(WCBF: Chicago) -- WCBF’s Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards has announced that Mark Pigott, chairman and CEO of PACCAR has been named Six Sigma & Business Improvement CEO of the Year.

Six Sigma has played a major role in PACCAR’s worldwide growth and profitability since 1997. The multinational technology company’s revenues have increased from $6.5 billion in 1997 to $15.2 billion in 2007. Dealers, suppliers, and 12,000 PACCAR employees are trained to use Six Sigma to evaluate engineering design, assembly procedures, sales ordering, and financial transactions. PACCAR has implemented more than 7,600 Six Sigma projects, which have delivered over $1.5 billion in cumulative savings since 1997.

One of the most successful and innovative Six Sigma initiatives at PACCAR is the High Impact Kaizen Event (HIKE). HIKE’s combine the power of lean and Six Sigma to make significant improvements across multiple functions of an operation in just four weeks. HIKE’s have been successfully deployed at all PACCAR locations and businesses, and many of its supplier facilities and customer sites.

“PACCAR and its customers have benefited from Six Sigma and HIKE initiatives, which have delivered world-class product quality, efficiency improvements, and innovative customer-service programs,” says Mark Pigott, PACCAR chairman and CEO. “Since the establishment of Six Sigma in 1998, the company has achieved improved operating efficiencies in its manufacturing facilities of 5 to 7 percent per year. Six Sigma has also contributed toward improving logistics performance and the quality of components delivered by the company’s suppliers.”

For more information, visit www.tgssa.com.