Power to the people!
Derek Leathert, site manager, Robert Wiseman Dairies, Manchester
I've been working in the food industry since I was 18 or 19 so I've been around the block a few times! Since joining Wiseman in 1995, I moved up through the ranks before becoming site manager here at Manchester in 2001, which I think helps when you are dealing with people on the shop floor because they know that you've been there, done that and seen it all.
It also shows that Wiseman is willing to recruit senior managers from within, and that you can make progress in this company if you are committed and effective in what you do.
Obviously, there is pressure on me to meet targets, improve productivity, improve quality scoring and reduce waste, but with a highly automated, purpose built plant like this, you are not going to get earth shattering results from suddenly having, say, a waste minimisation drive, because when this plant opened in 1995, it was designed to optimise milk yield and minimise waste from the outset.
The equipment is also continually updated and replaced so that we are always at the cutting edge from a technological point of view. Some of the kit here is just weeks old. We've invested heavily in automation year on year, which is so important in order to be successful.
But if the only thing that's giving you the competitive edge is technology, your competitors will always catch up. The point of difference has to be something else, and for us, it's definitely the people. Coaching lean manufacturing techniques within the factory environment has opened up the minds of the workforce to challenge the norm and to work differently to achieve an improved outcome.
The results of our 'Freedom to Succeed' project speak for themselves. In the last 12 months, we have greatly improved the productivity of this plant without significant capital expenditure because we have invested in our staff.
Right now, we are processing and packing 9M litres of milk a week, which is far more than we anticipated when we built the plant, but I'm confident that we can drive throughput up even further with reduced operational costs, just by engaging our people.
CRY FREEDOM
'Freedom to Succeed' was developed about 12 months ago, and it's been so successful that it's now being rolled out across Wiseman's other dairies and distribution centres. It's easy to be cynical about projects with names like this, but we called it that because it captured what we wanted to do, which was break down barriers and find out what made our staff tick.
The production director and I had talked to quite a few consultants about how we could find new ways of working, and we'd looked at all the usual hybrids of world class manufacturing like six sigma, but they weren't right for our business.
So we engaged a company to help us de**velop manufacturing practices to drive improvements. They had a coach on site five days a week to work with our management team to help us look at how we could improve overall equipment effectiveness, but also to work on rituals and routines so that best practice became part of the normal day for all of the staff. By influencing and controlling the behaviours of people at work we were able to bring out the best in them and as a result are maximising the potential of the dairy.
The problem in business is that when you stop and think about what you are doing, you're often reacting to situations and fire fighting half of the time, instead of planning ahead and being proactive. Our approach had to change.
A key part of this was building trust and improving communications, with daily briefings and weekly reviews, making sure that staff understood what the business needs were. So now we start the day with a huddle on the shop floor, and any issues that come up are then discussed at the 8.30am productivity meeting. After that, we'll brief people again so everyone knows what's going on. We have a suite of key performance indicators and we measure ourselves hourly and display results on performance boards that everyone can see.
This creates awareness, but also a bit of competition, which generates a lot of banter on the shop floor. Improvement by small wins has been key to the success. People don't relate to unrealistic targets but if you engage them with agreed ambitions they will deliver a performance for you.
It isn't about financial rewards, but making staff feel that their views and opinions count and focusing on positive reinforcement instead of criticising people when they get things wrong.
I firmly believe you need to know why things go well and you must provide the maximum opportunity for people in the organisation to succeed. When motivated, people can move mountains!
I have consciously been more transparent by sharing operational strategy with all. This reinforced trust has driven increased discretionary effort, more creativity, more cooperation and an increased quality of work. Staff retention and attendance figures have both improved since we started rolling this out, so we must be doing something right!
THE WHITE STUFF
People visiting a milk plant for the first time probably think it must be a complicated process, when actually, it's pretty simple.
The raw milk arrives at site on tankers. It's then sampled and offloaded into the storage silos after positive release by our lab. The pasteurisation process starts when the raw milk is routed from the silos to be pre-heated through a heat exchanger to create the optimum temperature for separation into skim and cream streams.
Depending on the product type, cream is blended back at a percentage into the skim to formulate skim, semi-skimmed or standardised milk. The milk is then homogenised to uniformly disperse the cream within the product by pressure. Further heat treatment and cooling completes the process. Different milk types are then buffered in storage tanks in preparation for routing to the filling lines. Bottles are packed automatically into roll containers for delivery to our customers. The whole process is continuous with a turnover from cow to customer in less than 24 hours.
With a product like milk, of course you're trying to make it at the lowest unit cost, but what matters to customers is a combination of cost, quality and service. If you mess up on any of these, you're in trouble.
I spend a lot more time these days, planning and organising, but I'm also on the shop floor every day. I'm not the sort of person that would want to be in the office all the time.
This job can be very tough, but I enjoy the cut and thrust of manufacturing. There is always a new challenge, and you have to be able to adapt.
I think what the last year has demonstrated is that there is a wealth of knowledge on site that we hadn't really tapped into and by recognising people's skills and talents, we've seen a complete change in the culture here. That's what gets me out of bed at 5:30am every morning. But the pay helps!
PERSONAL
Name: Derek LeathertAge: 50Career highlights: Being headhunted by Wiseman from MD Foods (now owned by Arla Foods) to get involved in commissioning the Manchester plant in 1995. Moved up through the ranks to become site manager in 2001Domestics: Married to Charlotte with five children Outside work: “I’m a boring old sod really, but I like watching Blackburn Rovers, which is an enjoyable experience at the moment … I also like watching (through the bottom of a pint glass) my local amateur cricket team, Rishton, who play in the Lancashire League.”
FACTORY FACTS
Location: Robert Wiseman Dairies, Lake Road, Trafford Park, Manchester, M17 1TU Tel: 0161 877 7911Employees: 250 over two shifts; 6am-2.30pm; 2.30pm-11pm, Monday to SaturdayOutput: 450M litres a yearProducts: Skimmed, semi-skimmed, standardised liquid milk in HDPE bottles: 1pint, 2pint, 4pint, 6pint, 1litre, 2litre, 3litre
INTERVIEW BY ELAINE WATSON
