International award for the First Choice program of Deutsche Post DHL

Deutsche Post DHL's service and process improvement program, First Choice, has won one of the internationally renowned European Process Excellence Awards for 2010 in the category "Best process improvement program". The award ceremony has just taken place in London. The organization "Six Sigma & Process Excellence IQ", with its head office in the UK had offered the awards in seven categories for the seventh time.

Deutsche Post DHL was commended for the vision, control of the change process, integration of the program into everyday business and for the sustainability of First Choice. "The award proves that we are proceeding strategically and consistently. Applying First Choice methods guarantees that we will be successful in our efforts to be first choice for our customers", says Holger Winklbauer, Executive Vice President for First Choice at Deutsche Post DHL.

"To win this award you need consistency and stamina in implementing  process improvements. Anyone bringing these qualities will help the program to contribute to the company's success", says Brent Harder, a member of the jury. Deutsche Post DHL gained the award ahead of more than 30 international competitors.

Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, comments: "Winning this award shows that Deutsche Post DHL is a learning organization and our employees are successful in implementing sustainable improvement initiatives. It also encourages us to continuously align our processes through the First Choice program with the needs of our customers, employees and investors."

The Group, with its 500,000 employees, launched First Choice, a program to improve the loyalty of customers, employees and investors, in 2007 and in 2008/2009 introduced it throughout the Group worldwide. First Choice is a core element of the Group's Strategy 2015. Customer satisfaction has demonstrably increased since the program was introduced. The further integration of First Choice elements in everyday business will be the focus of activities in the coming years.

First Choice has borrowed from the methods of Six Sigma and Lean Management, which were adapted to the special requirements of the service sector. At the same time, process excellence was allied to employee commitment. The heart of the improvement initiatives is the DMAIC cycle, well known from Six Sigma (with the stages Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control).