December 5, 2025
Food Repackaging – low productivity issues, small business dealing with high volume
This business repackaged food and few other supermarket items; process was largely manual, few steps machine assisted. Business was struggling to make money due to poor productivity.
We were asked to review key assembly line methods. It was apparent that it lacked basic fundamentals which meant that product was handled and re-handled. One piece flow and economy of flow would help. I trained the key people covering lean, industrial engineering basics and use of videos to identify where motion being wasted.
December 4, 2025
Industrial Textile Business - review of business practices and see if lean could help
This $6.0m business operating out of Sydney’s west, operating in a shrinking market, produces 5000 SKUs, using looms which have lengthy set up times. We were called in to assist, as they were running out of space. They obviously had cash flow issues as well. Production was based on out of date min-max set in the ERP. No shop floor measures, feed back loop or improvement initiatives were in place. Small team was working in silos.
December 3, 2025
Industrial Valve Manufacturer and Trader – Inventory management for a business trading for 50 years.
This $30m business measured inventory turns as one of the key performance indicators to keep a check on cash flow. The business was buying mainly from low cost countries with a lead time of 10 to 12 weeks and had $6.0m in inventory.
However, measuring of inventory turns at big picture level, by itself, did not lead to any worth while action. Year-on-year results did not improve, in spite of many generic initiatives. Applying a key learning of lean - the use of PULL rather than PUSH - made all the difference.
December 2, 2025
Railway Network – Introducing visual management for $170m business.
This project was taken up by this NSW based network, after the inspiring success of visual management at other rail networks in the country. For example, Melbourne Metro moved from being worst financial performer to the best in the country. A team of lean practitioners, ex-Toyota employees, were involved from UK, and Lean Pursuit was engaged to bring expertise and local experience to the transformation.
December 1, 2025
High Voltage Switch Gear – Low Volume Producer – Kanban/SMED/Lead Time
NSW based, this medium size business has been manufacturing HV switch gear for over 20 years. Quoting and delivering to a lead time of 12 weeks, however it was struggle to deliver based on centralized scheduling system. They had started lean concepts like one piece flow in their assembly lines but are struggling to link the stand alone processes. Their academic knowledge suggests Kanban might help. Press shop is chosen as pilot project for introduction of Kanban with our involvement at initial stage. A further study of current practices showed, SMED would be the right start, as set up time reduction is vital to low volume Kanban introduction.