customers

have been a motivation to improve

quality and productivity.

Few Romanians have heard of

W. Edwards Deming, but many are

aware of Joseph Juran, who was

born in Romania. There is a broader

awareness of ISO 9000 standards,

and many companies are certified

under these standards to meet the

requirements of their foreign cus-

tomers. But many managers still view

their roles primarily in terms of exer-

cising control and following orders.

During the 40 years of commu-

nist rule, planning was done by the

government, and plant manage-

ment was expected simply to follow

orders. The concept of customer

focus is new to many in Romania—

under communism you made what

you were told to make and people

bought what you made because

they had no other choice.

Also, under communism every-

one had a job, no matter how

menial or unimportant, so efficiency

wasn’t terribly important. Quality

by inspection was dominant

because there were plenty of peo-

ple to put to work inspecting prod-

ucts. At my first visit to Romlux, a

light bulb manufacturer, I was told

each light bulb produced was

inspected four times during the

manufacturing process. This is typi-

cal of many Romanian plants.

In the last 15 years, however,

many companies have shrunk to

one-quarter their former size or less

with no drop in production levels. In

1990 UMEB, a manufacturer of elec-

tric motors, had 4,000 employees,

300 of them inspectors. In 2004 it

had 900 employees and 22 inspec-

tors. In 1999 UMEB was certified

under ISO 9002. It is now certified

under ISO 9001:2000.

UMEB’s quality manager recently

spent more than two months in

Japan visiting Toyota and other com-

panies. He was very impressed with

the level of participation in quality

improvement by Japanese employ-

ees and sees this model as an oppor-

tunity for Romanian companies.

Romanian Management


future promotions within the companies. Lindhorst and I met with all the general man-

agers from time to time and worked closely withZarzu to develop a strategy for implementing SixSigma within the companies and for training BBsand Green Belts (GBs). Like Zarzu, we had accessto Andrei whenever we felt it necessary.

Training Black BeltsMy primary assignment was to train new BBs. The

training plan I used closely followed that typicallyused in the United States—four weeks of classroomtraining over a four-month period. There were threeweeks between each week-long training session,during which students returned to their companiesto work on their projects. I developed the trainingmaterials, but the topics were similar to those cov-ered by ASQ, Motorola and other leading providersof BB training.

I arrived in Romania two weeks before trainingwas to start so I could meet with company man-agement to discuss projects the students were towork on. I wanted to make sure the projects select-ed would benefit their companies and also give thecandidates an opportunity to use the tools theywould be taught during the training sessions.

This was definitely time well spent since sever-al prospective projects involved implementingpreselected programs rather than problem solv-ing or developing new approaches. Also, some

projects had ill-defined scopes or ones too broadto be practical first projects. This situation shouldsound familiar to anyone who has worked withAmerican companies starting Six Sigma.

The SettingThe training was done in a villa in the small

town of Busteni in the Carpathian Mountains ofTransylvania. I doubt if Six Sigma training hasever been done in such a beautiful setting. Fromthe balcony of my room I had a clear view of thesteep mountains west of town.

In the spring there was a waterfall of several hun-dred feet shooting out from a crevice near the top ofthe mountains. The water seemed to evaporate as itfell, not making it to the valley floor below.

The villa was a new building in which all the stu-dents, staff and I lived and studied. There was onelarge classroom, which was almost large enough toaccommodate us (we squeezed in anyway), plusfour breakout rooms.

Computers, particularly laptops, were not ubiq-uitous as in the United States, but the companiesprovided at least one computer for every two stu-dents. Many of the computers were older desktopmodels. Students were provided with paper copiesof the training slides plus a CD with the slides andexercise data sets. Minitab was used for data analy-sis exercises.

In 2003, I trained 18 BB candidates from seven

THE VIEW: Looking

at the Carpathian

Mountains from the

town of Busteni.


companies (see “Companies Represented,” p. 72).What these companies had in common was thelargest investor in each of them was NCH Advisors.

I was fortunate to have two key support people atthe training: Dan Iorga, an engineer with Comcereal,who met me at the airport when I first arrived inRomania, and Denisa Olteanu, a student at theRomanian School of Economics (she graduated inJune 2004, fourth in her class of 400), who is bilin-gual (Romanian-English) and had a strong back-ground in statistics. Iorga acted as local coordinatorand general logistics problem solver and laterbecame the lead Master Black Belt (MBB) at NCHAdvisors.

Language ChallengesThe students understood English at varying lev-

els. I knew no Romanian so had to do all the training

in English. At the start of the first day of training, Iwas quickly reminded I wasn’t in Milwaukee any-more. I came downstairs for breakfast and discov-ered people were expected to provide their ownbreakfast. Iorga drove me to a small grocery store tobuy enough for the week.

Classes started at 9 a.m., and lunch was at around1 p.m. each day. At first we tried walking to the onlyrestaurant nearby, but it took more than two hoursto get served. So after that we ordered lunch to bebrought to the villa. Classes generally ended ataround 4 or 5 p.m., occasionally 5:30 p.m..

I assigned some homework and also required allstudents to report on their projects. Most of the stu-dents would work on assignments when the classended for the day, go out to eat around 7 or 8 p.m.and then return to study or work on presentationsor analyze data into the night.


Romania is a nation of more than 21 million people

bordered by Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria and

Yugoslavia.1

During World War II, Romania was caught between

Germany and Russia. At the end of the war Romania

maintained its independence from Russia, but from

1965 until December 1989, the country was ruled by

the repressive dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Today Romania is a struggling new democracy.

Corruption in government and business is an ongoing

problem. This has a negative influence on improvement

and growth. The country is rich in natural resources but

doesn’t have the cash to take full advantage of them.

Romania is considered the poorest country in

Europe. Wages are pitifully low: The reported average

monthly wage in March 2004 was $155. The median

wage is probably much less than that. I met a high

school teacher of English and Romanian who makes

$75 a month.

A recent graduate from the national School of

Economics told me less than half her class will find

work in their fields because of a shortage of jobs for

college graduates. The national unemployment rate is

7.6%, and many people have jobs below their educa-

tional abilities. The inflation rate for 2003 was 14.1%.

In spite of their hard life, the people of Romania

are wonderful—energetic, helpful and devoted to

their families. They are very resilient and eager to

learn. The young people especially want to see

change in their country and their workplaces.

NOTE

Data in this sidebar were obtained from Invest Romania, April 2004.

Romania Yesterday and Today


Companies generally ignored the stated expecta-tion that students should be given a reduced work-load during the training. Many students continuedto do their usual jobs and then worked on their pro-jects outside normal hours. This meant they didn’thave time to prepare presentations until they gotto Busteni. But Romanians are accustomed to longhours and hard work, so they didn’t seem to mindthese 12- to 14-hour workdays.

When it got late, I would sometimes encouragestudents to quit for the night and get some rest, butthey would just smile patiently at me and keep onworking. The students were all computer savvy,and the presentations done in PowerPoint werevery good. The training week would end aroundnoon on Friday, and students would crowd intocars and head home. Many of them went to theirplants or offices to catch up on work they missedwhile in Busteni.

During the three-week interval between trainingsessions, the candidates returned to their compa-nies to apply what they had learned. I met with thecandidates during this time to provide guidance onthe 10 projects the candidates worked on.

Technical OrientationRomanians are technically oriented, which made

them open to the statistical methods I presented.They had all been introduced to basic probabilityin high school. However, I was told the Russianinfluence resulted in students, particularly engi-neers, wanting to solve problems with equationsand drawings rather than collecting data.

The students struggled with but eventuallyenjoyed (I think) the new concepts of hypothesis test-ing, interval estimation, multiple regression, multi-

variate analysis and design of experiments (DOE). Many of the students made good use of DOE to

make major improvements at their companies.Not surprisingly, the companies where the great-est improvements occurred were the companieswhere the general managers were most supportiveof Six Sigma.

The Second YearIn spring 2004 NCH Advisors invited me back to

train another group of BB candidates. This time 16students, and three new companies were represent-ed in addition to four of the companies from 2003(see “Companies Represented,” p. 72).

Training was handled much the same as it hadbeen in 2003 except now there were two full-timeand one part-time MBBs in the organization—Iorgaplus two others trained by Lindhorst.

The three MBBs were present for most of thefour weeks of classes and did a significant amountof the training. They also coached the studentsbetween training sessions, leaving me free to focuson a few special projects, go home or do some trav-eling.

In the future, NCH’s BB training will be doneentirely by internal MBBs. NCH is also expandingits training to include courses on lean manufactur-ing and design for Six Sigma.

Cultural ChallengesThere were cultural differences that needed to be

considered during the training, but the differenceswere not always obvious. One example that standsout in my mind was when I mentioned W. Ed-wards Deming’s 12th point for management,“Eliminate the annual rating or merit system.”

2004 BLACK BELT

CLASS: At the foot

of the Carpathian

Mountains of

Transylvania.


I got an immediate and strong negativereaction from the students. This was far tooclose to the communist principle “from eachaccording to ability, to each according toneed.” They wanted nothing to do withDeming’s point.

Another example was the students’shock and pleasure when I asked them toevaluate the first week of training. Therelationship between teacher and studentor manager and employee is much moreformal in Romania than in the UnitedStates. Decisions by managers or state-ments by teachers aren’t challenged near-ly as often as in the United States.

Romania still has a long way to go beforeit will be as sophisticated as leading westerncountries in use of quality improvementconcepts and methods. But Romaniansshow a determination to do what it takes tosell their products in Western Europe andother parts of the world.

Some Romanian companies have alreadybeen certified under ISO 9000 standardsand are now looking at what else they mustdo to succeed. They seem to find it easierto first adopt technical aspects of qualityimprovement—such as sampling inspec-tion, statistical process control and DOE—and then work from there into changingmanagement style and company culture.This is probably because use of technicalmethods isn’t new to them, but the trans-formation from communism to an empow-ered workforce is a huge step.

One organization, the Renar Institute,has oversight authority for all certificationbodies in Romania and is recognizedthroughout Europe. Some Romanian com-panies are receiving improvement helpfrom their customers.

For example, Renault-Dacia conductedquality improvement training sessions, pro-vided software to calculate process capabili-ties and helped develop a two-year qualityimprovement plan at Electroaparataj.


CompaniesRepresented

The companies with Black Belt candidates in 2003 were:

• Anticorosiv, a manufacturer of industrial elastomer

sheets, sealants, other protective coatings and spe-

cial fixtures for the chemical and nuclear industries.

• Elpreco, a manufacturer of concrete building and

paving products and roofing tiles.

• Romlux, a manufacturer of light bulbs, lighting fix-

tures and accessories.

• Romportment, a commercial port operation specializ-

ing in shipments of steel sheeting and related raw

materials (iron ore, coke and limestone).

• S.C. Comcereal, the largest grain handling and stor-

age company in Romania.

• UMEB, a manufacturer of electric motors, alternators,

generators and frequency converters.

• Vel Pitar, a commercial bakery with flour mills and

bakeries in 10 communities across Romania.

Along with three new companies, four of the compa-

nies represented in 2003 returned with new candidates

in 2004. The new companies were:

• Electroaparataj, which produces low voltage circuit

breakers, microswitches, rail products, automation

accessories and domestic power distribution ele-

ments.

• Imsat, which acts as a contractor for large commer-

cial projects involving electric equipment (one of the

clients is General Electric), security systems, telecom-

munication, data-voice network, railway automation,

metallic structure manufacturing, and general con-

tracting for cement factories and oil refineries in

Romania and abroad.

• Sudarec, which installs railroad rails.

American Activity In Romania

There is limited involvement ofAmerican companies in Romania.Jason Brush Group, a world leader inthe production of industrial brushes,started a manufacturing plant innortheastern Romania as a joint ven-ture with a Romanian partner in 1996.

The employees had no experience in brushproduction and were trained from scratch byGerman employees of Jason. Subsequently, Jasonbought out its partner and hired a Romaniangeneral manager, who was born nearby but edu-cated and trained in the United Kingdom. Jasonput up a large new plant, acquired land foradditional expansion and increased the numberof product lines made at the plant. The plant isnow one of Jason’s star performers.

The biggest problems for Jason in Romania aretransportation related. Poor roads result in a four-day delivery time to the company’s distributioncenter in Germany, and the company must pro-vide bus transportation to work for employees.

There are no local or national quality improve-ment organizations in Romania. I encouragedsome of the new BBs to start such an organizationin Bucharest, but they preferred to wait for direc-tion from management rather than start this ontheir own. Some BBs are joining international orother nation’s quality organizations. Iorga joinedASQ about a year ago.

Awareness of Need for ChangeThere is a growing awareness fundamental

changes will have to be made in operations and

management. Customer focus, strategic planningand employee empowerment, unheard of a fewyears ago, are becoming more common.

More and more quality managers now report togeneral managers. I am personally very optimisticRomania will, as it has done throughout its history,overcome its current difficulties and succeed in thisendeavor.

ROBERT LOCHNER is a retired statistics and quality man-agement consultant in Pewaukee, WI. He earned a doctoratein statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lochneris a Senior member of ASQ and a certified Six Sigma BlackBelt. A 1990 book he co-authored, Designing for Quality,received the Insitute of Industrial Engineers Book of the YearAward in 1991.


commentPlease

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e-mail them to [email protected].

2003 BLACK BELTS: Dan

Iorga, an engineer and

Master Black Belt, is

at the far right.

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Volunteer Trains Black Belt in Romania - Robert Lochner