News & Downloads

Case Study: Blenders Transformation Year 1 to Year 3

In 1989, the Simpson family founded Blenders and have been perfecting sauces for over 30 years. Today, the second generation, Harry and James, lead a dedicated and experienced team.   S A Partners were brought in for an initial benchmarking assessment and established the next steps to continue their journey to excellence. From lean awareness […]

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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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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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Case Study: Develpoment of a Lean Academy in a Global Corporation

Our client was a global corporation with a head office in the USA. It supplies products to customers in 135 countries and employs over 12,000 employees worldwide generating revenue of over US $2 billion. Although successful, the business recognized significant opportunities for improvement back in 2020, aspiring to develop their own version of the Toyota […]

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Total Asset Care in major Agrifresh Food Suppliers
This case study shows how TPM was adapted to support two international food producers, supplying agrifresh products to major supermarkets globally. Our customers recognised that in order to meet increased sales demand for their retail fresh and coated product lines an increase in productivity was required using existing resources, without the need for capital expenditure. [...]
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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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Unison Case Study NZ
In 2017 Andy Knipe joined Unison as their Business Improvement Manager. This was a new role and one of his first challenges was to kick start a continuous improvement program based at the company’s HQ in Hastings. Two years on and S A Partners sit down with Andy and reflect on some of the successes, [...]
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Product Development in Credit Insurance
This case study looks at Coface strategy, and how they wanted to grow its business volume. To do this they needed a faster and more robust New Product Development (NPD) process to support this planned growth as part of the long term strategy. It looks at the issues at hand, and what were the required [...]
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The Journey to Enterprise Excellence in a Multinational Banking Company

This banking institution embarked upon a focused continuous improvement programme aimed at working towards Enterprise Excellence. Having already been on a Lean journey, it was recognised that many of these elements were already in place, so the key focus of this programme would be to strengthen and develop the systems and behaviours across the business […]

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Bel UK and the BOOST Programme
Bel UK are over two years through their improvement journey with S A Partners, and have called this programme 'BOOST', and the intervention has been around Lean improvement and Strategy Deployment. In this video Michelle Bamford (Technical and Regulatory Manager at Fromageries Bel) and Esther Horsman (Head of Supply Chain at Fromageries Bel) briefly explains [...]
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World Wide Fruit Awarded M&S Gold
S A Partners congratulate Worldwide Fruit Ltd. on the award for ‘Gold’ recognition against Mark & Spencer Plan A Food Sustainability framework.. View the full video case study below explains their CI journey. Over the past 6 years, a team of 24 Yellow Belts, 21 Green Belts, 4 Black Belts and 1 Master Black Belt at [...]
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World Wide Fruit CI Case Study Video
Senior team members of World Wide Fruit talk you through their successful Continuous Improvement Journey. The team talk you through the practicalities of implementing CI from the early stages, and how the improvement has lead to significant improvement in their operations. If youd like to find out how S A Partners can help your business, [...]
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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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Enabling Site Wide Cultural Change

A European site of a Global Pharmaceutical blue-chip organisation wished to refocus its continuous improvement programmes to enable site wide cultural change. S A Partners assisted with a detailed analysis of current state at all levels of the organisation using a holistic Enterprise Excellence Benchmark Assessment Tool, and an implementation framework that used our Leadership Development […]

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Capability Development Programme

Having adopted a ‘Reliability Centered Maintenance’ strategy for operations management and assets, this utility company  realised that this limited ‘Lean’ improvement approach was not embedding across the whole organisation. They wanted a more holistic approach to culture change and integration. Capability Development Programme integrated with improvement projects: This case study looks at how an improvement […]

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Implementing a Successful Continuous Improvement Journey
Senior and Team Leaders of Musgrave Distribution Centre in Fonthill Ireland, look back at the past few years of their successful CI journey. They focus on health and safety, behaviours, purpose, standard work and leader standard work. The team talk you through the practicalities of implementing CI from the early stages, and how the culture [...]
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Lean Improvement at Cranswick Plc

Cranswick Plc is a multi award winning company which started back in the 1970’s from a group of farmers who were inspired by the simple idea – you get what you put in. Today, Cranswick are one of the largest food producers in Britain with around 5000 employees. Employee engagement is a fundamental element of […]

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Continuous Improvement at Suez
This is a short video highlighting the CI journey so far for the Suez Environmental company.
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Panalpina, a challenge to achieve operational excellence
Creating an Impact This programme has realised over CHF 6M in cost improvements from 2012-2016 (£4,751,937.72 at ex rate - 1 Swiss Franc  = 0.79 British Pound). The Lean journey started for the facility in 2013, and just one year after the programme started, the site was already showing signs of an improvement culture existent on the shop [...]
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Implementing a Lean Strategy for a Major Manufacturer
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. The client had a strong leadership vision and strategic plan for the development of the organisation which clearly identified the ambition to grow a continuous improvement and lean operating mentality across the organisation. Secondarily there was a requirement from one of the major customers [...]
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Creating a Lean Academy in Tier 1 International Defence Contractor(s)
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Help was required to design the structure, develop relevant materials, deliver the training programmes, assess and certify successful candidates through a bespoke, integrated Lean Academy capability development programme  for over 800 personnel. Clients include multi-national Aerospace, Security & Defence Contractors, where each developed a strategy [...]
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Continuous Improvement at Cogent Inc., the Full Case Study
Cogent Power Inc, the Full CI Case Study This hour long video explores the Continuous Improvement journey started at Cogent more than 10 years ago and examines the different elements of the Lean Business Model, and how it was implemented in the organisation. It covers the following 1. Ron Harper, CEO of Cogent Power - Discusses strategy [...]
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Intercast & Forge Case Study
Intercast & Forge are Australia’s largest iron casting foundry and creates customer specific solutions for manufacturing cast parts. Their technical and metallurgy experts ensures their solution contributes to all areas of their clients operation. Since 1854, to the present day, Intercast & Forge has continually made improvements to become the world’s leader in applying innovation and technology [...]
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Vimto Lean Business Improvement & Transformation
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Nichols plc is an international soft drinks business with sales in over 85 countries, selling products in both the still and carbonate categories. The diversification of the business is a major contributor to their consistent growth. Brands such as Vimto benefit from three distinct [...]
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Design & Development of a Lean Horticulture Toolkit
This is a case study of the development of a Lean Toolkit for the Horticulture Wales Project, Supply Chain Efficiency Scheme, part of the Rural Development Plan for Wales. The S A Partners team of Dr Toni Whitehead, Dr Donna Samuel and Andy Brunskill  drew up the toolkit which introduced the fundamental principles of lean production. [...]
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Toll Group, a retail Case Study
In this video, Staff at the Toll Group explain what working life is like now Lean has been implemented in the orgainsation
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Cogent Power Inc, a Journey to Perfection
Ron Harper, President of Cogent Power Inc talks about his company's 10 year lean journey with S A Partners
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B & Q Customer Complaint Resolution
Resolution time reduced from an average of 22 days to 11 days with a strategy to reduce this further. Productivity improvements of between 50% and 90%, depending on the type of complaint. All customer complaints now acknowledged within 24 hours.    
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Developing Productivity in a Small Business
To see the full case study, click the download button. Some benefits gained: Profitability has significantly improved over the past four years by a factor of 4X. Inventory has been reduced by almost 40%. Business is sustaining growth of 15% per annum. Warehouse costs reduced by 30 percent. Off site warehouse eliminated. Customer on time [...]
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Effective Forecasting & Planning (to deliver sustainable improvement)
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Some benefits gained: The net financial savings of £113,667 was achieved during the 9 months of the project or an annualised benefit of £152,000 for the entire year. The forecasting accuracy improved from the baseline of ~50% to 90% overall. The forecasting was initially [...]
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Cutting waste and removing bottlenecks in head office processes
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Some benefits gained: Visual management allowing lead time to be reduced from > 50 days to 16 days. A redesigned workspace that supported the smooth ‘flow’ of files through the process reduced WIP from 300 to 25. Visual management allowing lead time to be [...]
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Argos, a Retail Case Study
This case study undertaken at Argos, shows how lean has improved the dispatch warehouse.
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Supporting the Airbus Group AP Lean Journey
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Direct Savings -$44.2 million dollars generated by our MRH90 customer cost of ownership reduction program* Cost avoidance –Aircraft repairable Item serviceability savings = $18.2 million dollars per annum** Aircraft servicing regime optimised and boosts the availability of the RAAF fleet of twelve C-130J transports [...]
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Creating an accredited Lean Academy for a food & drink multi-national
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. During the first 3 years, over $100m USD/£70m in reduced inventory, procurement requirements & utilities costs. Increased Capacity across several sites Reduced waste/scrap and lead times Improved quality and customer experience Improved employee engagement, cross functional/organisational working, relationships with suppliers
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Pharmaceutical Packaging Company
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Profit margin increased on a range of products from 24% to 60% Changeover reduced from 20hrs to 8hrs for a full and from 14hrs to 6hrs for a partial Output increased from 6000 blisters per day to 38000 blisters per day Cycle time reduced [...]
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TPM in a Food Processing Plant
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. 30% increase in capacity to handle additional sales volume 8% reduction in cost per kilo Increase in OEE from 54% to 70% Reduction in minor stops of 72% from 700 mins per week to 200 mins Improved product quality, reduced defects, reduced customer complaints [...]
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Online Product Launch Process for Homewares
To see the full case study click the download link provided. £250k saving in agency cost £2200k uplift in sales Reduced average sample turnaround in the studio from 150 hours to 23 hours £2200k uplift in sales Increased shot volume from 30,000 to 110,000 shots per annum
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Using Process Thinking to drive the Continuous Improvement agenda
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Substantial £ benefits to be delivered business wide. The exact details remain confidential at the request of Kettle Foods. The approach was a major enabler to Kettle Foods achieving M & S Lean Silver accreditation and will form a key platform for the M [...]
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Lean transformation in a small pharmaceutical secondary packaging site
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. OTD is up from 98% to 100% and is being sustained. There has been a productivity improvement of 86% since the start of the Project The 2 week backlog which existed at the start of the project has been completely removed Employees at all [...]
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Improving Process Stability in a Gum Based Production Process
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Reduced batch failure Reduced salvage generation Reduced batch failure on costs e.g. transportation, extra sampling, manual handling Improved standardised working practises e.g. Changeover process Improved equipment and process consciousness Improved cross functional working
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Identifying Key Ingredients for a Successful Coach Programme
To see the full case study, use the download link provided. Where a successful Coach has been deployed the average improvement from a number of processes was reported as: 11% increase in productivity 39% reduction in overall process lead time Supported by IT, the improvements were quickly carried over to other processes You can find [...]
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Creating Enterprise Excellence Using your Own People
To see the full case study, use the download link provided.  Output doubled in 3 years. Revenue up by 300%. Delivered by their own people-using S A Partners to train and mentor the teams. Creation of “in-line” competence to develop and sustain improvements across the organisation-5 master coaches, 20 lean coaches and over 100 subject [...]
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Strategy Deployment at Vale Refinery
Prof Peter Hines chats to Mike Cox on Strategy Deployment at Vale Refinery, and how operations have changed as a result.
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Accolade Wines Case Study
This is a case study of Accolade Wines explaining how they moved from a Push Lean system, to a Pull Lean one. Peter Hines interviews Richard Lloyd (general manager) at the end of the case study.
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Embedding Productivity as a Way of Life
To see the full case study, use the link provided. Group cost to income ratio improved 70bps to 42.9 in 2014 as productivity initiatives delivered tangible outcomes $500 million in Productivity savings over the past two years ($280 million FY14 + $220 million FY13) Customer service teller transactions improved 11% Asset finance credit approval time [...]
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Delivering Enterprise Excellence at Vale Clydach
To see the full case study, use the link provided. A 111 year production high in 2013 of 93 million Lbs 20% reduction in costs / tonne manufactured Zero lost time in injuries 2010, 2011, 2013 95% of all waste recycled Shingo Silver Medallion Winner 2014
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Improving Overall Business Performance at IG Doors
To see the full case study, use the link provided. Productivity has doubled in a decade 98% ontime in full (OTIF) delivery A robust Process Failure Mode and Effect identification and resolution system is now in place
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Creating Flow in the yard for Foodstuff Inc. Logistics Operation
To see the full case study, use the link provided. Reduction in overtime costs of £75k 4% increase in delivery capacity per shift Elimination of 2 trailers resulting in annual savings of £54k
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