Chilled Foods
The client, ‘X Ltd’ a market leader in chilled foods, had experienced significant growth in volumes and profit year on year during its first decade of operation. X Ltd was starting to encounter trading difficulties because of level volumes, reducing prices, increased service level expectations and increased unit costs.

In order to maintain and grow volumes in an increasingly competitive market, the company developed and launched a considerable number of new products, causing significant operational problems in the principal plant, which had been designed for long production runs.

  • Systems and procedures had failed to develop adequately to meet the demands of a fast growing business.
  • Employee numbers had increased substantially with volume growth.
  • The perishable nature of the product and components and rapidly fluctuating customer demand led to large volumes and values of wastage, and regular expensive courier deliveries.

At peak times, procedures were compromised in order to meet service targets. Previous attempts to introduce the standardisation required for future success had foundered when the business became busy, with resulting non-compliances. Supervisors and middle managers were burdened with high workload and constantly changing demands. Staff turnover was high and many managers were new.

Given the inappropriate systems and culture, inadequate information was available to the top management team to make real time decisions. The emphasis was more on reporting after the fact and with questionable information quality.

The major objective of the organisation was to gain control and apply effective operational systems to the core manufacturing operation, in order to deliver sustainable improvements in efficiency in the region of £3m per annum. In order to enable this change, it was imperative to introduce improved operational planning and control systems. Individual targets were set in the areas of:

  • Productivity improvement
  • Waste reduction
  • Reduced costs of product transportation



A project Steering Group, of client management and consultants, managed the process development of the changes and oversaw transfer of change management skills to the organisation. It put in client-led project teams to investigate and effect change in key business areas. There were four key activity streams.

Specialist consultants and task force personnel worked directly with line management at all levels of the manufacturing operation and associated support functions to define and implement a consistent and effective Management Control System (MCS).

This involved workshops, a detailed training programme for all managers, supervisors and line leaders, and coaching on the effective recording and usage of controls, which resulted in improvements to productivity and reductions in wastage, as well as better procedural compliance and improvements in hygiene, safety and quality.

The consultants worked closely with the client's Planning Department to effect a definition and delivery of enhanced planning routines, based upon data integrity and improved communication with the operational areas. Detailed order-pattern analysis and forecasting had to be brought in.

The planning process, once implemented, delivered automatic priorities and lines scheduled in an optimal trade-off between vehicle delivery slots and efficiency maximisation. Improved forecasting delivered fewer amendments to plan. The revised planning system allowed maintained service levels across a considerably broadened product range and reduced transportation and courier costs, coupled with lower wastage.

Consultants designed, agreed and implemented processes for measuring the financial improvements generated by the assignment. These were regularly communicated to management in order to identify problems, sell successes and stimulate further improvements.

More than 80 managers and supervisors were taken through a comprehensive training programme, the learned skills from which they applied through the use of the control system to effect major productivity and waste improvements. The Project Team approach was used to good effect by management and staff in order to tackle a number of ongoing issues, including induction, training, yield, quality and communications. The client retained a task force at the end of the assignment to work on further issues and to cycle their middle management through this group.

Management information was available in a timely, transparent and consistent manner. Managers at all levels had the ability to track the business. Control of the operation was driven down the organisation, enabling the top management team to concentrate on the future of the business.

The assignment took place at a major crossroads for the company. Through implementation of the radical changes required, margins were improved and the client was well placed to manage the opportunities of the future.

The assignment lasted more than a year and involved between 5 and 9 experienced specialist consultants. During the lifetime of the project, annualised financial improvements of almost £4m were delivered. The cash value of these benefits exceeded £3m and the project had paid for itself within the first six months.

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