News & Downloads

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Webinar: Leader Standard Work and Gemba Walks
Effective Gemba Walks as part of your Leader Standard Work (LSW) System are essential for developing a culture of Enterprise Excellence. Developing and deploying the LSW system within your organisation will ensure you build and sustain the right behaviours. Join Robin Jaques where he will share some of the key principles of LSW and Gemba [...]
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Looking Forward to the NEPIC Best Practice Conference

Phil SPooner, partner at S A Partners and who heads up our Process sector, will be speaking at the NEPIC Best Practice In Industrial Asset Management Conference this coming 18th November. The topic Phil will be speaking about, will be ‘A foundation for Operational Excellence’. In this session, Phil will position TPM as an approach […]

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Deploying TPM in Non-Manufacturing Areas
Join Andy Brunskill, Author of TPM: A foundation of operational excellence, as he shares insights on how to deploy TPM in non-manufacturing areas such as laboratories, utilities and healthcare. Join us live to be in with a chance of winning a copy of the book. This webinar is being delivered by S A Partners to [...]
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Virtual Training – Who Knew?

I’ve been asked to share my experience of lockdown and some “top tips” on virtual training.  Three months ago I knew nothing about Zoom, and hadn’t really bothered getting to grips with Microsoft Teams.  But then everything changed……! I wouldn’t call myself a complete technophobe, but let’s just say I’m often late to the party […]

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Agile Sales
The Agile philosophy has grown and achieved success initially through the technology design and development teams of some of the world’s largest, most successful organizations. Recently, it has been adopted by the marketing departments of these organizations and others, and new techniques are evolving for defining, engaging, and providing customers with amazing and unique experiences. [...]
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Improving the Image and Perception of Maintenance

Improving the Image and Perception of Maintenance by clearly stating what Maintenance ‘Best Practice’ can bring to the Operational Excellence agenda

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Webinar: Covid-19 Guidance for Manufacturers
Join us for this webinar where John Quirke will share the current advice & thinking around how businesses can improve their response to Covid_19. Covid-19 is a dangerous and virulent pathogen But it can be stopped by managing contact between people And it is easily killed through good hygiene practices With good methods and good [...]
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Webinar: Leader Standard Work – Creating Stability in uncertain times
In uncertain times it is more important than ever to create stability. Leader Standard Work is about creating accountable, consistent, repeatable leadership at all levels in your organisation. During this webinar, Robin Jaques will share how you can deploy this rapidly within your company. This WebEx is designed to give you some insights and tools [...]
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Webinar: Optimising & Maintaining Critical Assets
Rapidly changing demands, resource and supply constraints will add enormous pressure on assets. Join Andy Brunskill, author of 'TPM: A foundation for Operational Excellence' for guidance on how we can rapidly optimise assts and maintain them during this dynamic environment. Andy will share a number of activities and systems that can be deployed by your [...]
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Award Winning Financial Services Book Give Away

We’ve decided to give away some copies of the award winning publication, ‘Staying Lean, Thriving not just surviving’ written by Prof. Peter Hines and Gary Griffiths et al, both of S A Partners.

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OEE: The Three-Tier model

The Maintenance and Engineering Journal will be running an online series of 3 articles using the recently published book, TPM – a foundation of operational excellence, as the reference guide. The first of the series explores the myths and realities about the central performance metric of TPM called Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). It includes the […]

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Webinar: Gaining true commitment to the revised 91XX series of standards
Whilst many organisations already meet the requirements of the 91XX series of standards, the question remains, is the intent and commitment to high performance and a culture of quality truly met? In this webinar hosted by Megan James, Robin and Leigh will share their experiences deploying quality and enterprise excellence systems within industry and discuss: [...]
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The definitive guide to TPM, Book Review
Our recently released TPM book has been reviewed by the Maintenance & Engineering Journal who gave it a big thumbs up by saying it 'is a must-read document for anyone seeking to improve the efficiency of their manufacturing operations'. The book called 'TPM a foundation of Operational Excellence', was written by John Quirke,and Andy Brunskill,  [...]
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11-step TPM model at NEPIC Asset Management Conference
We are pleased to announce that Phil Spooner, Head of Utilities at S A Partners, will be sharing the 11-step TPM model this coming November the 20th at the 'NEPIC Best Practise in Industrial Asset Management Conference' in Sedgefield. This highly successful event has a host of new speakers and topics showcasing cross-sector best practice [...]
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The Essence of Excellence, Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Over the last 5 years Peter Hines and Chris Butterworth have conducted research in over 100 companies worldwide. Of these, around 40 have shown themselves to have, in their different ways, the Essence of Excellence they were looking for. This has culminated in the book, The Essence of Excellence, which was launched in January. In […]

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Strategy Deployment Case Study

This food company is based in the UK and has 3 sites employing Established in the late 1980s and around employing around 350 people (Part of a wider – global group of companies). They produce authentic, premium, specialist products for food service and retail sectors. The focus for the work was on 1 site  and the […]

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Food & Drink 2018 Video
2018 saw great results for all of our clients in the Food & Drink sector. The improvements gained will help towards planning for the uncertainty of Brexit, and what this may bring to the sector. Jeff Williams, Food & Drink Sector Head has produced a new sector video for 2018, and in it highlights the [...]
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Webinar: Voice of the Customer
In this webinar we will explain a simple yet powerful method for understanding value in the eyes of the customer and show how this insight can be used to redirect your organisation's improvement efforts. Finally we demonstrate how this approach has been usefully deployed with impressive benefits in both small companies and global multinationals alike. Understanding [...]
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Improving Productivity in the UK
The BBC recently ran some news items on improving productivity, which is based on the UK's productivity figures which being released later today. Currently the UK is lagging considerably behind other countries standing at just 35th in the productivity league table. Also, the Office for National Statistics recentlypublished a blog on this very subject just recently, [...]
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Retail & Distribution Sector Infographic
S A Partners have recently developed a new infographic for the Retail & Distribution sector to highlight the good work being done by Richard Lynch, sector head, and his team. Organisations in this sector are coming under increasing pressure from areas such as labour costs with the minimum wage, and the uncertainty around Brexit. In [...]
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Webinar: The Core to Sustainable High End Lean
Citing research from his forthcoming book Peter Hines will provide a framework that will help you understand what core operating systems you will need to develop for sustainable High End Lean. Not to be missed if you want to reach the higher echelons of lean! You can also join Prof. Peter Hines’s at his Masterclass which will [...]
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Dr Kano Would be Delighted to Travel Delta Airlines

I have recently returned from three weeks of sun and scenery in the USA, as part of my travels I took a couple of internal flights, on Delta Airlines to transport me in and out of Salt Lake City,  my starting point, then travelling up through Idaho into Yellowstone National Park. So for those in […]

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Glastonbury Festival, a Lean Operations Management Challenge

If you have just been to, or watched the Glastonbury Festival – this is a real feat of ‘Lean operations management’ that we may not usually consider. For example: Last year there was 3 Days of production planning and operations. This year there is 4 as Thursday hosts the ‘surprise act’. 10 stages – or […]

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Greg Wallace Does Line Balancing

Lean exercises don’t have to be dull. This Line Balancing exercise, which uses a parody of the BBC’s cult TV series Master Chef, looks at how you could produce a meal every 2 minutes in a given environment. Using Line Balancing Analysis, can you solve this one?

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The 5th Founding Principle of TPM –Early Equipment Management (EEM)

In this penultimate article in the series, we will review the Fifth Founding Principle of TPM called Early Equipment Management-abbreviated to EEM and occasionally referred to as TPM for Design. This paper will cover the following: Recap & focus Early Equipment Management Principles Increase OEE Improving our Planned Maintenance Systems Routine Front Line Operator Asset […]

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Big Picture Mapping & Creating a Future State Exercise, Free Download
Lowcost European Airways Nelson Your Airline LEAN (Low-cost European Airways Nelson) has just been awarded the very lucrative Cardiff To Anglesey daily passenger air service. As a stipulation of the contract you must make 4 return flights per day between the hours of 6am and 11 pm at night. You cannot fly at night as [...]
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Free Big Picture Mapping Exercise Download

This free to download exercise looks at Big Picture Mapping:- Create a big picture map Identify opportunities for improvement Quantify the features of the current state Identify opportunities for improvement Develop a roadmap for improvement Identify the features of the future state map Create a future state map To download this free exercise simply click […]

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Moving Towards Supply Chains of the Future
Over the years, Panalpina and their global logistics team have developed close working and research relationships with the S A Partners team and Cardiff University. Andrew Lahy, Head of the R & I Centre Panalpina gave an interesting interview on developing supply chains for the future with The Business Debate platform.  With customers demanding the latest [...]
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Applying TPM to different Sectors & their specific Production Facilities
Welcome to the 7th issue of our Total Productive Maintenance series. In Articles 3 through to 6 we described the SA Partners Enterprise Excellence Model centring on the 3 x P’s of Purpose, Process and People- which, through alignment, improvement and engagement, is capable of delivering sustainable business results as outcomes. In this issue we [...]
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6 Nations – the Williams-Moriarty ‘Changeover’ Model?

It’s that time of year again and I really love the 6 Nations competition. However, my other passion is Lean Thinking and I often blend the 2 subjects – albeit involuntarily! Whilst watching the epic battle – Wales V England – my thoughts were invaded by the ‘Total Productive Maintenance’ of the players – all […]

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Jeff’s Top Tips for a Continuous Improvement Journey
Jeff Williams recently attended the Asda Sustainability Conference which was held on January the 13th with great success. At the Conference Jeff went through what sustainable continuous improvement looks  like, and covered the key essential points on what is needed to implement  a Continuous Improvement journey that is sustainable, and that delivers real, measurable results. He also covered [...]
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Hoshin Kanri: Strategy Deployment or Hoshin Kanri? What is the difference?
Hoshin Kanri  was defined in 2000 by Professor Peter Hines and colleagues at Cardiff University, as a ‘strategic decision making tool that focuses resources on the critical initiatives necessary to accomplish the firm’s critical success factors.  It also encompasses the cascading of this by ‘key business processes’ together with the control, measurement and feedback of [...]
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Developing your coaching capabilities
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 range of styles to deploy across [...]
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Customer value is not the same as customer satisfaction
Customer value is not the same as customer satisfaction . Satisfaction looks at how we perform today against a range of criteria we have decided . Value, however looks forward and needs to seek understanding of what they value in the future. Too much reliance is placed on surveys that are fine for understanding satisfaction [...]
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How do you measure success in TPM?

Over the years I’ve often been asked the salutary question… ‘How many successful applications of TPM have you been involved in?’

Before I answer the question I seek clarification by suggesting….

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How to Implement Lean/CI Successfully – Jeff Williams
In this video, Jeff Williams is at a major food retailer's conference, and explains what real Lean is, how it needs to be implemented, and why it often fails. This is a great snapshot into the implementation of Lean, and the components that drive successful strategies. Jeff has also written a short paper on sustainable [...]
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Creating a Lean and Green Business System

Things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Numerous studies from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste

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Delivering sustainable TPM

In this issue, we highlight how the TPM system model uses the Enterprise Excellence Model to deliver long lasting and sustainable TPM results.

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