Should I implement Lean? Should I implement lean if I am a Contract Milker or Manager? I get this question a lot and my answer is absolutely YES. Lean is helping you and your team so it is going to be you that benefits from implementing the tools. It is you that is in the business on a daily basis dealing with issues, inefficiencies and day to day work. Lean helps you to work smarter not harder and this will save you time and frustration. Further much of what you do on one farm is also very … [Read more...]

Reliability, capacity and our farm equipment effectiveness When I first came to farming 10 years ago from manufacturing environments where reliability and OEE are inherent measures and critical to good operational performance, I was astounded that this was not really considered at all. So what is this key metric? OEE stands for overall equipment effectiveness and it is essentially a measure of our equipment’s productivity -  it measures the percentage of planned production time that is truly … [Read more...]

Cost Cost Cost With milk prices unpredictable, inflation and interest rates going up and up in this part of the world, and all input costs increasing constantly, managing cost within your farm business well is absolutely crucial. Any waste allowed in your business is just adding to more cost. We did a quick analysis of how much costs have increased over the the last season. While milk prices had increased by around 36% over the last couple of seasons (reduced again now to about a 20% … [Read more...]

An example of a farm that is not Lean.... Check this photo out of a farm I drove past last year....... what is your impression of this farm business? Does your farm look like this? Last week I had the opportunity to run some workshops with sheep and beef farmers on the South Island and it reminded me of this photo. The Lean tool 5S is vital One of the lean tools we talked about last week is 5S - basically creating a well organised, clean, safe workplace where everything … [Read more...]

I regularly get asked whether lean is only suitable for larger farming businesses. The answer is absolutely not. It is just as useful for smaller farms. If you are an owner operator time is even more precious to you. It is even more important that you are as efficient and effective with your time as possible – you have no one else that you can depend on or delegate to. If you are an owner operator that is doesn’t have a minute the day spare, never can take time off, and feels like they are … [Read more...]

We don’t just want to survive the future, we want to thrive in it. Change is inevitable.   Happy New Year! It is always exciting to start a new year and while there is still quite a bit of uncertainty in the air around the world, we need to start on the front foot. Everything can be overcome in one way or another. No doubt some of you have set yourselves some personal New Years Resolutions.... this is also a good time for all farmers to think about their farming businesses and what they want … [Read more...]

A lot of time and motion and waste During and after calving, a big part of our jobs is to feed all the calves. In this process there is a lot of motion on farm and also a lot of non value added work. Most farms have calves spread all over the farm in various paddocks. While the calves start inside in sheds (which usually are also spread all over the farm), after 3 or so weeks they get moved outside. In order to feed calves twice a day to begin with milk is transported to all these calves in … [Read more...]

We love keeping info in our heads but its bad Farmers are very good at keeping a lot of information inside their heads. But this is not healthy for them or helpful to their team if they work with others. It is also not an effective way of operating a business. Can't take time off farm If everything is in your head, then it makes it very hard to hand over your job or farm business to someone else even for a day. And when you do take a few days off, only to return back to the farm and be … [Read more...]

Complex processes There are lots of elements to rearing calves. Health, feeding, cleanliness and hygiene, weight management, pen maintenance, calf flow from pens to paddocks. While we have one dedicated role each season that is responsible for this to create good consistency, accountability and results (with a second fill in for the 2 days off), many farmers will be using a number of people to fill this role. Which ever approach you use it's important to be clear about what your process is … [Read more...]

Be better organised With calving starting in the Southern Hemisphere this week, it becomes busier for farmers. It is important to be well organised, for the team to know exactly what they are responsible for, when tasks need to be complete and that critical path tasks are synchronised correctly between people. Eliminate chaos and inefficiency I remember clearly our first few calving when one person would be bringing new calves in, while a second person was still trying to feed them, all … [Read more...]

Fantastic Fishbone diagram - a lean tool   We did our PD testing a couple of weeks ago and our empty rates this season were well above our target of 7% despite having an amazing season, lots of feed, great above average weights, excellent production, good results for our submissions etc. So it was very disappointing. We have to remember this is a defect so a waste for our business. We could have said "oh well, hopefully we do better next season". Or we could have just jumped to a … [Read more...]

Poor work/ life balance? 38% of UK farmers that attended my recent webinar on lean for dairy farming, said that their biggest challenge at the moment is time/ work life balance. Farmers that I have worked with in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and other countries also share this challenge. Is this you too? If yes, why can’t we make farming the “lifestyle” we actually want by working smarter not harder and getting our time back. Lean management is used by hundreds of thousands of people and … [Read more...]