The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) is encouraging the garden industry sector to adopt a ‘Lean’ approach. So far over 60 businesses have participated, each making an average yearly saving of £50,000 – a tidy saving particularly in the current economic climate.
So what is it about this technique, first spearheaded by Japanese car manufacturers, that makes such a big difference to businesses? Initially, the Japanese used Lean simply to improve productivity and reduce lead time and costs, but they soon realised greater improvements could be made by working with customers and suppliers to initiate improvements across various value streams.
Lean companies concentrate on eliminating waste in its widest context not only to reduce costs but also improve the flow of product through the value streams to increase flexibility and maximise potential sales. Reducing staff time spent dealing with waste has the benefit of increasing the time they can spend with customers, thereby improving service levels.
Two companies within the garden sector that have chosen this route are Whitehall Garden Centre, Wiltshire and their supplier Allensmore Nurseries in Herefordshire. Both companies not only undertook a four-day Lean Implementation Workshop to look at how they could make improvements within their own businesses, but also worked closer together to make it easier to order and replenish stocks so increasing their sales potential.
Allensmore Nurseries identified £55k p.a. savings by improving the flow of products through their despatch area. Additionally they introduced ‘continuous improvement’ meetings to allow staff at all levels to solve reoccurring problems permanently. This is providing further cost reductions and improvements in quality levels.
Staff at Whitehall Garden Centre identified nearly £100k of slow-moving stock, so they are planning to work with their suppliers to reduce this and use the capital released to stock faster moving items. This should increase sales and benefit both themselves and their suppliers.
Both Whitehall Garden Centre and Allensmore Nurseries were so pleased with the results from the initial workshops, that they have gone on to hold further workshops to extend the implementation of Lean within their businesses.
For further information about Lean in the horticultural sector and the workshops planned, contact Neil Fedden, HTA Lean Consultant, 0118 9303132, neil.fedden@the-hta.org.uk. Details of other Lean training opportunities may be found on the web.
