Push Lean to Pull Lean

[View the video]

For more than 20 years, S A Partners have been working in the Food & Drink Sector, with UK and multi-national companies.

We are currently working on over 50 strategic, tactical and continuous improvement programmes with companies whose products grace the shelves of luxury and best value retailers, and the store cupboards of consumers across the globe.

For the companies to remain competitive in global markets, they must be resource efficient, innovative and resilient whilst maintaining a safe and secure food manufacturing supply chain. They must also recognise the need to continuously improve.

Accolade Wines is doing just that. As a major global wine business with operations in North America, UK, Ireland, mainland Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, the company grew from Thomas Hardy and Sons, founded by Thomas Hardy in 1853 in Adelaide, to become Australia’s largest winemaker. In 2011 the company was sold, along with Constellation Europe, to an Australian private equity company and was renamed ‘Accolade Wines’.

Accolade Wines has evolved into a global wine company, selling some of the world’s best-known brands in over 80 countries, including Australia, UK, mainland Europe, the US, Canada, Japan and China.

Having embarked on a lean programme engaging approximately 20 – 30 personnel across its 500 strong business over a 2 year period, a phase referred to as ‘PUSH Lean’, Accolade Wines decided to engage S A Partners to carry out a Lean Maturity Assessment. This resulted in a ‘roadmap’ to deliver a ‘PULL Lean’ approach, engaging all personnel in their sustainable continuous improvement programme.

In this informative video Peter Hines, Chairman of S A Partners, interviews Richard Lloyd, General Manager at Accolade Wines about the programme and demonstrates why a company like Accolade Wines, operating a GOOD, effective lean programme engaged S A Partners to help them develop into a GREAT lean company.

If you require more information about our maturity assessments, consulting, training and coaching services to the Food and Drink sector, please contact Head of Food & Drink Sector & Partner, Jeff Williams via his online contact form.