Eat Smart Organics – a company that specialises in the preparation and packaging of superior fresh convenience foods aimed at the retail, corporate and catering sectors – approached Productivity SA about the Turnaround Solutions, seeking to improve their productivity levels. Firstly, optimisation of current planning processes was needed and the building of capacity at a production management level to sustain the improvement in two main areas, better resource utilisation in order to reduce operating costs, and alignment and efficiency improvements between its food preparation and packing operation.
The Turnaround Solutions Programme identified that there was a need to optimise resource utilisation, production management capacity needed strengthened and finally the absence of any team-based approach to problem solving.
While some benefit to operational efficiency was derived by introducing bulk premixes and by improving planning processes, the biggest impact could be seen by the implementation of the Future Forum. This is probably the biggest highlight of the intervention. Driven by a formal agenda and agreed code of conduct, the forum has established an identity of its own (now called the Organic Forum) with a good culture of communication and improvement starting to develop.