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LEAN
CASE STUDIES.
Real-life success stories and tangible results achieved through our innovative lean solutions and collaborative approach.
Explore how we have partnered with businesses like yours to overcome challenges, drive growth and flourish from the lean knowledge we have shared.
We hope these case studies will inspire you to transform your business with lean.
CASE STUDY
INDUSTRY
Automotive
TEAM LEADER
Derek
ABOUT
Derek is a Team Leader working for a £15m electrical components group.
​
Derek has been in Operations working on the shopfloor for a number of years. He is very new to Team Leading and had no previous lean training prior to using SempaiGuide.
ACTION
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Using the 'Work and the 7 Wastes Module", Derek chose an activity to improve.
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Using the tools inside SempaiGuide he recorded the existing cycle time of a task. A task that affected many lines.
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Derek learnt how to identify and eliminate the 7 Wastes.
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Using his new skills, Derek applied them to his chosen task.
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Derek recorded the new cycle time after eliminating the identified waste.​
CONCLUSION
SempaiGuide is proven to work for all types of Team Leader - whether they're new to the role, not reaching their potential or high performing.
"I enjoyed the exercises trying to improve a process, applying it. I saw things I hadn't noticed before."
RESULTS
55%
Cycle Time
Reduction
43%
Skills
Increase
9
Wastes Identified & Eliminated
Our client achieved these results using our SempaiGuide 7 Wastes Course
CASE STUDY
INDUSTRY
Automotive
TEAM LEADER
Andy
ABOUT
Andy is a Team Leader working for a £200m turnover 1st tier global Japanese Automotive Manufacturer
​
Andy has had exposure to classroom based Lean training in the past. However, generic Lean lessons meant that he struggled to apply what he had learnt in the classroom directly to his work area on the shopfloor.
ACTION
-
​Using the ‘Work and the 7 Wastes module’, Andy learned to identify and eliminate the 7 wastes.​
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Andy worked with one of his operators to improve a job they had to do six times per day. ​
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Through this improvement Andy was able to save one hour per day.​
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Andy was able to make this saving after just one week of using SempaiGuide.
CONCLUSION
SempaiGuide gives Team Leaders relevant techniques to improve their areas, delivering real-time improvements, without leaving the shop floor.
"Since doing this I've noticed that there are other jobs I can change around. It made me look at things better"
​
RESULTS
78%
Cycle Time
Reduction
11
Wastes Identified & Eliminated
£3.6k
Labour Cost Saving
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
DENSO
AUTOMOTIVE
1000 +
CHALLENGE
DEVELOP A
BUILT-IN
QUALITY
STRATEGY.
SOLUTION
Over the course of 3 years support we
​
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Devised a JKK (Jikoutei-Kanketsu) Built- in Quality with ownership strategy tied into the business Policy Deployment
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Delivered communication of the strategy
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Ran interactive workshops to review and improve mature product quality performance & NPI from design stage through to launch
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We trained 170 key people across Operations, Engineering, Materials, Quality, Finance, Purchasing functions
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Established confirmation activities to support Built-in Quality through NPI and oversaw set-up of an Oobeya room to manage Built-in Quality across functions.
Our client achieved these results by engaging our consulting service
RESULTS
94%
Quality
Improvement
170
Key People
Trained
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
TOYOTA GROUP
AUTOMOTIVE
1000 +
CHALLENGE
ACCELERATE
OEE PERFORMANCE.
SOLUTION
In response we:
​
-
Helped the team to develop a strategy for breaking down the shop and prioritising areas / machines.
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Identified skills weaknesses at Manager / Cell Leader / Team Leader level and trained them hands on 5s & TPM
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Created and trained 6 zone champions
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Created visual control kamishibai style 5s / TPM approach to manage and drive improvement
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Introduced layered audit and confirmation process for 5s / TPM auditing with a kaizen mechanism.
RESULTS
22%
OEE
Improvement
25
Key Machines
Improved
CASE STUDY
INDUSTRY
Medical Devices
TEAM LEADER
Lee
ABOUT
Lee is an Operations Leader working for a £300m turnover global medical products group.
​
Lee has been an Operations Leader for 1 year and prior to using SempaiGuide had no previous lean training.
ACTION
-
SempaiGuide assessed Lee's first patrol to measure and record how aware and observant he was when patrolling his patch.
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Lee used SempaiGuide to learn what issues to look out for when patrolling his patch, to intervene at the right time to avoid the issues becoming problems.
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Lee learnt to look out for issues involving Safety, Quality, Environment, Cost, Delivery and People.
CONCLUSION
SempaiGuide gives Shopfloor Leaders the skill to identify Abonormalities before they become Problems. Increasing control in the factory.
"I thought the module was brilliant. It's amazing how much I picked up about what I should be looking for"
RESULTS
81%
More Abnormalities
Found
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
BECTON DICKINSON
MEDICAL DEVICES
1000 +
CHALLENGE
INCREASE LEAN LEADERSHIP
CAPABILITY OF THE
SENIOR TEAM.
SOLUTION
We put together a 12 month plan for on site, on the gemba coaching for 8 key individuals from the Senior Leadership Team, across all functions from Operations to HR to Engineering. The focus was:
1. To develop a stronger focus on their lean transformation by introducing an external sensei style regular check-in
2. To coach key individuals and provide guidance for lean transformation.
The visits were regular, time-efficient and biased towards dealing with real issues and challenges.
The sessions with each leader combined dealing with short-term issues with reflection on their and their team’s capability and behaviours. This was delivered through a mix of coaching and mentoring (with a little counselling) to develop the individuals themselves, the lean strategy and develop the teams working for them. Gemba walks were at the core of the coaching to overcome barriers and capability issues that were hampering their lean transformation.
RESULTS
3
Promotions within
6 months
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
JCB
CONSTRUCTION
5000 +
CHALLENGE
DESIGN & SET UP A
LEAN ACADEMY
SOLUTION
We led the Group General Manager and his team to design and set up a lean facility with a mini functional factory.
​
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The mini factory within the Lean Academy fabricates and assembles a real product made by the company.
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We defined the Group Lean strategy
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We designed the training materials and functional factory, delivered practical courses and assessed, recruited and trained Senior Trainers and Trainers.
RESULTS
3000+
People
Trained
CLIENT
INDUSTRY
NO. OF EMPLOYEES
DENSO
AUTOMOTIVE
1000 +
CHALLENGE
UPSKILL SHOPFLOOR LEADERS IN TPS
TO DELIVER KAIZEN
SOLUTION
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We ran assessment centres to assess competencies (hard and soft skills) and lean skills to identify individual/collective gaps.
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We devised a 15 day practical hands-on program for 65 Cell Leaders & Team Leaders covering control, 5s, Standardised Work, Waste, Visual Factory, Data Analysis, TPM, Practical Problem Solving, SMED, Line Balance, Layout, Built-in Quality and Area Benchmarking.
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The training was centred on real problems and the real process to develop practical Toyota Production System (TPS) skills
