“with a target of 5.4% cost of quality in 2026 and less than 4% over time.”

In context

“. We sustained that rate for seven months in a row. This improvement is translating into a better customer experience that is helping us win shelf space and reduce churn. OEE, our asset utilization metric, ended the year at about 63%, up over 300 basis points across assets covering 70% of production volume. Cost of poor quality also improved considerably last year and is now at 6% of the cost of goods, down 100 basis points year on year. We are focused on key areas of inefficiency like frequent or ineffective changeovers and late detection and material defects, leading to raw material yield loss, scrap, and quality credits issued to customers. We are leveraging Kaizen events, visual inspection systems, automation solutions, and AI-enabled models to optimize changeovers to improve quality, with a target of 5.4% cost of quality in 2026 and less than 4% over time. Meanwhile, we continue to deploy capital effectively for our shareholders, returning $4.8 billion through dividends and buybacks in the year, progressing well in our commitment to return $10 billion to shareholders as part of our multiyear capital allocation strategy. The key to making this all work in the long run is our relentless focus on building a performance culture and delivering excellence everywhere, every day. This means greater speed and urgency, a deeper sense of accountability, challenging the status quo, and finding ways to get better every day in the spirit of continuous improvement. Our performance is a direct result of the cultural and operational changes we are driving across the enterprise that improve how we develop, produce, and deliver products and build a strong fou”