For 225 years, Beam Suntory has maintained a legacy of entrepreneurship, skilled craftsmanship and ground-breaking innovation. Their TRACC success story started in 2014 with a formal assessment at all the plants. The Casa Sauza site is currently implementing at Stage 5 TRACC maturity in operational excellence and achieving inspiring results.
In a recent interview, at the TRACC Roundtable in Edinburgh, Beam Suntory’s Servando Calderon Vazquez, Site General Manager, and Ivan Martinez, Operational Excellence Lead, Casa Sauza, shared their experience with CCi and TRACC, along with advice for others on the CI journey.
Why did you choose CCi and TRACC?
“The approach that we have taken with TRACC and continuous improvement (CI) is not only a top-down implementation, but also a bottom-up implementation. We like this approach because it helps us to engage our people more effectively than would be possible with other approaches to a CI implementation.”
Where have you seen the greatest impact from TRACC?
“I have witnessed change in our team’s behaviors and habits, and the building of a culture of continuous improvement. I have seen great benefits as a result of my team working together and making things happen. It gives me time to work on thinking about the future.”
What’s it like working with the CCi team?
“They truly understand our reality and how we have been working with the system because they have been with us for a long time. They give us customized advice about the next steps we could take according to the maturity stage we are at in each location. This is quite important because the advice is customized according to our real needs, and not generic needs. That’s the most important contribution for me.”
Do you have advice for others starting their CI journey?
“I would advise others to really get engaged — especially the heads of the company. It’s important that they show buy-in and lead by example.”
Congratulations on Casa Sauza’s Stage 5 TRACC Excellence Award
“We are very excited, but we also recognize how important it is to continue with this progress. We feel that we must set the pace and the example within the company, and in the industry, to be the best we can be.”
How do you get commitment from senior leadership?
“It’s important to show examples of how you can develop your people to contribute to company objectives. We want to move away from being one team (the management team) working to improve the business, to the whole company improving the business. When we start with pilot areas and show the management teams that we can do what we plan to do, we get their buy-in and engage them through these examples.”
“Especially in our industry, it’s all about believing in what we are doing. I call it ‘excellence crafting’. This is what sets us apart, and we love sharing our experience with our friends and families.”