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Putting our professional skills to work
“They chose the warehouse as an area
of focus and given that, we worked
Community involvement work at Cummins takes many
forms, from cleanup work to tutoring and mentoring.
But the best projects seem to involve Cummins
closely with them to re-layout the facility.
“That meant changing the flow of donations,
and purchasing the right equipment to help
them become more efficient,” Gifford
added. “We spent time with Sans Souci
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
employees using their professional skills to help others.
Cummins Supply Chain
employees used a $20,000
grant from The Cummins
Sans Souci
Cummins’ Supply Chain employees put
their skills to work in 2011 to help a thrift
store called Sans Souci in Columbus, Ind.
The store’s name means “without worry”
in French, but there was plenty of concern
at Sans Souci. At certain times of the year,
the donations of clothing and household
Foundation to purchase
that serves low-income residents in need
goods would come in so fast that stacks
dollies, tables, shelving
of clothing and household goods at
of donations would extend nearly from
and carts to help the store
get organized and handle
donations more efficiently.
reasonable prices.
floor to ceiling at the shop’s warehouse.
“We would get hit with a lot of
employees at the facility to understand their
operations, resources and constraints.”
By improving the way the material was
sorted and stored, fewer articles of clothing
got moldy. The organization also found it
easier to separate recyclable material to
keep it out of the waste stream.
The project reduced Sans Souci’s landfill
waste from 15 percent to 12 percent of
total donations. The organization is now
able to process donations more quickly
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
donations and we couldn’t process
and by reducing handling time employees
them fast enough,” said Sheryl Adams,
can perform other important tasks.
executive director of the not-for-profit.
“It was like a bottleneck at all times.”
The Corporate Supply Chain
group is continuing to work with
Mold would become a problem and
Sans Souci and both are looking
frequently donations had to be tossed
forward to the collaboration.
out before they could be processed for
sale. That’s when staff members from
Cummins’ Corporate Supply Chain
“Cummins doing this is just awesome,”
said Sans Souci’s Adams.
group entered the picture.
The Wuxi Welfare House
They redesigned the flow of goods in and
out of the shop. And with a nearly $20,000
grant from The Cummins Foundation, they
purchased dollies, tables, shelving and carts
to help the store get organized and handle
donations more efficiently.
“Our commitment to Sans Souci was to
become a partner and bring some skills
they might not have readily available,”
said JaneAnn Gifford, Director of Global
Materials for the Supply Chain organization.
Cummins employees in China have
been making life better for children
with disabilities at the Wuxi Welfare
House for several years.
Located in heavily populated Wuxi,
China, the Welfare House is the only
facility of its kind in the city for the care,
rehabilitation, and education of
abandoned and disabled children.
ABOVE Cummins employees use their Six Sigma skills to help the staff at the Wuxi
Welfare House pick out the best rehabilitative equipment for the children who live there.
BELOW Hanna Yuan, Assistant to the General Manager at Cummins Generator
Technologies in Wuxi, says employees visit the Wuxi Welfare House frequently to
learn about the children’s needs.
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