Allensmore Nurseries

In these times of escalating costs the ‘Lean’ approach has never been more important. Family run, Allensmore Nurseries near Hereford have been working to adopt Lean since February 2008 and, five months later, they held a Lean day to update all staff on the progress that has been made.

Mark Taylor, joint Managing Director of Allensmore, along with his father Brian said: “After first hearing about Lean at an HTA Conference last year we were encouraged to find out more, particularly in the light of our rising labour costs. Initially, we carried out a four-day Lean workshop in our dispatch area, but it quickly became evident that, to be effective, the same approach needed to be taken by all areas of our operation.” Staff member David Powell took on the role of ‘Lean champion’ for the Nursery and helped to facilitate change within each department.

As a result, Allensmore have applied Lean to all the sectors within the nursery and the changes had a dramatic impact. From the outset, a Lean progress day was recorded in the diary to provide staff with a milestone for initial actions to take place by. The team judged to have made the most progress was awarded a night out paid for by the company.

Production

The Production team have focused the on improving the pathways between the beds, ensuring they were laid down in such a way as to enable efficient and safe access during the picking process. White boards have been placed in each area to encourage communication between departments about current or potential problems or issues. The team will then regularly meet to establish permanent solutions.

Potting

In the potting area there has been a total reorganisation of the work space, which has allowed for a much more efficient way of working. The introduction of a ‘visual management board’ has been a major step forward, providing workers with daily targets and advance notice of their tasks for the next day. These changes alone are already showing an impact in terms of production. This team won the ‘most improved’ accolade.

The picture beneath shows ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots and the use of a ‘shadow board’ to make it easier to find tooling within the potting area.

Added Value

The ‘added value’ department have also increased production through streamlining their work practices and spreading their workload more evenly throughout the day. Suggestions by the student workforce have enabled a much clearer labelling system to be used, and the ruthless reorganisation of stock has enabled them to clear a further £150 k worth this season alone.

Dispatch

The dispatch area has seen major changes, which have improved the flow of orders through the area. Once again, a ‘shadow board’ provided an overview of operations, enabling staff to see clearly the tasks to be carried out. Tighter stock control has been introduced into the label store and performance measures, such as number of trolleys handled per hour, have been introduced in order to track progress over time.

Transport and Loading

One department that has not only implemented their own Lean measures, but have benefitted greatly from improvements made by other areas of the business is transport and loading. The most notable point being that they have been able to finish loading earlier in the evening as a direct result. Savings have been made through the purchase, rather than rental, of vehicles, which is allowing for further investment in routing software.

Mark Taylor comments: “Many of the actions that have been taken as a result of Lean have had a direct improvement on production. Also, Lean has had a great impact on company communications, as it is vital that departments work together towards achieving a common goal. Many of the simple actions have had the most impact. For example, the colour coding of tools/equipment and the introduction of ‘shadow boards’.”

Neil Fedden, HTA’s Lean Consultant said: “I am really impressed by the way that the staff at Allensmore have embraced Lean. There has been a real enthusiasm and commitment to implement changes and, now that they are beginning to see results, I am in no doubt that this will spur them on even more.”

Next steps for Allensmore

Allensmore Nurseries Lean Champion, David Powell, is now attending one of the HTA’s 5-day Lean Bootcamps with the aim being to give David the skills required to run his own improvement workshops within Allensmore.

The next workshop they have planned is to implement Lean within their offices. This will look at eliminating ‘information waste’ to reduce the amount of paperwork, as well as dispatching orders to operations in as short a lead-time as possible.

Another Lean progress day is planned in for 2009, which will be a repeat of the July event. Neil Fedden commented: “Based on the progress the teams have made in the first five months, I cannot wait to see where they will be on the Lean Journey in another six months!”

For more details on the HTA’s Lean Bootcamp programme please call Neil Fedden on 07899 971183.