Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111

Your industry news - first

The original and best - for over 20 years!

We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.

MITIE's new Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma revolutionises cleaning

MITIE, the strategic outsourcing and energy services company, is investing heavily in a Lean Six Sigma team that will help to revolutionise the way cleaning services can be delivered. The Lean Environment team is headed by Jon Lightowler who is a qualified Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.

Lean Six Sigma cleaning operations are already being used to great effect at several of MITIE's blue chip customers, including international telecoms and high street banking clients.

Lean Six Sigma is used extensively in the engineering and industrial arenas, most notably in industries which require precision through all stages of a manufacturing process. It delivers quality practices and establishes a culture of continuous improvement that lead to greater efficiencies in the workplace.

Other sectors have implemented this methodology but, until recently, it has not been widely adopted within the FM industry. However, MITIE has now developed a superior way of applying Lean Six Sigma to its cleaning processes, saving clients time, money and valuable resources including energy.
According to Jon Lightowler there are two major developments from MITIE that are key to the implementation of Lean Six Sigma, namely, its bespoke lean software and MITIE's own lean training academy.

"We have invested in our own system called 'Lean IT' which allows our qualified Six Sigma managers to design lean cleaning routes for specific client buildings. We have also just launched our very own MITIE Lean Academy which features an e-learning component, leading to yellow and green belt accreditations for our managers."

David Johnson is the MD of MITIE's cleaning & environmental business, which is one of the leading suppliers in the industry with over 25,000 employees and prominent national and international clients. He states that many of MITIE's clients already use Lean Six Sigma within other parts of their operations. "MITIE is now taking Six Sigma to the next level in cleaning," he says. "Our investment in the Lean IT software and our own Lean Academy demonstrates that we are taking this very seriously."

T: +44 20 3123 8673
E: [email protected]
W: www.mitie.com

5th April 2012