Case Studies
Case Studies listed
On-Time, On-Budget Factory Expansion
Improving Communication
Getting multi-sire ERP to deliver accurate, on-time information
Reducing admin in a Charity through technology
On Time, On Budget Factory expansion
Transparency and inclusion
A business I led at the time won a significant tender. On the back of this achievement, the current factory needed double handling and packing capacity.
This multi-million-pound factory expansion was delivered on time and on budget. It significantly reduced manual handling, separated people from forklifts, improved productivity and reduced cost.
The success of this project was achieved by bringing together a cross-functional team, by being honest and detailed about current capacity and clear about future capacity needs. It involved looking at how technology could improve health and safety along with improving productivity. It involved creative thinking, asking the question: Can this be achieved in a different way? How will this meet both customer needs but also that of all the internal stakeholders?
Transparency was vital. I was insistent on involving all the stakeholders, and that included everyone in the factory being able to comment on the plans. By capturing their ideas and comments, we gained a huge amount of insight and their buy-in.
The insistence of complete openness, a clear plan, detail, accountability and timescales allowed everyone to work together around a common goal. This was supported by a desire to innovate and future proof the factory. This included new machines, new ways of working and designing the plant with room for further automation and capacity as the business grew.
For every project I lead, that common goal, a desire to innovate, a clear framework and a commitment to honesty and openness is the foundation to success.
Improving communication
Filling an information deficit using technology
This was a simple fix between a fresh produce company and their service provider.
Staff at the service provider became frustrated that they lacked visibility of what lorries they should be expecting to receive as emails did not always get forwarded on.
The fresh produce business struggled to easily see how those loads performed through the factory.
By creating a shared Excel workbook on SharePoint in M365 and sharing it amongst the stakeholders, the problem was overcome and frustrations were replaced with better collaboration.
It is a simple fix but the power of document sharing internally and externally has high potential to improve communication, collaboration and efficiency.
This is an example of how I help companies use existing technology better.
Getting multi-site ERP to deliver accurate, on-time information
Collaboration and standardisation
This was a really interesting project that I had the privilege to lead.
An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system had been used across multiple sites for a few years. Whilst the system was the same, each site used it differently and of varying degrees of accuracy.
This was resulting in slower processing of accurate management information and a lack of trust at times in some figures.
The project set out to standardise the way the system was used across the group and re-train everyone in the new methods.
The team was lead by a mixture of IT, Change and ERP leaders in the business.
In order to gain buy-in from all the site functional teams, multiple cross-site functional teams were brought together. Here they captured the current state of practice, identified where sites differed and then jointly agreed on the new standardised solution that would provide accurate information and meet operational needs.
Operating procedures were written and then, with help from the project team, functional representatives from each site trained their departments on the new procedures.
This collaborative approach standardised ERP across multiple sites within a six month period, and allowed for accurate management information much faster, thus allowing faster and more effective decision making.
Reducing admin in a Charity through technology
Going paperless in Covid and becoming more efficient
I am involved in a Charity which works with young people.
There is an enrolment process that before Covid involved the young people filling in a paper form and emailing it back. This was then typed into an excel spreadsheet and then payment information was emailed back to the participant.
The form was lengthy, and the transfer of information from off the paper to the spreadsheet took over 5 minutes for each participant.
With the arrival of Covid19, the paper was no longer an option and so I took the opportunity to utilise the tools in Microsoft 365 to make things more efficient.
Using Microsoft Forms, an enrolment form was produced. Behind this, I created a list to hold all participants details. Power automate was set up to transfer the details from a submitted form to the Microsoft List and also generate an automated reply from a Shared mailbox which provided the participant with the banking details and links to documents (based in M365) about the programme.
This removed all transcribing of information and allowed the charity to attract nearly the same amount of participants as the year before, despite Covid19.
Participants also found it easier as the form could be completed on their mobile phones or computers and responses were instantaneous.
As in many cases, the Charity has Microsoft 365 and so the task was taking existing technology and help them to get more value out of it.
