CDI Holdings · Case Study
MDW® Full-Site Launch · Cotes Park, Derbyshire — From Underperformance to World-Class
JohnsonDiversey Cotes Park
From Underperformance to World-Class — Doubling Volume and Halving Cost Through MDW
JohnsonDiversey UK (DiverseyLever / SC Johnson) · Cotes Park, Derbyshire · 110 Employees · Conversion Cost £120 → £70/tonne · Production Volume Doubled
Background
World-Class Infrastructure, Stage 1 Culture
In 2000, the Cotes Park Factory of JohnsonDiversey UK — formerly DiverseyLever, then acquired by SC Johnson — had world-class infrastructure but was operating at Stage 1 Survival: under-utilised, poorly managed on cost, and culturally disengaged. With 110 employees and a legacy workforce structure, the site had the physical capability to be excellent and the organisational culture to prevent it. In November 2001, a bold decision was made: launch MDW across the entire site simultaneously. No pilots. No phased approach. Full commitment signals to the full workforce that this is different.
The Challenge
Reactive Culture, Urgent Cost Crisis, Two UK Sites to Absorb
Conversion costs at £120 per tonne against a £70 target. A reactive, hierarchical culture resistant to change. No training, performance visibility, or reward systems. Consolidation required from two closed UK sites. Legacy employees whose habits were formed before MDW alongside new recruits needing rapid integration. The transformation had to work for both groups simultaneously — with no pilot period and no phase-in.
Stage 1 to Stage 4 in one financial year. £120 to £70. Volume doubled. No exceptions.
Seven Site-Wide KPI Targets
>96% Right First Time — Quality
Total site RFT target — quality owned at the point of production across all lines
>99% Final Inspection — Quality
Final inspection pass rate target — the quality standard that reaches the customer
£70/Tonne — Cost
Conversion cost reduced from £120 — a 42% cost reduction through operational discipline
>95% Plan Adherence — Speed
Schedule reliability across all production lines owned by team leaders
−25% Waste — Cost
Waste reduction target driven by team-level material efficiency ownership
Zero LTAs — Safety
Zero Lost Time Accidents — safety as the non-negotiable first standard
<2.5% Absence — Morale
Absence rate as the engagement metric — people who own their work show up for it
£70
Conversion cost/tonne
(from £120)
(from £120)
2×
Production volume
no headcount increase
no headcount increase
9,044
Tonnes (from 8,075)
fewer overtime hours
fewer overtime hours
Nov 2001
Full-site launch
no pilots
no pilots
The Approach
Full-Site Launch, Seven Hard Targets, and a New Performance Culture
1
Full-Site MDW Launch — No Pilots, November 2001
MDW launched across the entire Cotes Park factory simultaneously in November 2001 — no pilot teams, no phased rollout. The decision to avoid pilots was strategic: pilots create two-tier workforces and allow the majority to observe while the minority participates. A full-site launch signals unambiguously that the new way of working is not an experiment. New team structures with named goals and internal branding were created; a Continuous Improvement Manager was appointed as site champion; and MBGA, Team Coaching, and 5S modules were introduced in 2002. The site champion role proved essential for maintaining momentum through initial resistance.
2
Seven Targets Across Quality, Cost, Speed, and Morale
Seven specific, measurable site targets set at launch spanning every performance dimension: >96% RFT, >99% final inspection, £70/tonne conversion cost (from £120), >95% plan adherence, −25% waste, zero LTAs, and <2.5% absence. The breadth prevented the common failure of optimising one metric at the expense of others. All seven improved simultaneously — the structural evidence of genuine culture change rather than targeted intervention.
3
Engagement and Learning Infrastructure
A macro room and visual boards designed for MDT performance tracking gave every team real-time visibility against all seven targets. Team of the Month awards incentivised performance and created healthy competition. An NVQ scheme connected personal development to the transformation. Exposure to external benchmarking and best-practice sites raised the standard of aspiration across the workforce — replacing the internal reference point of “how we used to do it” with an external one of “what world-class looks like.”
4
Integrating Legacy and New Workforce
Legacy employees with pre-MDW habits were integrated with new recruits who arrived without cultural baggage. MDW team structures gave both groups a shared identity and shared performance standards — making the new culture the reference point rather than legacy behaviour. Support functions including QC and Planning emerged as unexpected MDW champions, demonstrating that cultural transformation spreads horizontally when structures allow it to.
5
Stage 1 to Stage 4 in One Financial Year
The results in 2001–2002 are among the most quantified in the CDI library: production volume doubled without major headcount increases; conversion cost reduced from £120 to £70 per tonne (42%); tonnage improved from 8,075 to 9,044 with fewer overtime hours; plan adherence and RFT targets consistently exceeded. Three additional outcomes tell the cultural story: the engineering team shifted from reactive to proactive culture; support functions became MDW champions; and senior management visibility at team level was identified as a key enabler. The lessons drawn at Cotes Park that belong in every CDI implementation: full-site launch without pilots works when leadership is genuinely committed; the Team Leader role is the most critical hire or promotion decision in the programme; and performance visibility through visual boards drives the focus that no reporting system can substitute. Cotes Park moved from Stage 1 Survival to Stage 4 World-Class Significance in a single financial year — not because conditions were favourable but because a clear decision was implemented completely, with management commitment that never wavered from the November 2001 launch date.
Results (2001–2002)
Doubled Volume, Halved Cost, Stage 4 Culture in One Financial Year
£70
Cost/Tonne
Conversion cost reduced from £120 to £70 per tonne — a 42% reduction through team ownership of operational efficiency.
2×
Volume Doubled
Production volume doubled without major headcount increases — the same 110 people producing twice the output through discipline and ownership.
9,044
Tonnes
Tonnage from 8,075 to 9,044 with fewer overtime hours — more output at lower total cost per unit produced.
RFT
Targets Exceeded
Plan adherence and Right First Time targets consistently exceeded — quality and schedule reliability improving simultaneously with cost reduction.
Proactive
Engineering
Engineering team shifted from reactive to proactive culture — asset care replacing breakdown response as the default operating mode.
S4
World-Class
Stage 1 Survival to Stage 4 World-Class Significance in one financial year — full-site launch, management commitment, no exceptions.
“Full-site implementation, not pilots, can work — if leadership is committed. Performance visibility via visual boards drives the focus and transparency that no reporting system can substitute.”
Key Lessons · JohnsonDiversey Cotes Park · MDW Transformation Programme, 2001–2002
Key Insight
Cotes Park demonstrates that production can double and conversion costs halve in one financial year when culture and performance systems are aligned across the whole site simultaneously. The no-pilot decision was the key architectural choice: one shared transformation rather than a two-tier workforce. Stage 1 to Stage 4. £120 to £70. 8,075 to 9,044 tonnes. One year. No exceptions.
