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Balfours Australia (Food Processing) |
 Philip Waddups
General Manager, Operations
Balfours Australia Pty Limited
"
Our business in NSW had been acquired in late 2003, and was not
operating profitably when Sydney Consulting were engaged to review the
operations in April 2004. The review identified significant issues and
opportunities surrounding a lack of systems, transparent
machine/operating standards, and supervisory control of day-to-day
operations.
The
Sydney Consulting review proposed numerous recommendations for change
to improve the operations/control of the business, and quantified the
benefits arising from such a project. Sydney Consulting were then
engaged to implement the change project over an 18 week period.
The
project team worked side by side with managers and supervisors on the
shop floor to show them how to improve performance with an almost
immediate reduction in overtime in some areas. Excessive overtime was
one of our key issues. The Sydney Consulting team worked at
understanding the detail of our operations rather than applying broad
concepts, and worked with the key managers to help them understand,
develop and apply an effective management operating system.
The
project approach was designed to bring people into the development process
in an effective way, and driving behavioural change was a key component
of the project. We overcame staff concerns together by maintaining a
consistent presence during key periods of the project, and ensuring
that communications and training were tailored to meet the needs of the
management team.
Results
have been impressive. In one area we were able to manufacture for a
major new contract without any further investment whilst we were
upgrading facilities at one of our other manufacturing sites. This was
achieved by better utilising true capacity in both people and machines
"freed up" during the project. Major productivity improvements were
achieved during the project. Sydney Consulting continued to track the
actual benefits being derived from the changes, and report them against
the original plan.
My
managers now have a consistent management system in which to work and a
much better appreciation of their bottlenecks, operating constraints
and further areas for improvement. The system is fundamental to our
manufacturing and distribution processes and has helped lay the
foundation for a culture of continuous improvement.
The team
was unrelenting in their focus on the key issues. They have been
personable, pragmatic, capable and absolutely dedicated to working with
us to achieve significant, sustainable results in a short time frame.
I would not hesitate to utilise the services of Sydney Consulting Corporation again in similar circumstances."
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Clients / Testimonials