S A Partners held its third Lean Immersion event at Aimia foods in Haydock on the 28th January 2013.
The day followed on from very successful events earlier this month at both Zimmer and Vale. The Aimia team were joined by delegates from the UK, Ireland and Germany.
Aimia is a food and beverages manufacturer, they employ just over 100 people and are regarded as an exemplar within their sector. In 2012 Aimia were lucky enough to win the Best Factory Awards and they are currently going through assessment for the Shingo award.

The content of the day
Patrick and his team took the visitors through a history of the Aimia improvement journey .We were then taken through the contract packing areas, maintenance and specialist high volume packing.
Aimia gave the visitors access to all areas and personnel throughout the visit.
The day finished up with a Q+A session.
The takeaways from the day:
- What became obvious is that whilst Aimia are exceptional at managing their processes, they are also exceptional at managing their people.
- The team have developed a common understanding of where the business is heading and formed a mutual trust in one another.
- Three themes for improvement are obviously develop the issue management process, develop the problem solving capability and finally coach the team throughout the journey.