News & Downloads

Case Study: Launching a multi-site Lean Programme in the Utilities Sector

Over the last five years, we have been supporting one of Europe’s largest utility companies to implement a multi-site/organisation-wide Lean programme. This paper shares how this organisation built both Leadership and Lean Capability throughout their organisation, as well as how the transformation programme has continued to deliver a return on investment.

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Making a Sustainable Impact Full Recording & Transcript
During this webinar, Dr. Bryan Cutliff & Dr. Jeff Radford share their personal experiences, ideas, and techniques that have helped them, and a number of organizations overcome organizational and personal adversity while leading national institutions. We will discuss how to build a sustainable culture of excellence, and the need to stay true to your purpose [...]
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Process Standardisation and Stabilisation

When embarking on an improvement journey, organisations too often give into temptation and jump directly to process improvement, either by designing a new, optimised, Lean process, or attempting to immediately create a digitised, automated version of their existing manual process.   While this approach of skipping ahead to your desired future state may seem like […]

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S A Partners Launches Online Learning Capability

Well, ok we may be a bit slow starting but I promise you that we have caught up fast. Over the past three years with the impact of COVID19 we have seen a significant shift in the way we all learn, we have become more comfortable with the use of technology in how we develop […]

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Why I’m uneasy with the term ‘True North’ by John Quirke

I came in for a bit of teasing by a work colleague recently over my uneasiness with the term True North.   We were working with a leadership community in a large automotive business, and he used the term True North, which brought about an obvious and over exaggerated wince from me which raised a few […]

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6 Requirements for Successful Process Management

Too often organisations think that successfully rolling out process management (‘PM’) means simply providing their team members with a process mapping tool, some basic training, and expecting it to just get done. This approach will invariably result in either nothing getting done, or processes being mapped but never followed or updated. While PM might not […]

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Take the TPM Interactive Awareness Course
S A Partners have created an interactive Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM) awareness course that takes you through the background of TPM step by step. You can access this course by filling out the form below, and you will then receive the awareness course link. The purpose of this interactive awareness course is to get you [...]
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Celebrating 12 Years of Lean Competency Accreditation

Successful Re-Accreditation of Training, Assessment & Certification Services to the Lean Competency System (licensed by Cardiff University) S A Partners and Cardiff University – through the Lean Enterprise Research Centre and the Lean Competency System have a long-standing heritage.  (Link to relevant page on sapartners web site?) After 12 years, we are now celebrating the successful […]

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White Paper: Packaging Changeovers in Pharmaceutical Sector

  Check out our latest white paper on Packaging Changeovers in the Pharmaceutical Industry Over the last twenty-five years, pharmaceutical companies and packaging operations have struggled to respond quickly to market demand. Added to this, operational inefficiencies; the increase in the number and complexity of product configurations; and the ongoing demand for compliance has made […]

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S A Partners Named a Winner in 2022 Nintex Partner Awards
London, UK—September 28, 2022— S A Partners is pleased to announce it has been recognized as a Regional Spotlight Award winner of the 2022 Nintex Partner Awards. S A Partners was recognized for its proven ability to help organizations accelerate digital transformation and drive business outcomes with the powerful and easy-to-use capabilities of the Nintex Process Platform. [...]
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A Time To Celebrate
A Time to Celebrate   In May 2022 the SHINGO Institute recognized our team with a coveted SHINGO Publication Award for our book - TPM: A foundation of Operational Excellence.    The team behind the book, the authors Peter Willmott, Andy Brunskill, and John Quirke along with Alex Everitt our graphic designer,  were able to finally meet [...]
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Why Do An Assessment?
Enterprise Excellence is the goal for most, however so few organsitions achieve it, and even fewer sustain it. Having worked with many organsiations over the years on this journey I know it is rarely a simple journey, or one that can be copied from others. It’s not something a leader can impose, or build on [...]
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Team Celebrates Shingo Publication Award for TPM: A foundation of Operational Excellence
On May 19 in Orlando, Florida, John Quirke, Life Science Practice Leader at global consulting company, S A Partners, received the SHINGO Publication Award on behalf of the team for the book TPM (Total Productive Manufacturing): A Foundation of Operational Excellence.  John, along with business colleagues Andy Brunskill and Peter Willmott, are authors of the [...]
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Making it Happen: The Art of Strategy Deployment
Listen into this 10 minute overview of our latest popular webinar on strategy deployment.  Dr Keivan Zokaei shares insights into how to create tomorrow aggressively whilst running today successfully. To view this overview, please fill out the form details below and receive the overview link by email. If you have any issues, please email our [...]
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7 phases of Business Transformation
Every organisation will move through cycles of growth, change and at times decline.   To strive for success and Enterprise Excellence requires a focus on continuous improvement and the alignment of the organisations purpose, people, and processes. Employee Engagement & culture affect an organisations ability to realise its ideal results, by ensuring your transformation programme [...]
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S A PARTNERS receives its 5th SHINGO Award
The latest publication by global consulting company S A PARTNERS has been awarded the coveted SHINGO Publication Award™.  TPM: A foundation of Operational Excellence has received exceptional reviews since it’s first release in 2020. The SHINGO Publication Award recognises and promotes writing that has had a significant impact and advances the body of knowledge regarding [...]
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GWAAC opens new shop in Yate Shopping Centre
Yate’s local air ambulance, Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC), has become the latest fixture in Yate’s Shopping Centre as they opened their new shop in North Walk. The new shop was opened in a small ceremony this morning with a few of the charity’s Patrons, including Countess Bathurst and former patient and Trustee, Robin [...]
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5 Steps to Enterprise Excellence Guide.
The Five Steps to Enterprise Excellence developed by S A Partners has successfully created over 200 roadmaps globally and has provided a framework for companies, across 20 different sectors, on their journey towards Enterprise excellence. This free booklet helps answer the following questions: What is Enterprise Excellence? How does the Enterprise Excellence model work? What [...]
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S A Partners team members complete the Managing & Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing Programme
Members of the S A Partners Team have successfully completed the Royal College of Psychiatrists accredited programme – Managing & Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing as part of our continued professional development.  The training was provided by accredited trainer Stephne Puddy. The team deliver training, coach and mentor UK and international candidates on our [...]
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Continued Success of Virtual Training
Over the last two years we have delivered our popular White Belt training virtually, demand has undoubtedly increased in recent months as we all transition to a virtual world. There are some great benefits to virtual – flexibility, accessibility for remote teams and cost.  Whilst we still advocate face-to-face training we are seeing high levels [...]
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S A Partners join the European Mentoring & Coaching Council
S A Partners have a number of professional coaches amongst the Executive Leadership Team, Partners and Consulting community. Our coaching and mentoring services complement consulting and training on our Improvement Coach and Leadership programmes. We work with global leaders from shop floor, first line management up to executive level, in sectors as diverse as Defence, Aerospace, Utilities, Process, Food [...]
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Enterprise Excellence Podcast Series
In these podcasts we interview experts on all things Enterprise Excellence, sharing their story and their insights. Experts who believe in achieving sustainable change that betters more than just an organisations’ profit line. Experts who help organisations achieve a symbiotic relationship between environment and economics. Experts who believe in a culture of continuous improvement. We [...]
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Insights from Seani Devlin, Abbvie

In this month’s SHINGO Forum we welcomed Seani Devlin, the brilliant and engaging Operational Excellence Lead at Abbvie, Ballytivnan. Seani shared with the group both the site and his personal insights on their Shingo journey. We invited Seani along to the Shingo Forum to talk about his employee engagement; tiered meetings and visual management. Having […]

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11 Step TPM Model Brochure Download
The 11 Step TPM Model developed by S A Partners has become a benchmark for excellence. This model has been deployed in companies worldwide and was the foundation of the awardwinning book TPM: A foundation for operational excellence – written by our team – John Quirke, Andy Brunskill and Peter Willmott. This free TPM brochure [...]
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The Future of Lean, Embracing Digital
This interactive workshop where we looked at how emerging technology can be used to unlock productivity and performance, by engaging all employees in CI. During the workshop process automation experts NINTEX who showed how organisations have embraced digital, the types of platforms available and how to get started with digital transformation. Guest Speakers: Keivan Zokaei [...]
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TPM, the Foundation for Operational Excellence
The highly successful book for Total Productive Maintenance written by John Quirke and Andy Brunskill is now available to purchase at Waterstones. Titled Total Productive Maintenance, a foundation of Operational Excellence. The book provides the following 5 essential outputs: Provide a practical guide of how to deliver sustainable benefits using the TPM enabling system Show how TPM [...]
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Adapting TPM to a Major Water Utility Environment

This utility provider in the UK serves 1.4 million homes and businesses. The companies assets include 26,000 KM of water mains, 30,000 KM of sewers and 838 sewage treatment works. The organisation identified an opportunity to address the reliability and productivity of its assets through a TPM programme. Two sites were selected for a pilot […]

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Improving Asset Reliability in a Bottling Plant

Our customer recognised that in order to fulfil an increase in sales of one of their main product lines to retail customers they needed to improve productivity. Together, S A Partners reviewed options with the team on site and agreed that the next phase of their improvement journey would be a TPM programme. This case […]

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Reimagine – Refocus Strategy & Maximising Value
Rethinking Finance & Growth following on from the Reimagine & Refocus Conference series. Hosted by J Frank Holmes, Partner, Gambit Corporate Finance LLP To view this conference, please fill out the form details below and recieve the conference link by email. If you have any issues, please email our technical department who will email you [...]
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Reimagine & Refocus with Acuity Law
Join Steve Berry and the Acuity Law Team for their thoughts on Reshaping Business Structure. To view this conference, please fill out the form details below and recieve the conference link by email. If you have any issues, please email our technical department who will email you the link directly. Email* Company:* Country:*AfghanistanÅland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua [...]
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LEADER STANDARD WORK & GEMBA WALKS
Gemba walks and Leader Standard Work (LSW) have the power to transform organizational culture. Done well, they ensure a presence and engagement with managers and leaders at every tier of the organization. We support organisations on their journey to enterprise excellence and sustainable business results. Our belief is that true enterprise excellence can only be [...]
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Leader Standard Work and Gemba Walks
This Leader Standard Work and Gemba Walks webinar presented by John Quirke covered the following: Gemba walk is a tool within a system Leader Standard Work (LSW) is the system LSW interacts across many systems What’s is the purpose of the system LSW What interactions or behaviours support the aim of LSW as a System [...]
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Feeling Proud – S A Partners achieves Investors In People Gold Standard
We are delighted to announce that S A Partners has been awarded the Investors in People Gold standard. This prestigious award has been bestowed to recognize that S A Partners has achieved exceptional standards in leading, inspiring and empowering it’s team. We often use the term ‘Cobblers Children’ to remind ourselves we are a leading [...]
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Reimagine & Refocus Conference 2

This Reimagine & Refocus webinar with Robin Jaques.
To view this conference, please fill out the form details below and recieve the conference link by email. If you have any issues, please email our technical department who will email you the link directly.

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Developing your TPM learning pathway
In the days before TPM an operator in conversation with his maintenance colleague might suggest albeit mischievously ‘I operate, you fix’, I add value, you cost so watch out my friend!’ In order to begin to change perceptions relating to the equipment and it’s operation and maintenance we need to create an ownership culture where [...]
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NINTEX partners with specialist business transformation company S A Partners
S A Partners is delighted to announce a new partnership with the world’s leading digital transformation specialists NINTEX.  The partnership will support S A Partners to deliver it’s world class transformation and training solutions with digital capability.    Today, over 10,000 public and private sector organizations, including more than 50% of the Fortune 500, turn [...]
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Reimagine & Refocus Conference
This Reimagine & Refocus conference looked at the following: Sustaining EBIT Approach with Robin Jaques, SA Partners & J Frank Holmes, Gambit Corporate Finance Management Motivation & Remuneration Structures with Steve Berry, Acuity Law Growth/Succession Planning with J Frank Holmes, Gambit Corporate Finance Panel Discussion & Questions Conclusion To view this conference, please fill out [...]
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10 Years of Lean Competency Training Accreditation
S A Partners is proud to be celebrating 10 years Accreditation with the Cardiff University developed Lean Competency System (LCS). The accreditation has become a cornerstone of S A Partners delivery with our customers. It recognises the standards to which our training modules are held, as well as the capability of our trainers, coaches and [...]
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Effective Gemba Walks as part of leader standard work
This webinar looks at Gemba walk as a tool within a system, how Leader Standard Work (LSW) is the system, what’s is the purpose of the system LSW and what interactions or behaviours support the purpose & inform Gemba walks. To view this conference, please fill out the form details below and recieve the conference [...]
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Shingo Guiding Principle: Lead with Humility

For me, this is one of the most critical principles within the Shingo Model for leaders to grasp at a core, personal level. The power contained within this principle is, I believe, the source of real cultural change within organizations. Leaders, particularly in the technical and compliance-based environments where I spend a lot of my time, often […]

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GWAAC’s Big Give Christmas Challenge

GWAAC are only called to the most serious medical emergencies, and bring with them skills and equipment normally only found in a hospital operating theatre. All of the funds raised from GWAAC’s Big Give Christmas Challenge will go towards essential training for our Critical Care Team. One of the courses to be funded is a […]

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Driving Change in Financial Services Conference
View the latest conference which took place on the 4th December called Driving Change in Financial Services presented by Dr Keivan Zokaei of S A Partners and Dina Patel of S & P. To view this conference, please fill out the form details below and recieve the conference link by email. If you have any [...]
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Webinar: Aligning Learning & Development to Organisational Strategy
We often see significant misalignment between learning and development activity and the real needs of a business. During a survey of a large organisation employees stated that less than 20% of the learning and development activity they had been involved with in the last twelve months was directly related to the work that they do. [...]
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Moving from Operational to Enterprise Excellence

Why Enterprise Excellence not Operational Excellence? At S A Partners, we believe that Lean and the philosophy of continuous improvement can and should be applied to all parts of the business, not just operations or manufacturing. In the same way, we also believe the approach is equally applicable to service and transactional processes. Operational Excellence […]

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Webinar: SHINGO: Deploying Ideal Behaviours – Part III
Join us for Part III of our webinar series on Deploying Ideal Behaviours. Part III will focus on how you put in place the right systems to measure and monitor engagement. Without this, behaviours can revert back to 'the way they were'. You can catch up on Parts I and II by visiting our website [...]
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Download the Award Winning Publication, Staying Lean
S A Partners are pleased to offer the Shingo award winning book, 'Staying Lean, Thriving not just surviving' as a full, free download using the link provided. This publication won the Shingo Research and Professional Publication Prize in 2009, and it takes you through how to create and sustain a Lean business. It followed Cogent [...]
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Webinar: Achieving Enterprise Excellence in the Service Sector
This webinar has been developed to support our Service Sector Customers - please do join Megan James & Garry Corbet to explore the benefits of undergoing an Enterprise Excellence journey. Using the S A Partners Enterprise Excellence model it will look at how purpose, process and people can be aligned to drive superior customer results [...]
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Webinar: SHINGO – Deploying Ideal Behaviours – Part II
Join us for Part II of our webinar series on Deploying Ideal Behaviours. Part II will focus on how you Deploy and Engage your teams with Behaviours once they have been identified. You can catch up on Part I by visiting our website here but it's not required https://sapartners.com/webinar-shingo-deploying-ideal-behaviours/. The Shingo Enterprise Excellence model focuses [...]
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Webinar: SHINGO – Deploying Ideal Behaviours
The Shingo Enterprise Excellence model focuses on the identification of Ideal behaviours that will enable your organisation to achieve sustainable ‘Ideal’ results. These behaviours must be supported by key systems within the business. But what does this really mean? How do we identify Ideal behaviours? Who identifies them? How do the Shingo Principles help in [...]
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Why TPM (Total Productive maintenance)?
There is no doubt that TPM, whichever definition you use (Preventative or Productive) can significantly improve the reliability, longevity and performance of machinery (assets); and those companies that have deployed it effectively have seen significant returns. Fundamentally, TPM is a series of methods, originally pioneered by Toyota to ensure every machine within a production process [...]
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