1. It Started with ONE
Rig Aftermarket students at the 5130 N SHP facility located on Bammel Road in Houston are
successfully applying their Six Sigma skills to make improvements across many different
transactional processes. It started with one employee, Valentina Izotova, who was interested in
developing her Six Sigma skills and making a difference at NOV. With the support of management,
she signed up for the Six Sigma Green Belt course offered by the Center for Continuous
Improvement – Six Sigma Team at NOV. Following the training, students are required to
successfully lead a team through a Six Sigma process improvement project in order to be certified
as a Green Belt. Once Valentina returned to Bammel and began her project, her enthusiasm for the
Six Sigma methodology became contagious. She organized a team of multi-functional subject
matter experts who supported her in completing a project resulting in significant savings for the
Bammel facility. As the team applied the Six Sigma tools, the enthusiasm grew within the
organization and it became apparent the facility leaders and employees were dedicated to make a
difference in their organization.
Clay Cockerham (Director, Global Supply Chain, Aftermarket Spares) & James Carrillo (Director of
Spares) recognized the interest in the Six Sigma tools, as well as the opportunity for continuous
improvement activities. To date, they have supported 27 employees that attended Six Sigma classes
at 3 levels: White Belt, Yellow Belt, and Green Belt. They encouraged and supported the successful
completion of other Green Belt projects and in the quest of their employees achieving Six Sigma
certification. Through this combination of training, project work, and project implementation, the
facility has been fortunate to achieve some very positive process improvement gains during these
challenging times.
The Bammel team has established a culture that is open to change and to continuous
improvement. Through Six Sigma projects, the facility recognized first-year savings of over $4
Million; consisting of over $3 Million in hard savings and over $1 Million in cost avoidance. Each

2. project promises additional savings going forward as the processes and controls put into place by
these Six Sigma projects remain in place are being used.
Some of the project successes include:
 Established and implemented a duty drawback program for Rig Spares for parts imported on
Purchase Orders and Transfer Orders then exported on TO’s to other NOV locations resulting in
financial recovery for previous years as well as savings for current and future shipments. (Green
Belt - Nicole Daenzer)
 Reduced the number of shipping errors that were getting reported from both internal and
external customers resulting in reduced costs to the facility and higher customer
satisfaction. (Green Belt - Frank Childs)
 Implemented better controls for declaring DGM (Dangerous Goods Material) to approved freight
forwarder on transfer orders to minimize the risk for: fines for non-compliance to FAA
regulations, possible loss of shipping privileges for airfreight, and possible criminal and civil legal
action against NOV. (Green Belt - Michael Brown)
 Reduced order lead time from the point of order entry to time of shipment of Made-to-Stock
spare parts. (Black Belt – Valentina Izotova)
 Improved the financial recovery from scrapping metal parts in the warehouse. (Black Belt –
Valentina Izotova)
In support of their continuous improvement efforts, there are other projects in process. For example,
one of these projects is focused on the cycle time management from when an order is created
through time of receiving at location and another is developing a process for better control of safety
stock reallocation.
As shown, the Bammel Team has had much success through the use of the Six Sigma methodology
resulting in significant cost savings and cost avoidance as well as growing their continuous
improvement culture. They have also proved that projects in a transactional environment can be as
successful as in manufacturing environments with significant savings results.
For more information on the Six Sigma Methodology and Training at NOV, contact Gary Michal or
view the Six Sigma website at: SixSigma.NOV.com