Tag: food and drink

Push Lean to Pull Lean

Posted on by Alex Everitt

[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.

image of the Accolade WInes LogoAccolade 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.

image of vines in a fieldHaving 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.

A Focus on Food & Drink

Posted on by Alex Everitt

At S A Partners we have a team of experts working with Food & Drink companies in the UK, Ireland, Europe and beyond, delivering real benefits to our clients.

Previously, we have introduced our specialists Jeff Williams, Partner and Head of the Food and Drink Sector, Juliette Packham Partner and Andy Brunskill, Principal Consultant.

This month we would like to introduce Dr Toni Whitehead and Dr Donna Samuel.

Toni Whitehead Toni is a Business Analyst who provides Research, Analysis & Evaluation and Programme Management services to clients across a number of sectors, with a special focus on Food & Drink. Toni’s background is in Procurement, Change Management and Supply Chain Management. She has a Masters degree in Lean Supply Chain Management and a PhD in Lean Supply Chains and Regional Economic Development from Cardiff University. Outside of work, Toni has a real passion for Italian Opera, Welsh Rugby, all things ‘environmental’ and the great outdoors.

 

Donna Samuel Donna is also a Business Analyst, who heads the S A Partners Lean Academy, and who also works with a number of high profile and innovative clients in the F & D sector. Donna started her career in manufacturing but quickly moved into the higher education sector where she accumulated over twenty years of teaching (graduate and post graduate). She has considerable research experience in the areas of lean, business and process improvement, purchasing and supply chain management. Donna has a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a doctorate. Her PhD study focused on the range of factors impacting on the diffusion (or spread) of lean in the UK over the past three decades. She has recently had a paper accepted for publication by a high ranking UK academic journal (IJOPM). Her forthcoming journal paper is based on her PhD study’s literature review.

The S A Partners Lean Academy training programmes are accredited to the Cardiff University Lean Competency System (LCS).

In 2015, ‘Cardiff University has broken into the “Golden Triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, and confirmed its place as a world-leading university’.

Source: Cardiff University Web Site.

Lean competency System logoOur Lean Academy programmes develop internal capabilities within clients using an experiential learning-by-doing (LBD) approach, to help them sustain Lean and continuous Improvement (CI) programmes themselves. Donna and Toni are accredited to carry out to mentor and/or complete formal portfolio assessments against LCS Levels 1a (Lean Awareness) to 3 (Strategic).

image of the Cardiff university logo and girl holding an Lean Competency Certificate with S A Partners on it

Below is an example of a fully accredited Lean Academy Programme with a global, branded F & D manufacturer.

Client/ Programme No of People on LBD/Coach Programmes Accredited LCS Level Country/ Region Tangible Benefits (Financial) Other Intangible Benefits (Cultural, etc)
Global Branded Food & Drink Company.    S A Partners designed the global Lean Academy as an integrated   Learning & Development System – accredited by Cardiff university. Assessment & Accreditation Services. 100 (70 of these successfully completed the programme).We are currently training and coaching 500 Shift Leaders and new Lean Coaches. 70 Lean Coaches (2a) Global – e.g. Netherlands, Poland, Russia, France, China, USA, Japan, Middle East Over $70m USD in reduced inventory and procurement requirements, utilities costs, lead times, scrap, re-work. Increased capacity. Business aligned to the strategy. Improved quality, customer experience, associate/ employee engagement, cross functional/ organisational working, relationships with 3rd party hauliers/ suppliers, competitive advantage, capability. Developing a sustainable culture of CI.

If you require more information about our consulting, training and coaching services to the Food and Drink sector, please contact Jeff Williams by e-mail.

The Food & Drink Sector

Posted on by Alex Everitt

In last month’s newsletter we introduced you to Jeff Williams, Partner and Head of the Food and Drink Sector  at S A Partners who provided an overview of how we help clients improve their performance in a sustainable way.

At S A Partners we have a team of experts working in Food & Drink companies in the UK, Ireland, Europe (see logos below) and beyond, delivering real benefits to our clients.

Andy Brunskill has been working with global clients on lean improvement projects, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and coaching programmes. In recent months he has been instrumental in delivering benefits such as reduction in product waste, reduction and control of product giveaway and increase of product throughput generating a saving of £500k per annum on one site. Standardised operations, cross functional ways of working and cultural benefits have also been realised, sustaining the improvements.

Why not take a look at a recent case study demonstrating significant improvements in New Product Introduction (NPI) process at an international Pet Food company.

Clients such as Kettle foods have welcomed our assistance in recent months:

Thanks for all the help you have given us in 2014. Kettle foods is a better business thanks to your interventions.

Dominic Lowe, MD Kettle foods.

If you require more information about our consulting, training and coaching services to the Food and Drink sector, please contact Jeff Williams by e-mail.

image of our food clients logos

 

Focus on Food & Drink Sector

Posted on by Alex Everitt

The Food & Drink Sector in the UK is the single, largest manufacturing sector with a turnover of around £95Bn per annum, accounting for 18% of the total manufacturing activity within the UK.  It employs over 400,000 workers – almost 17% of the total manufacturing workforce within the UK and it is these people who have increased productivity within the sector by over 12% during the past 10 years or so.

For more than 20 years, S A Partners have been working in this important sector, with UK and multi-national companies.  We are currently working on 45 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.

Jeff Williams, Partner and Head of the Food and Drink Sector at S A Partners, has been interviewed by Rod Addy from the Food Manufacturer.

In the interview Jeff explains the importance of having an ‘end to end’ system in place in order to sustain business excellence in an organisation. When organisations are asked the question:  ‘show me the end to end system, that is driven by targets, visual management, boards etc’ that end to end system is usually missing.

Jeff goes on to explain that engaging the shop floor in the continuous improvement process is critical to its long term success and sustainability.

If you require more information about our services to the Food and Drink sector, please contact Jeff Williams by e-mail.

An S A Partners client commended for their improvement efforts

Posted on by Alex Everitt

S A Partners would like to congratulate the Greencore ‘Food to Go’ team at Manton Wood on being highly commended at the Made In Midlands Awards for its initiative which has driven a significant reduction in wastage at the site. The Made In Midlands Awards, organised by Business Insider Media, recognises the achievements of businesses across the Midlands region of the UK.

S A Partners worked with the Greencore at Manton Wood providing consultancy services and mentoring to the team. We would like to extend our congratulations to both the site leadership and team for their impressive achievements in such small space of time.  Keep up the good work guys!

Keivan Zokaei sits on the committee of “Food Expert Group” formed by the Scottish Government

Posted on by Alex Everitt

We are pleased to announce that S A Partners have been invited to join a high level “Food Expert Group” formed by the Scottish Government to provide recommendations regarding food supply chain resilience and alignment to consumer value for Scottish produced meat and seafood. Keivan Zokaei, who is head of the Financial Services & Insurance Sector, sits on the committee which is chaired by Ray Jones, Chairman of Scotland Food and Drinks.