Manufacturer of both chilled and frozen products that are distributed throughout Ireland
and the United Kingdom.

Low profits due to poor efficiency because of the following

1. Only one person trained on each process
2. High absence
3. Awkward line layout
4. Lack of training and inadequate training material
5. Quality of product
6. Very poor communication between departments
7. No clear line of responsibilities

1. Training multiple people on key machines – this eliminated downtime due to absence.
2. Improved HR process for absence
3. Looked at the factory layout and how best to eliminate downtime. The following was
   put in place
   1. Runner – one person responsible to ensure production line never ran out of
      raw materials
   2. Warehouse operator received a daily planner with approximate changeover
      times
   3. Warehouse operator informed 30 minutes prior to changeover so as to ensure
      next production raw material was available on time.
4. All staff were trained on the pit-stop changeover process
5. Reengineered process where possible
6. Reviewed existing training manuals to simplify and wrote new process where
   necessary.
7. Promoted one person to team leader thus ensuring a line of responsibility
8. Gave team responsibilities outside of normal job i.e. quality, training, projects,
   process improvements.
9. Team member worked with QC department to record and train standards to whole team.
10. Worked with senior management to ensure adequate funding was given for necessary
    equipment.
11. Maintenance schedule setup and adhered to.

1. Eliminated weekend work (staff had been working 7 days a week for several months
   prior to this)
2. Eliminated night shift
3. All production was completed by Thursday
4. Friday was reserved for training and deep-clean.

Manufacturer of pizzas produced, in Ireland, for the Irish and United Kingdom markets.

1. Trials on how product weights fluctuate when the machine settings are altered
2. Investigated how the infeed of the product, prior to shredding, was affecting the
   weights.
3. Looked at how conditions of product entering the machine were affecting the weights.
4. Writing training material that incorporated all the necessary checks
5. Recorded optimum settings daily.

Loss eliminated within weeks of new process

New factory and process that required commissioning and ready enter production to a tight
timescale

1. Wrote simple but comprehensive training manuals
2. Interviewed all potential staff
3. Trained all staff from the basic to the most complex tasks. This ensured less
   downtime and increased staff moral
4. Taught the pit-stop changeover method
5. Setup clear lines of communications from the planning department to the production
   management, and onto the staff.
6. Setup hourly efficiency figures and trained the staff how to calculate these and
   react to changes
7. Setup testing of raw materials prior to entering production line

1. Production line up and running on set date
2. Production line running at 95% within weeks of start-up date

Multinational company that produces aerosol products

1. Met with engineering staff to list all equipment/machinery that required updating/maintaining.
2. Set up a weekly maintenance schedule
3. Setup a training graph to ensure that all staff were 100% qualified to complete tasks
4. Ensured staff were trained on multiple tasks so as to have a highly skilled team
5. Ensured cover of line at all times so as to run during breaks
6. Setup daily morning meeting/planner
7. Worked with engineering department to see how to streamline the production process

After 2 months the line was running daily at efficiency in excess of 90%

International, pension, company who were setting up the pension review section in India

1. Staff in Mumbai had no experience of pensions
2. No training material
3. Societal differences
4. Unhappy British staff – redundancy
5. New computer system

1. Prior to leaving UK met with the British staff to review their options, so as to eliminate any fears
2. Basic training material written
3. Worked with IT to ensure lots of examples for Mumbai team once they were trained
4. Wrote basic manual explaining pensions
5. Once in Mumbai, spent time giving the team an overview of what pensions were.
6. Began training using interactive tools available
7. Once at a certain standard, the team members each completed examples publicly so mistakes could be discussed a team.
8. Set up team building exercises

Highly efficient team, the team I was responsible for were the only team that was setup and running on the required start-up date.