I have been running my LeanFarm training with farmers in Tasmania over the last few weeks and have come across some great examples of simple lean tools applied on farm to make life easier, more efficient, safer and prevent frustrating problems.
Visualisation is a simple lean tool that can make your farm more productive. One great example I have seen is at Matthew Gunnigham’s farm in northern Tasmania. His team painted their two bull teams in two bright colours (red and blue) to help quickly visually identify the bulls and which team they were in and therefore who was working and who was resting. Further they used night reflective tape on them so that the bulls could easily be spotted among the cows in the dark.
This helps the team to easily see the bulls and therefore be able to seperate them and leave them behind in the paddocks when they get the cows in to be milked. This stops the bulls from going into the shed, hence preventing many problems such as lame bulls or injured cows and it keeps the bulls out of close proximity to people in the shed and yards improving safety.
An added benefit of easily seeing the bulls in day and night and keeping them in the paddocks is that it means they can be moved on to the next paddock easily and can have a good feed and rest before the herd come back from milking.
A simple, low cost lean improvement that creates a better process – reduces time, reduces costs by preventing potentially expensive problems, improves animal wellbeing, improves safety and makes life easier for the whole team! Great idea to share – thanks Matthew!
Here are some photos of the bright paint and reflector tape. You can also use luminescent tape or paint that glows in the dark!
