16 June 2012, final post from NZ

The varied nature of my CI observations, highlight how powerful this management tool is and how adaptable it is to any business, be it banking, small good manufacturing or milking cows.

Bank NZ, a subsidiary of NAB, have introduced a CI program across their business banking unit. Team leaders are responsible for driving small repeatable business improvement events that are shared via a web based, national, CI message board and acknowledged via a monthly 'celebrate the win' recognition process.




Hills Laboratory provided a very clear example of the challenges of adopting standard CI practices across multiple sites in different regions. The Christchurch facility have struggled with the earth quakes over the past 6 months, a rapidly growing business, moving sites and many new employees. Putting these conditions aside, there is still a visible and sustainable effort in 5S principals and standard work.



The Labmax program was first introduced to Hills Labratory in Hamilton, and over time has gained momentum across the businesses regional sites. Craig Radford highlighted that maintaining momentum of Labmax relied heavily on keeping it simple, relative to the individuals work place and ensuring it is very meaningful. To the credit of the Christchurch team they have remained engaged in CI, whilst dealing with some very difficult business conditions.





Synlait (synergy of milk) has been the first business I have visited where CI practices are being introduced across the entire value stream.

Farm gate practices are delivered in the business program called Insync, which has been in operation for 6 months. All staff have been presented a series of 'in house' CI lessons centred around 5S, visual management and standard work. The Insync ethos is ' think and work smarter, faster, safer' which forms the centre of their CI lessons. A very simple but effective lesson concerned setting up an electric fence in a paddock of grass. By ensuring all materials and instructions are clear they have been able to save 15 minutes doing this job. 15 minutes does not sound a lot, but when you are milking 13500 cows, producing over 1 million litres of milk annually, across 13 farms, 15 minutes can add up to a lot time spent on jobs that are not getting done.




Synlait milk manufacturing have been processing milk for 4 seasons and have experienced a rapid increase in volume, culminating in 80,000 tonnes of milk powder for the 2011-12 season. CI is imbedded in the business and is very evident with words like ' it's just the way we do things around here' referring to their daily stand up meeting boards and standard work documents.



They are having some trouble with contractors however, the shadow board below has had its tools removed, as during maintenance periods external contractors have a tendency to borrow but not return.



During the past 2 weeks I have been introduced to some amazing grape growers, machine contractors, laboratory managers, plant pathologists, statistician and business managers, that are all excelling in their fields. All of them are using CI, even if they don't know it, as all of them are concentrating on improving their business environment, measuring how they are going and celebrating their achievements. A fantastic two weeks with some cracking ideas to trial and consider on my return.

Location:Canterbury Plains

Verkerks, Christchurch

7th June 2012 Terry Pierson, Chief Executive of Verkerks who are a family owned smallgood manufacturer, based in Christchurch, and have been in the small goods game for over 50 years. The business specialise in salami, kransky, metwurst, sausages, ham and bacon and have been using many of the CI and 6 sigma tools for about 5 years. Bottom line results have seen market share grow by 50% in the past 5 years, which Terry attributes to understanding the relationship between quality and price. As a very immature CI practitioner I had a very sharpe lesson on the underlying principals of CI, namely Demmings Management Philosphy. Demmings basis of business management has been proven for over 100 years and has at its core the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle, without this basic business practice, we are destined to fail. Demmings work has concentrated on the power of measuring performance, statistically analysising the results and acting on the observations. Terry used the power of statistics to show me the modelling of stock on hand, expected re working in the production line, personal performanace reviews and even recruitment. Terry spoke passionately about the power of a very simple process flow: Process + Process + Process + Process + Process = Result (only way to improve result is improve process) Process (how do we improve?) Plan, Do, Check(measure), Act Each process represents a condition within the business that contributes or influences the result. For viticulture the ultimate result is consistant quality, at an agreed cropping level, produced at an agreed cost. As a vineyard manager we need to measure our performance, statistically understand our strike rate and develop a PDCA process around our management practices. Not sure if we will be able to do this over night, but we must start somewhere. 4 fundamental questions he threw at me were: (1) What is our management strategies? (2) Who is accountable for the processes? (3) Which process or sub process has the greatest impact on our result? (4) Where do we focus our effort? When I considered these questions I can see the power of Demmings philosphies; plan: crusial to understanding your strategy do: accountability for process check: measure impact, where is the greatest win act: what process do we work on Thanks to Terry's passion for CI management I now have a few books to hunt down to really understand the foundations of CI. A really productive morning, topped off with a tasting of some very nice salami & kransky Thank you Terry.

Snow Bound

5th and 6th June 2012 Darfield, NZ As you may have gathered by the photos, it has not stopped snowing for about 14 hours. The blanket of snow has covered the Southern Alps with an amazing white cover right to the foot hills. The roads have just been opened in to Christchurch and normality is gradually returning. During the past 24 hours I have been hosted by Juliet Mclean, who is General Farm Manager for Synlaitfarms. This business is about 10 years old, currently milks about 13,000 cows across 4,000Ha over 13 sites. Juliet has just recently launched InsynC, Synlait's CI program, across their business. Whilst being plunged into darkness (no power for 10 hours) and minus 4 degree temperatures, we have still been able to have some cracking converstaions about CI implementation, catch cries, what works, what does not, what are the conversations and behaviours we want to have/see and generally a good debate of how to do CI.

6th June 2012 still snowing, no power, 5.30pm

Location:Darfield, NZ

Footnote Fonterra Post

Managing one of the Southern Hemispheres largest fleet of truck & trailer units (400+), requires are really accurate preventative maintenance plan. The units are required to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during peak production, 3 employees are responsible for daily pre start checks, tanker hygiene and visual appearance.

To assist in the maintenance program Fonterra operate on a autonomous maintenance program, which has been developed by the maintenance department. Maintainers train the operators in standard preventative maintenance, problem solving and have set very clear standards around how the machinery should managed. This has allowed the maintainers to work harder on business critical issues and utilises their skills more effectively.

Location:Hamilton

29th May 2012, Fonterra and Hills Labratories

The 29th of May was a day of extremes in observing CI businesses and how they have implemented this management tool. Fonterra have been embedded in CI thinking for over 13 years and present a very disciplined, mature CI culture. Hills Laboratories introduced Labmax (Hills CI program) to the business in 2008 and have been concentrating on 5S and standard work during that period. Whilst both businesses are at varying maturity levels of CI adoption, both reported bottom line financial growth and improved engagement from employees.

The Fonterra business accounts for approximately 25% of the NZ GDP, they have 11,000 co-operative members (dairy farmers), over 16,000 staff global, a $20 billion turnover and manage over 2.1 million metric tonnes of milk, a very large organisation. The Fonterra Way (TFW) was first introduced 13 years ago and is now delivered by the Learning Team, based out of the Te Awamutu plant. 400 staff have been introduced to a number of CI tools, including TRACC management, problem solving methodolgy, learning with A3's, and one point lesson planning.

A component of understanding TFW, was observing the site stand up meeting, that is held daily at 10am. The structure and discipline of this meeting was something I had not seen previously. Within the space of 15 minutes the site manager was able to understand all business critical measures and performance from the across the plant. The Te Awamutu plant will process over 3 million litres of milk and relies on 300 staff to conduct themselves in a safe and effective manner. To understand how the 'job' is going within 15 minutes is really impressive.

Hill Laboratories have focused their efforts in imbedding a sustainable 5S and standard work practice ethos into their business. Under the stewardship of David Havard, ex Glaxo SmithKline 6 sigma practitioner, and Steve Howse GM of Hills, Labmax was born in 2008. Labmax is the Hills Laboratories CI program and has resulted in all departments across the country being trained in the above 2 tools.

The best example provided to us was a problem resolution exercise where Hills identified that over 60,000 repeat tests were being requested each year. The repeats (re-working) were costing the business over $300,000 in wasted opportunity or over resourcing. By redesigning work requests, refining calibration methods and improving ownership of the test process, these savings have been realised and surplus capacity has been used to add more value to the business.

Both business have highlighted to me the very basis of why CI is such a strong management tool. It has highlighted the power of waste identification, understanding the process flow and building sustainable work practices.

Location:Hamilton, NZ

When will we get out

Currently bunking down in Methvan, started snowing about 6am across all of the South Island, some areas of Ashburton have all ready had over 200mm. All roads shut, ski season about to open.

Great day to tidy up a CI blog from Fonterra and Hills Labratories

Location:Methvan, NZ