Problem

The client faced severe operational bottlenecks in their order dispatch process, preventing them from meeting the critical 24-hour turnaround target during peak seasons (processing times were over 3 days). This led directly to:

• Excessive Labor Costs: Chronic reliance on overtime, costing the company approximately $\text{£}5,000$ per month.

• Staffing Crisis: High pressure and inefficiency created an immediate need to recruit and replace up to four staff members who had departed.

• Wasted Time: Inefficient layout and combined roles created excessive, non-value-adding movement throughout the warehouse.

Solution

We conducted a Lean Digital Maturity Assessment and implemented a strategic roadmap to overhaul the warehouse workflow.

1. Process Separation: The combined Picking and Packing roles were immediately separated to create specialized, high-efficiency workstations and dedicated workflows.

2. Physical Reorganization (5S): The dispatch area was reorganized to eliminate clutter, reduce operative movement, and implement Standard Work procedures for consistency.

3. Standardization: New Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and daily team huddles were established to lock in efficiency gains and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Impact

The solution delivered rapid, quantified results, eliminating chronic labor expenses and maximizing operational capacity.

• Productivity Boost: Achieved a $150\%$ increase in operative output

• Cost Elimination: Delivered $60k$ in annual overtime reduction and eliminated the need to replace $4$ staff members (saving 2 FTEs), stabilizing the workforce.

Problem

The client, a high-volume manufacturing site, suffered from severe operational friction caused by an inefficient, reactive production planning process. This led to four major negative outcomes:

• Financial Drain: Excessive overtime and high logistics costs due to inefficient stock handling.
• Wasted Capacity: The site failed to utilize its full manufacturing potential, costing missed revenue opportunities.
• Operational Bottlenecks: Manual data management and scheduling errors caused warehouse congestion and chronic delays.

Solution

We implemented a holistic Lean Digital Transformation focused on creating reliable, predictable operations.

• Digital Twin Implementation: We engineered a Manufacturing Process Simulation (Digital Twin) to model the entire value stream, allowing the team to test optimization scenarios and eliminate potential bottlenecks before making physical changes.
• Workflow Standardization: Deployed Lean methodologies across packing and production, establishing Standard Work routines and Visual Management to eliminate non-value-add activity.
• Capacity Creation: Simplified the complex planning cycle, reducing a four-week forecast preparation task from one week to a single, efficient day.

Impact

The systematic overhaul provided immediate cost control and created substantial long-term capacity.

• Financial Value Delivered: Generated an estimated 690k in annualised financial value through operational and capacity gains.
• Productivity Increase: Achieved a 30% increase in production productivity, allowing the client to leverage previously wasted manufacturing potential for new orders.
• Direct Cost Savings: Delivered over 120K in direct logistics savings within the first three months of implementation.
• Risk Reduction: Provided the operational agility and data clarity necessary to support high-volume output without recurring congestion or overtime expenditure.