CDI Holdings · Case Study Library
SAMS — MDW® Global Rollout · Europe, Americas & Beyond — 13 Plants Unified
Schoeller Allibert Global SAMS Programme
Achieving Global Alignment Through SAMS — One System, 13 Plants, 50+ Countries
€500M+ Returnable Packaging Group · 2,000+ Employees · Pilot: UK & Spain · Full Rollout Across All Plants · CDI Partnership From Site to Group
20+
OEE points
improvement
improvement
25+
Availability points
increase
increase
3,141
Improvement ideas
submitted group-wide
submitted group-wide
13
Plants unified under
one operating system
one operating system
Context
A Group Built Through Mergers — Now Being Built Into One
Schoeller Allibert is a global leader in returnable packaging, with a €500 million-plus business spanning 13 manufacturing plants and operations in more than 50 countries. CDI has worked with the group across individual sites — rebuilding trust at Nurieux in France, embedding a problem-solving culture at Romont in Switzerland. The SAMS programme represents the third and most ambitious chapter: aligning the entire group under a single operating framework.
The business had grown through acquisitions over two decades, inheriting disparate IT systems, varied KPIs, and siloed cultures that made group-wide continuous improvement structurally impossible. SAMS was co-developed with CDI to change that.
The business had grown through acquisitions over two decades, inheriting disparate IT systems, varied KPIs, and siloed cultures that made group-wide continuous improvement structurally impossible. SAMS was co-developed with CDI to change that.
The Challenge
When Fragmentation Is the Legacy, Alignment Is the Strategy
No standard operating model existed. Plants benchmarked against themselves, not each other. Improvement efforts that worked at one site could not be transferred to another — no shared language, no common KPI structure, no cross-plant learning infrastructure. The group’s scale was a liability rather than an asset.
“Involving people at all levels is the key for success.”
“Involving people at all levels is the key for success.”
The SAMS Framework
People, Process, Visual Workplace — Built to Scale Across 13 Plants
1
SAMS Framework — Three Pillars, Five DriversSAMS was co-designed with CDI around three pillars (People, Process, Visual Workplace) and five performance drivers (Quality, Speed, Cost, Safety, People) — anchored to a customer focus on on-time, in-full delivery at the right price and quality. Not a generic framework applied to the group; a framework built with the group and therefore owned by it.
2
Pilot Plants and Rapid Group RolloutTwo pilot plants (UK and Spain) launched and validated the SAMS framework before full rollout across all 13 plants was completed the following year. Local SAMS Managers appointed at each site, supported by internal coaching teams — embedding the capability to sustain the system within the group rather than creating dependency on external support.
3
Shared Improvement Idea DatabaseA common improvement idea database created across all plants — yielding 3,141 submitted ideas that could be shared, evaluated, and implemented beyond the site where they originated. The database transformed improvement from a local activity into a group asset, making the network smarter than any single plant within it.
4
Shared KPIs and Coaching ReviewsA unified KPI structure enabled cross-plant comparison and benchmarking for the first time in the group’s history. Coaching reviews conducted across sites created a culture of transparency and mutual accountability — plants no longer performing in isolation but measured and learning against a common standard.
5
Global Call Cadence and Peer Review RoutinesA global call cadence and structured peer review routines reinforced learning and consistency across every site, language, and time zone. Where most multi-plant rollouts deliver 13 versions of the same system, the global cadence created one system with 13 expressions. Plants shared what was working, challenged what was not, and held each other accountable in a way that no head-office audit could replicate. This is how a group-wide culture is built — not through compliance, but through connection.
Fragmentation Challenges
No standard operating model or improvement approach across the 13-plant network.
Varied IT systems and KPI definitions making cross-plant comparison impossible.
Limited coordination or benchmarking — sites working in isolation without shared learning.
Siloed improvement efforts that could not scale or sustain beyond individual plants.
Disparate cultures from 20 years of mergers — no shared purpose, language, or values.
Outcomes
A Unified Group, Measurably Better
20+
OEE Improvement
OEE improved by more than 20 percentage points across the group — a step-change in overall equipment effectiveness driven by shared standards and plant-level ownership.
25+
Availability Increase
Availability increased by more than 25 points and downtime reduced across all 13 plants — the direct output of common asset care standards and cross-plant learning.
3,141
Improvement Ideas
Over 3,000 improvement ideas generated and shared across the group through the common database — turning each plant’s ingenuity into a shared group resource.
Stable
Quality & Performance
Quality and performance stabilised across sites as shared KPIs and coaching reviews replaced the guesswork of varied local standards with a common group baseline.
Unified
One Culture
A unified culture of transparency, accountability, and best-practice sharing built across 13 plants, 50+ countries, and two decades of inherited fragmentation.
Global
CDI Partnership
From individual site engagements at Nurieux and Romont to a group-wide programme — the CDI relationship with Schoeller Allibert spanning sites, countries, and ambitions.
“
SAMS is not just a system — it’s how we do our job every day.
Group Leadership · Schoeller Allibert · SAMS Global Programme
Key Insight
SAMS demonstrates that MDW scales to the enterprise level by building shared language, shared standards, and shared accountability — while allowing each plant its own expression. The echo of Craft Box’s principle — “MDW is not extra work; it is the way work is done” — is intentional. When a global group says the same thing independently, the principle has been proven.
