Lean in dairy
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Lean Management is a continuous improvement management model used in other industries, adapted and proven to be effective for GB dairy farming. Lean Management has sustainability and profitability at its core, by eliminating and preventing the creation of waste and maximising value from the best use of inputs.
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Lean in dairy
- 1. Lean in Dairy Dr George Fisher Rachael Chamberlayne
- 2. A question for you Do you think that dairy farming can learn from management practices in other industries? a)Yes b)No c)Why bother
- 3. What is Lean? • Management model from auto industry • Continuous improvements in production efficiency achieved through maximising value creation and minimising the generation of waste • Used in milk processing and retailing.
- 4. Lean in dairy farming • Value is defined by the customer (i.e. what the company gets paid for) • Wastes are elements of activity that add time, effort or cost but which do not add value.
- 5. Lean on farm • Processes to be managed (e.g. forage production, fertility, health, milking, feeding) • Measure process performance • Root cause of underperformance • Maximise performance • Standardise processes • Sustain performance benefits
- 6. Pre-Conditions Leadership that will commit to management changes Leadership that will adhere to standard work to support staff in achieving improved performance and model behaviour Simple but comprehensive data management systems.
- 7. Proof of concept • Livestock Northwest RDPE Project • Monitor farm 2010 - 2013 • 2011/12 to 2012/13 Reduced costs by 5% Increased net margin from 6ppl to 9ppl.
- 8. What DairyCo has done? • Pilot 1 – proof of concept on more farms • Can Lean work on GB dairy farms? • Does it make a difference?
- 9. Further work • Pilot 2 and Welsh Pilot– route to implementation • Are consultants a way to get Lean on farm? • Applied across different systems of farming? • Institute of Leadership and Management course.
- 10. Dairy Lean Management does work Efficiency gains Improvement in net margin • Recognising barriers
- 11. The consultant-farmer relationship does work Stepping back Coaching Whole system Beyond traditional consultancy
- 12. Who is Dairy Lean for? • Our industry’s most progressive farmers • Those wanting to evolve leadership approaches and commitment to staff • Those with clarity of strategy
- 13. How to get involved • Dairy Lean Consultants
- 14. – Ian Powell, The Dairy Group – Andrew Suddes, Promar – Oliver Hall, Evolution Farming – Phil Alcock, Bishopton Vets – Tom Bell, Kingshay – Andrew Nicholas, Harvey Hughes – Chris Duller, independent – Carolyn Smith, ADAS – Arwel Davies, The Farm Consultancy Group
- 15. How to get involved • Dairy Lean Consultants • Lean principle workshops • Leadership workshops • Case studies
- 16. Dairy Lean will…. Improve efficiency and therefore profit Make the most of the farmer-consultant relationship Enhance leadership and farm team relationships Enable growth
- 17. From what you’ve heard Do you think that LEAN is a management system that can be exploited to improve your or your clients dairy farm business? a)Yes b)No c)It’s just not for me
Editor's Notes
- As the levy board, we feel it is DairyCo’s role to bring world class expertise and knowledge to our dairy farmers. We see Lean as a proven business management principle and want to help our farmers reap the benefits learned from other industries
- In 2010 Streamline Farm Management and Reaseheath College started testing the idea of using Lean Management on the Livestock North West’s Cheshire dairy monitor farm showing promise in this management model In 2011, DairyCo started working with Reaseheath College on our first research pilot to prove (or not) Lean principles could indeed be applied to dairy farming (across 11 farms in Cheshire and Shropshire) and if they could, would Lean principles result in increased efficiencies and increased net margins
- In 2012 our second pilot was started, looking specifically at the use of dairy consultants to get lean management principles and tools on farm. This involved the development of a level 5 ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) qualification and course for dairy consultant to become Dairy Lean Consultants with 5 consultants and a 1 vet taking part from across the country, each of whom have worked with a farm during the course to implement Dairy Lean A Welsh pilot (funded through the 'Improving the Welsh Dairy Supply Chain' project*) is due to complete in 2015 where 3 consultants are working with 2 farmers each over a longer period
- The pilots have shown to us that Lean management on dairy farms does work All the farmers that took part in the pilots saw gains in efficiency in the operations of their business’s. This was demonstrated in improvements in Health and Welfare and grass management resulting in increased productivity from the cows. Time savings and the ability to identify and control costs were also major efficiencies. Most farms have seen some improvement in net margin during the pilots either bringing them from a negative position to a positive net margin (improvement of 6ppl and 7.5ppl were seen) or increasing and/or maintaining net margin when nationally net margins have fallen (1.56ppl increase when nationally fell by 2.1ppl according to MilkBench+ data) However, some of the farms found it difficult to embed Dairy Lean principles and tools and the common barrier found was the adoption of the culture by the team from a ‘telling’ management system to a team developed implementation plan and leadership. Once buy-in was created and performance reviews were not seen as a policing tool but a tool to assist in decision making and anticipating events, farm teams made massive impacts to their business.
- The consultant-farmer relationship does work and is a great base for lean implementation support. The ability of the consultant to come in and assist the business, to take a step back and start to look strategically at what its goals should be, is fundamental to being able to set targets for operations and processes In being challenging, more so than when in a more traditional consulting role, the consultant can assist the business to understand the root causes for waste and to coach them into running themselves as a team. By having some external support the consultant also works to keep the business looking at the whole of itself as opposed to getting stuck on single issues, possibly at the expense of other processes.
- To succeed in Dairy Lean Management there has to be a thirst for continuous improvement and a willingness to change and challenge. Dairy Lean, in line with the DairyCo board’s visions to ensure we have an appropriate offering for our most progressive dairy farmers, is most suited to those that are most challenging of their businesses for growth and profitability whether they are multi or single site businesses. As DairyCo we already have a range of other tools and supports to assist our other dairy farmers who don’t feel Dairy Lean is for their business. Leadership is key to settle Lean Management into any business as has been seen in other industries and dairy is no different. Part of this is investing in the professional development of the staff so they do not become a limiting factor for success. So successful leaders will be more successful at implementing Lean. Without clarity of strategy, annual goals and objectives and therefore, monthly, weekly and even daily targets, Dairy Lean management will not be feasible. If you don’t have a target you will not know if you are not delivering; those looking to undertake Lean will need to craft their business strategy.
- We have 6 qualified Dairy Lean consultants and 3 more in training, from a range of consulting firms, who are there to support farmers through establishing and embedding Dairy Lean on farm. Ian Powel of the Dairy Group, Andrew Sudes of Promar, Oliver Hall of Evolution farming, Phil
- Educational and business management organisation, such as Reaseheath, run workshops on the basic principles of Lean Management as do DairyCo With leadership skills being key to the success of the implementation of Dairy Lean, getting on leadership workshops, many offered through RDP funding, will be of great benefit to any business. More information on how Dairy Lean management has been applied and it benefits to individual businesses are currently being formulated into case studies