Advanced Lean Driver

Dovecote Park, suppliers of high quality beef products to Waitrose Stores, engaged MPL (Management Performance Ltd) to install their Advanced LeanDriver™ (ALD) software into our Pontefract site in December 2013.

We selected MPL’s ALD software because of five distinctive features shown below.

Bill of Material and Kitting — ALD allows tracking of yield and margin management against costed standards in SIC format throughout the shift.
Labour Productivity — ALD measures labour, volumes and efficiency against requirements to minimise the use of agency labour and cost per unit and to maximise units per man hour.
Rapid Identification of Top Loss — ALD’s Dashboard of top loss graphs for process and equipment prompts rapid remedial actions by shop floor line leaders.
Multiline / Multisite Visibility — ALD allows access from any locations on multi-devices, including laptops, smart phones, tablets etc. to support best practice management and benchmarking.
Team Behavioural Change — The above ALD installation allows a real behavioural change processes to be implemented and coached in, delivering additional skills and focus to individuals and teams.

MPL’s ALD software filled the gap between the MRP site software system and the customer despatch requirement, giving the whole site visibility of the retail packing process as it delivers the daily plan to an agreed standard.

We looked at a number of software systems capable of generating data and reports to deliver focus and pace to the shop floor operations on a near real-time basis and found that MPL’s ALD ticked all of the right boxes. This has been demonstrated by the fact that the system has now been installed for over 18 months and has delivered a ROI of at least 5:1.

I would recommend ALD to any site operations team to deliver fast, accurate data that can support the delivery continuous improvement over sustained periods.

—

Alistair Morrison
Retail Production Director, Dovecote Park

MPL assisted British Sugar in designing and implementing a computerised Performance Monitoring system at British Sugar’s Bury St Edmund’s factory.

The system was customised to fit our needs and was designed to be user friendly.

Throughout the design and implementation our employees were kept fully informed and regular management reviews were held to ensure British Sugar staff had the opportunity to contribute to the process.

Operational Equipment Efficiency (OEE) has improved dramatically since the introduction of the system and it was MPL who gave us the focus to help us achieve this.

We are now implementing the system into another key British Sugar factory in Newark.

—

Duncan Lowe
Head of Manufacturing

ABP have, over the last twelve months, installed MPL’s Advanced LeanDriver measurement system to support a common KPI Dashboard of the multi sites. This ALD installation has also been supported by shop floor coaching for continuous support as required. I am happy to reference that the ALD installation and the coaching support form MPL has delivered excellent results and a strong return on investment. I will recommend MPL support to any other business that requires operational improvement through measurement and shop floor management change.

—

Malcolm Watson
Group Retail Operation Manager

Our work with MPL arose out of our need for a significant increase in volume from our Hatfield Peverel site in line with our business objectives.

Output has risen steadily and sustainably by over 300%, which has been achieved by MPL working as part of our management team.

MPL’s activities have included facilitating the management review process, development and management of improvement activities, line scheduling and performance coaching of the production team.

MPL’s approach uses a practical, pragmatic and ‘hands on’ style, distinctive from traditional consulting/client approach.

It is fair to say that our involvement with MPL has enabled us to more rapidly achieve higher levels of sustainable improvement.

—

Chris Bradly
Operations Manager

MPL has supported Guinness Northern Ireland. The original programme brief was to install methodologies that would raise the weekly bottling yield performance towards 50%. This was in preparation for the proposed rationalisation of both the Dundalk site and IBC sites into one and the introduction of 24/7 shift working.

Owing to challenges at the Dundalk site, GNI management were required to go to the 24/7 set up (2 shifts of 12 hours per day) much earlier than site anticipated which had a dramatic effect on the improvement programme milestone plan.

It was agreed by the site senior management that at this point the priority was to re-establish control and stability of the site’s performance and MPL agreed to provide immediate support through MPL managers working as process shift managers alongside the newly recruited Guinness Northern Ireland shift managers, on a 3 days/nights on and 3 days/nights off rota. MPL project managers moved into this role. Although this was a departure from the proposal, MPL reacted pragmatically and flexibly to help the client in a time of crisis.

The benefit of this support from MPL enabled Guinness to achieve its 24 hour shifting and Christmas production requirements within agreed timescales.

—

Paul Gallagher
Packaging Director

The programme was designed in partnership to develop a process team capability to achieve significantly lower variance in day-to-day production and downtime across a three shift continuous working operation. This called for a multi-track programme to deliver the skills, infrastructures and key performance targeting required to achieve 30% improvement in MEU process efficiency and doubling of volume output and improved customer complaint measure.

I am pleased to report that MPL’s methods, training and coaching expertise have helped us to achieve both targets. I rate their contribution as both innovative and rigorous.

It is fair to say that our involvement with MPL has enabled us jointly to achieve much higher levels of sustainable improvement. As a result, the MEU rating of kegging at Northampton is now at an all-time high.

This methodology has now been adopted at Leeds Brewery.

—

Mick McKeown
Chief Engineer

Advanced LeanDriver™

Cloud Based Operations Management

What is Advanced LeanDriver?

See Advanced LeanDriver in Action

How We Can Help Your Business

What Our Clients Say

What Our Clients Say

What Our Clients Say

What Our Clients Say

Benefits at a Glance