For this post, we are pleased to have the special collaboration of Michelle Tremblay, the quality assurance manager and BIC champion for Philips Lumec.

Every spring at Philips, we hold a competition for continuous improvement throughout the lighting division. This competition has been going on for fifteen years. Each year, approximately 750 projects are in competition at various levels to get global recognition.

Initially, the competition was called QIC (Quality Improvement Competition). But for almost a year now, it has been renamed BIC, for Business Improvement Competition, because in reality, continuous improvement is not necessarily a question of insurance quality but rather a much more global view that affects all areas of the company.

Indeed, each site of Philips’ lighting division lists all improvement projects that were completed during the year in order to enroll them in this important competition. In 2011 alone, you should know that more than 4,000 projects have been identified, of which just over 1,000 coming from North America. For its part, Philips Lumec subscribed 63 projects, which represents a 17 % increase from 2010.

What makes this event such a success is the simplicity of the rules that need to be respected. The basic rules are as follows: to have an idea to improve the working methods, to form a team of three to seven people and to follow a structured approach such as Six Sigma in order to implement and monitor the improvement in question. Once the project is implemented and controlled, the team members may choose to enter the competition and see their project rewarded.

You should also know that there are three levels to this competition, the first one being the local competition which takes place in each office or company linked to Philips. The subsequent level (regional) takes place on the continent where the business unit is; and the third and final one, the global competition, takes place at a location somewhere on the planet. For example,in recent years, Philips Lumec’s regional competitions were held in Mexico, Aruba and Panama. This year, the regional competition will be take place in Los Angeles in the United States. In the past, the global competition was held in Morocco, Ireland and the United States. This year, it will take place in China.

Let us specify here that the way to submit a project is just as simple. Each team must prepare a power point presentation in which they have to demonstrate the chosen approach, the results and also how it is linked to the company’s values and objectives. For every six teams competing at the local level, the team that stands out will then go to the next level. At the regional level, for every nine or ten teams, only one will move to the final competition.

Each level of this competition is meant to be a reward in itself.

Participants are invited throughout the different levels of this competition to participate in various activities. These events are fun and certainly always surprising. For Philips Lighting, this is a way to express to its employees how much teamwork is important and valued.

In a future post, we will present the Philips Lumec’s teams, the projects they presented at BIC 2012 and how they fared in the competition. Stay tuned!