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Project Details

Our initial exposure to Central Africa was to spend 12-months at a Parastatal company responsible for the printing of a government national newspaper as well as assorted commercial printing responsibilities, mainly but not limited to government departments such as education and the civil service. The task was to upgrade performance with very little resource so a large part of it was improving local management and processes across the operation. 

Introduction of Lean to a Thai leather tannery which was in complete disarray in all departments. The broad aim was to put some order and procedure into a business that was nevertheless profitable. Good cost savings proved achievable. 

Probably our biggest and most involved project so far was in the tools industry for a Fortune 500 company in SE Asia Initially scheduled as a 2 year assignment in a circa 1,000 headcount facility, it transpired in an ever evolving situation to last 3 years. 

2012-14 we completed a 2-year interim management project for the Western African subsidiary of a US infrastructure company (power, automotive, heavy equipment). The overall aim was to assume day to day running to improve performance whilst dealing with serious inventory concerns and also to present management with a range of options going forward and whether to continue the operation. 

In 2021-2 we performed a plant closure on behalf of a Fortune 500 manufacturing company in an ASEAN country. This was a major project involving all inventory, capital movement and compliance with PEZA. 

In 2022, we Coordinated many vendors in a complex and sensitive maintenance project involving the employing 50+ contract employees of various technical competencies and nationalities with forever changing timeframes which added to the complexity. 

Our latest assignment was an interim management 6-month on-site business improvement project of a large 600 man luxury catamaran manufacturer in ASEAN on behalf of owners looking to put things in place in order to sell the business. This included running the business day to day for often absent owners starting with a full business review which revealed may areas of concern in areas such as key staff issues, quality concerns, safety risks, poor and risky inventory management. Putting in place a framework upon which a lean program could be developed was a key initiative in an organisation for which such concepts were totally alien. On top of these daily operational issues was a huge issue of looking at the cost, logistics and feasibility of relocating the business. 

In Saudi Arabia we conducted a 1 year interim project to assist the Chairman & CEO prepare for an IPO of an 800-head very high-end jewellery manufacturing facility. This was a very culturally sensitive project complicated by dealings with Saudi regulatory authorities and senior Saudi figures. 

Factory move project for a 280-headcount factory in the paper manufacturing sector move in the UK to a new facility. This included a completely new layout to accommodate flow into a long-term Lean direction which we oversaw 2015-17. 

Feasibility study into the likely success or otherwise of entry into the Thai market for an Australian company representing European plastic sheet product mainly for the refrigeration sector. 

Investigation for an Australian manufacturing company into why an initial entry into the European market for porcelain door furniture through a UK distributor had not been successful. 

An inbound supply chain project for lubricants from several Asian specialist high- temperature tolerant lubricants manufacturers mainly in Thailand, Malaysia, China & Brunei.