Leadership for Manufacturing Excellence Program creates value of over $14m pa
GMC is a non-political, not-for-profit organisation funded by members and industry partners who wish to promote the Geelong region as a dynamic and innovative manufacturing centre. Roaring Success was asked to create a Leadership for Manufacturing Excellence Program suitable for the GMC members.
Our role in this assignment was:
• To create the leadership and innovation elements of the program and then run those workshops. Another consulting firm lead the Lean Manufacturing elements.
• Over a 10 month period, participants were required to attend three leadership and four innovation sessions, four lean manufacturing sessions, make two site visits, complete an in-house leadership/innovation project using the tools and techniques learnt from the program and present their results back to the full cohort at the end of the program.
Outcome
• Since 2011, the program has run four times, a total of 64 companies have chosen to send a total of 131 participants. Both the companies and participants have benefited considerably.
“On top of the $10m from the 2014 program, the 2015 program participants generated over $4m per year in value for their companies”
The value created in 2015 was over $4m, with an upside potential of another possible $5m, when other factors are included. These other factors include:
• the knock-on benefits of the changes happening in one year, but then continuing to flow in following years; or
• the opportunity for the project idea to be implemented at sister sites in Australia or around the world; or
• the intangible benefit of faster, more accurate information flow leading to fewer errors and less rework; and
• better working relationships.
• Participants reported improved self-awareness, capability and confidence, which rolled into the companies winning new business, starting a new brand, learning how to commercialise and launching new products and building personal relationships with fellow participants which have the potential to grow into commercial benefits for both parties.
• From the lean perspective (delivery by TXM) – using the leadership skills learnt, the participants reported implementing factory performance improvements such as achieving reductions in waste, reducing the production cost of parts, improved space usage, and drastically reducing setup and change over time.
• The 2015 winners of the “Best Project Award” were Meghan Brewer and Lachlan Rainer from Malteurop. They devised and ran a project which will save over ½ million litres of water per year, thousands of dollars in electricity usage, and which virtually eliminates maintenance work on the equipment in the germination vessel humidification – part of the malting process in Geelong. The project has world-wide appeal and may be considered for implementation by the many other Malteurop sites around the world.
“Some of the powerful opportunities I was given access to through this program were, working alongside my colleague, Lachlan, pitching ideas and getting them accepted by senior management and shop-floor staff alike, and then developing the knowledge and confidence to bring the project idea to reality.”
Meghan Brewer, Malteurop, www.malteurop.com
• The 2014 winner of the “Best Project Award” were Dan Baker and Mitch Hall from Auspits. They ran a project which allowed the company to accommodate increased customer demand, improve delivery performance and to handle it in such a way that the working teams are supportive and happy.
“The biggest result has been in the application of effective leadership. Implementing [the changes] across all sites had created more of a challenge initially due to one style of leadership not being effective to all personalities. Being able to adapt management styles to engage direct reports has been the most valuable lesson from this program and has given real results in continuing to motivate our staff for performance outcomes.”
Dan Baker, Auspits Pty Ltd, www.auspits.com.au
• The 2013 winner of the “Best Project Award” were Phil Demark and Andrew Burgess from Boomaroo Nurseries. The team were able to use the tools techniques and skills to create a new business growth plan which would grow revenue by 2.6 times and nearly double profits of the Greenlife business unit. The work was approved by the company’s board, and enabled them to obtain financing to implement the plan.
• The 2012 winner of the “Best Project Award” went to Michael Finn of Huyck.Wangner, who was able to guide his employing company to achieve a 21% reduction in product cost over the period, by leading his team to significantly reduced change over times, save on factory floor space and reduce waste. That cost saving enabled Michael’s employer to become significantly more competitive on the world stage.
“Fantastic. Using the tools I have learnt in this course has helped us reduce our running costs by 21% we are now more competitive than ever. It has made me a better leader of people, and has given me the knowledge and the confidence to take my leadership to the next level.”
Michael Finn, OH&S/Training Manager, Huyck.Wangner Australia Pty. Ltd., www.huyckwangner.com.au
