An FMCG factory suffered stagnant performance and rising costs despite multiple interventions over many years, and desperately needed a step-change in performance. Automation was in place through past investments but capital was no longer available for major technology upgrades. Skills were concentrated in the few technicians but the general operator population was low-skilled due to the macro education levels and historical factors.

Lead a manufacturing transformation programme to deliver a sustainable step-change in manufacturing performance, with a proof-of-concept in one production area and effective factory-wide rollout plan.

The first step was to confirm 100% leadership commitment by formulating a compelling business need. Then, the Integrated Work Systems (IWS) methodology was implemented over 16 weeks (an amalgamation of lean, TPM and TQM principles). The programme introduced a novel organisational design with structured routines based on daily management systems to embed principles of servant leadership, building technical mastery, and autonomous maintenance practices. Three consultants partnered with three counterpart production managers to provide on the job coaching in the roles of Line, Process and Maintenance Leads.

The IWS programme achieved 10% OEE increase, 10x improvement in mean-time-between-failure (MTBF), 60% reduction in breakdowns / process failures, and £2 million cost avoidance (by returning an old case packer to base condition where the factory initially wanted to replace it) – within year one. The cultural revolution achieved on the shop-floor was typified by servant leadership, autonomous continuous improvement, and equipment ownership that truly broke down the barriers of the past!

The line leadership structure went on to coach the factory-wide rollout, and their vacant roles did not need backfilling due to the self-sufficiency achieved.