News & Downloads

Why Curiosity is Essential for Gemba

In the world of effective leadership, one invaluable skill often goes overlooked—Gemba. While Gemba is often associated with process improvement, its true power lies in its ability to transform leadership communication. In this blog, we’ll explore the critical role of communication in Gemba and provide you with two essential tips to enhance your Gemba skills […]

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The SHINGO© Model that drives Enterprise Excellence & the focus on Culture & Behaviours that matter

By John Quirke, Author In 1988 as a recognition for his work across a broad range of industry sectors, Shigeo Shingo was awarded an honorary Doctor of Management from Utah State University.  Over the course of his life Dr. Shingo wrote eighteen books on the improvement of work and the processes that support the effectiveness […]

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Align, Engage, Improve with Effective Tiered Meetings

By Sonja Allen Have you ever considered… How many meetings you have a week? How many of these meetings could be an email? How many of these meetings have few or no results? How many rabbit holes do your meeting conversations go down? How regularly do you talk about what really matters, in a focused […]

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Understanding Lean Leadership

By MEGAN JAMES, European Business Development Manager I previously shared the S A Partners implementation model for Enterprise Excellence and how to use this to build effective training programmes. In case you missed it, you can find it HERE. I received some great queries specifically about the design of the Leadership element so I wanted […]

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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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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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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. After 12 years, we are now celebrating the successful re-accreditation of S A Partners Trainers, Coaches and […]

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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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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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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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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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Webinar: Inspiration from SHINGO – Assure quality at Source & Seek Perfection
In this webinar we will look more deeply into two of the Shingo Guiding Principles - Assure Quality at Source & Seek Perfection. These are part of the Continuous Improvement Dimension. We will look at how we can create the right ‘systems’ and therefore ‘behaviours’ to achieve zero defects within our operations. To view this [...]
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Creating Inspired Leaders
In this current climate, it would be easy for us to focus on business survival, but now more than ever we need to create leaders within our organisations that are both inspirational and supportive to those that report to them.  Leaders that have developed coaching skills and capabilities are fundamentally better at managing their teams. Join Fiona [...]
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Webinar: Intro to Shingo
Join Fiona Buttrey our SHINGO facilitator and one of the global examiners to understand why companies around the world have used the Shingo Model and the pathway to the Shingo prize to align enterprise excellence within their organisations.  Fiona will share the necessary steps that organisations need to consider when taking this path and also case studies from some of our award-winning customers [...]
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Webinar: Effective communication
In this webinar Juliette Packham explores how we can improve how we talk and how we listen to enable us to build trust and improve how we connect with others.  Juliette will also explore how communication skills can help improve problem solving within our organisations.  To view this webinar, please fill out the form details [...]
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Webinar: Lean Leadership – What’s my Role?
Building resilience will support both you and your teams steer a course during the upcoming weeks and months. The current situation has occurred rapidly and has had a significant impact on individuals, their families and the organisations in which they work. Phil Spooner will draw on his experience as one of our senior consultants and [...]
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Webinar: Towards a New Style of Leadership
Understand the fundamentals of Servant Leadership which is the foundation of the Blanchard Leadership Programme. This world-renowned approach to management will provide you with an understanding of how to develop excellent managers capable of supporting and leading teams during uncertain times. To view this webinar, please fill out the form details below and recieve the [...]
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Webinar: Coaching Leaders to manage change
Building resilience will support both you and your teams steer a course during the upcoming weeks and months. The current situation has occurred rapidly and has had a significant impact on individuals, their families and the organisations in which they work. Colin Scott will draw on his experience as a leadership coach and Shingo facilitator [...]
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Developing Leadership Skills

What makes an Organisation Great is its ability to manage and motivate its people and leaders, which is where Developing Leadership Skills come into play. There are millions of quotes, thousands of books and hundreds of professors all available to give advice to organisations, or teach us specific techniques. The problem with all this, is […]

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Speaking at the Shingo Conference

We are pleased to announce that Colin Scott, partner and head of our USA region, will be speaking at the up coming Manufacturing Shingo Summit in Detroit Michigan, which takes place on the 24th & 25th September this month. Before joining S A Partners, Colin previously worked as a managing director and CEO in the […]

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What does it mean to be Lean & Green? Podcast
Listen to this great podcast by Dr Keivan Zokaei on what it means to be Lean and Green, and what the circular economy can learn from it. In this episode produced by In The Loop, they dive into the world of lean thinking with our expert Dr. Keivan Zokaei who is a partner at S [...]
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The 2019 Shingo Conference is here

S A Partners are delighted to be attending this years Shingo conference at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, which is being attended by Prof Peter Hines, John Quirke, Chris Butterworth and Colin Scott. The Shingo conference is attended by organisations from all over the world, and runs over a week. At the conference it highlights […]

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Shingo Publication Award for The Essence of Excellence
We are pleased to announce that The Essence of Excellence book, co-written by Prof. Peter Hines and Chris Butterworth, have been awarded the coveted Shingo Institute Publication Award. This means that both Peter and Chris are multiple Shingo award winners with Prof Peter Hines receiving the publication award for Staying Lean, Thriving not just Surviving, [...]
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Shingo Workshops at Award Winning Locations
Visit award winning locations with S A Partners schedule of Shingo workshops for 2019 which include the Discover Excellence and Shingo Enterprise Excellence introduction workshops. All Discover Excellence workshops are accredited and certified to both the Shingo Institute and CPD service (Continual Professional Development). The Shingo approach is a way of creating sustainable and excellent [...]
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Shingo Publication Award
S A Partners are extremely pleased to announce that our latest book, '4+1 Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Financial Services', co written by Chris Butterworth and Dr Morgan L Jones, has been awarded the prestigious Shingo Publication Award for 2019. By design, the Shingo Award represents the highest standard of excellence in the [...]
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Effective Leadership

Its Effective leadership that makes an organisation Great. It’s the ability to manage and motivate its people at every level of the business. There are millions of quotes, thousands of books and hundreds of professors, all available to give us advice or teach us a specific technique.  This approach ends up almost like a cockeril […]

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Leadership Questionnaire
Leadership is a key ingredient to successfully driving change within any organisation, and the following leadership questionnaire helps define what type of Leader you are. We've devised a simple 10 point Leadership Questionnaire which aims at highlighting the most common occurrences that may happen during interaction with teams  or individuals. At S A Partners, we've [...]
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Toyota Production System in House Building
To view, use the download button provided. Professor Hines illustrates how quick changeover methods have been deployed requiring a high degree of precision in the manufacturing process alongside modularity. The company also actively involves their supplier in what might be described as ‘high pressure’ improvement collaboration. While the advantage of Japanese car makers over their [...]
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Creating Sustainable Leadership with Inspiration from Fun boy three, Bananarama and the Blues Brothers
Raise your hand if you’ve ever tried creating sustainable leadership in your organisation. It’s an objective S A Partners implement in different types of organisations and sectors all the time, and one that organisations always have issues with in implementing successfully, and that's where S A Partners come in via our Leadership Development Programme. I [...]
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Coaching with the Shingo Approach

Over the years, Lean has evolved from primarily a tools-based approach to a focus on an end to end systems view and developing people at all levels of an organization. If done correctly, managers enable people on the front lines to be confident enough to change and improve their processes. Focusing on the middle management […]

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Webinar: Engage your Colleagues on Lean
Being a ‘lean business’ isn’t the result of a single initiative or project, it requires a business culture aligned with constant improving to reap long term benefits. To do this, you need to keep colleagues across all levels of the business engaged around your lean journey & culture. In this short webinar, SA Partners’ Jeff [...]
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Women in Aerospace & Defence

This month see’s the new issue of the ADS Advance magazine. Since yesterday was International Women’s day, we are pleased to announce an excellent article on Women working in the Aerospace and Defence sector, which also included a section on our own Dr Toni Whitehead at S A Partners. Toni had a successful career with […]

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Lean Leadership Workshop – Update

In the same week as our Continuous Improvement conference hosted at Massey University, Chris Butterworth, MD Asia Pacific, led our world class, Lean Leadership seminar in Auckland. This two-day workshop is designed for business leaders and senior managers looking to embed continuous improvement practices in their organisations, and Chris shares how to create a sustainable […]

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Winner of the 2017 Shingo Research Award

We are pleased to announce that a book Prof. Peter Hines, S A Partners Chairman, has contributed to, has won the prestigious Shingo Research Award for 2017.  The book, titled ‘The Routledge Companion to Lean Management’, has collected contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. Prof. Peter Hines contribution, along […]

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A Sustainable System of Continuous Improvement (CI)
What is Continuous Improvement? How does it work? How can you implement Continuous Improvement successfully and sustainably? In this paper Jeff Williams, Head of Food and Drink Sector at S A Partners, answers all these questions and communicates the importance of building business-wide sustainable systems of Continuous Improvement (CI), which goes beyond the traditional focus [...]
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Helping Shingo Develop Materials for Future Workshops
The Shingo Institute are planning to publish a series of books to accompany the Shingo workshops. A supporting book for each course Discover Excellence, Cultural Enablers , Continuous Improvement, Enterprise Alignment and Build Excellence,  will be edited by an experienced facilitator and published over the next 2 years. We are delighted to announce that Chris Butterworth [...]
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Building the Self-Efficacy of Individuals to Deliver Business Improvement and Success
I recently recorded a podcast on the importance of learning, stating that ‘it’s not about the badge’, but the journey of learning and reflection that results in accreditation and certification. Another way of looking at this is the development of self-efficacy within the individuals who are on our development programmes. At S A Partners we [...]
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Leadership of Complex Change in a Productivity Improvement Environment

What does change management mean and how do people in organisations react when they experience change management activity? This paper focusses on a range of change management approaches whilst considering complex change in productivity improvement environments. This paper covers the following: The Kubler Ross Model Maslow and the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ The Lean Iceberg Model […]

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Book Review, Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement

This book is an excellent addition to the body of publications on the systematic application of Lean Thinking and Continuous improvement. Interestingly, whist the title quotes ‘Financial Services’, the learnings and practical application of the approaches shared within are relevant to other business sectors pursuing productivity improvement or CI in the pursuit of ‘excellence’.  Anyone […]

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Shingo Conference 2017, how did it go?

The S A Partners team joined over 600 delegates at this years 29th Annual Shingo conference in Atlanta. Professor Peter Hines , John Quirke , Colin Scott and Chris Butterworth supported the conference and shared insights with many delegates. There was a fantastic range of speakers proving great insights including Brenton Harder from the Bank […]

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S A Partners now a Strategic Partner for Blanchard Situational Leadership® II
S A Partners are now pleased to announce that we have become the only Welsh organisation to be an ‘Approved Blanchard Channel Partner’ and we are proud to offer the much coveted Situational Leadership® II and First Time Manager training courses.  The first courses will kick off in June with the First Time Manager taking place [...]
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Auckland Leisure – Shingo Update
Early April saw 16 participants for our Discover Shingo Awareness seminar, kindly hosted by Auckland Leisure and presented expertly by S A Partners. Our Shingo training is brought to our clients as we are a fully affiliated to the Shingo Institute https://www.shingoprize.org/ The Shingo Training Discover Excellence programme is a foundational, two day workshop that introduces the [...]
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New S A Partners ‘Leadership for Improvement in Productivity’
Situational Leadership II forms a critical part of our integrated Leadership for Improvement offering, and is a key tool that forms part of our Leadership Development Programme. In January 2017, the UK Government outlined its plans in a ‘Green Paper’ consultation document for a UK Industrial Strategy. Key objectives of the strategy include: Competitiveness and [...]
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Frankenstein wins Tour de France!

Consider the enterprise excellence model to be a body – as a model it creates exceptional customer value, as a body it creates healthy happy life. The body is made up of systems that enable life to happen. Digestion, movement, growth, thought, breathing etc. All these bodily systems have to happen in an intergrated way […]

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Learning by Doing, LCS Article

Simon Elias of the Cardiff University Lean Competency System (LCS)  recently published an article on the alignment of training and application – how to get the best out of your capability development opportunities. This article talks about Linking lean training to the application of knowledge in the workplace is critical if it is to be […]

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Chris Butterworth talks about his award winning TEC Talk
Chris Butterworth talks about his award winning TEC Talk Chris has delivered his popular Talk – Profitable Growth Through Lean Thinking - to 43 TEC groups in Australia and New Zealand in the last 3 years. TEC is an international membership network providing leadership mentoring and business coaching to CEOs and executives. In 2014 he [...]
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Principles of Flow & Pull

Chris Butterworth, S A Partners Asia Pacific head, has written another blog for the Shingo Institute which is entitled ‘The Principle of Flow & Pull’. In the blog Chris highlights the fact that this principle is not just for manufacturing, but can be applied in many different ways.  Drawing on a recent trip to Nairobi, […]

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How to win a Shingo Prize
In this FREE to view webinar recording, Jon Alder talks at length about his journey taking Rexam, a global multi site organisation, through to the Shingo prize. He talks about his experience along the way, and how you create a sustainable system of improvement aligned to the Shingo approach. Jon talks you through first hand experience of driving change and winning [...]
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How do you best develop coaching capabilities?
To view, use the download button. There is much debate about which style of coaching is better suited to what situation. Situational Leadership for example, proposes that managers be more directive where the competence and commitment of people is at their lowest or where situations require urgent action, but most would agree that having a [...]
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