Our Client was concerned that a new generation of product would result in a ten-fold explosion of stock keeping units (SKUs) and therefore increase finished goods inventories (FGI) to an unmanageable level.

Within one month we had completed a cycle of SPECIFIC and CREATE that identified modifications to the product and process design for the new generation product.

Over the next six months the EMBED process reduced product leadtimes from six weeks to five days, and reduced the FGI from £5.0m to under £2.9m – reversing an otherwise anticipated increase to over £7.0m.

People in the manufacturing processes achieved improvements they thought unachievable, including reducing setup times by 60%. The forecasting process was simplified to take one-tenth of the time and more accurate.

Following appointment to their new position, a Director in an educational establishment wanted to ensure the most was achieved in terms of the back-office productivity and quality.

Within one week an accelerated cycle of SPECIFIC and CREATE had identified how the organisation would benefit from elements of Lean Office approaches. This would include mapping, improvement and standardisation of processes; and demand management and the elimination of failure demand.

Within three months the EMBED process had improved productivity by 36% and reduced recorded quality failures by 48%.

In addition process standardisation resulted in successful replacement of a retiring member of staff who was seen as central to the whole operation. An increase in the recruitment of candidates onto programmes and overall course satisfaction was also in part attributed to improvements in the quality of the back-office service provided.

Our Client who designed and installed very large doors for major construction projects was aware of the need to respond to competitors’ who had progressively improved their products and services. There was a need to reduce product, installation and service costs.

Within two months we had completed a cycle of SPECIFIC and CREATE that identified the need to improve the product design and installation process with an integrated team drawn from across the span of the company.

Over five months of collaborating with technical, supply chain, site installers and service organisation, the EMBED process resulted in a product that was 15% cheaper up to installation. Four known failure modes in service were effectively eliminated with the mean-time-between-failure increased by more than ten-fold.

In addition, the cross-company project resulted in much-improved collaboration across the organisation as the experience provided new tools and processes and contacts that were not there beforehand.

All Clients are different. Other cases are summarised below:
• Through detailed Root-Cause Problem Solving increased output at a business constraint by 85%, thereby supporting increased turnover, generating additional margin of £1.2m per annum

• Using Six Sigma methods eliminated a failure-mode in a core process that had never been understood throughout sixty years of operation, reducing costs by £1.4m per annum.

• A thorough implementation of Lean provided a one-off saving of £2.6m together with further recurring savings of £1.2m from FGI, labour productivity and released floorspace.

• A refocusing of a business using Mass Customisation approaches prevented closure of a threatened business by reducing leadtimes from 24 weeks to 4 weeks and improving margins by £960k per annum.