Lean FSL Associates was established in April 2012 by Graham Canning; with the aim of providing customers with the best operational improvement support through tailored lean programmes, but at a price that cannot be beaten by large consultancy companies. We often start our lean support activity by coaching and training senior leaders to understand the principles of lean, to find ‘muda’ in their processes, and to develop a programme of lean implementation that focusses on addressing strategically important issues whilst laying the foundations for lean thinking to become part of the businesses daily operations. Developing a Value Stream Map helps to provide an insight into current opportunities and develop a vision for the future.
The route to ‘leaning’ your organisation comes through implementing FSL: Flow –Synchronise – Level. The elimination of ‘muda’ improves the Flow of value in your business, but unless you work to Synchronise throughput across each step of your organisation, value will be held-up and won’t flow. Once processes are balanced and the Value Stream is Synchronised, the next step is to Level the workload, by focussing on the causes of variation that make demand unstable. By levelling throughput in this way, you are truly on the way to achieving a lean enterprise. We use the wealth of experience we have in practical lean application and appropriate lean and kaizen tools to help deliver real improvements at each stage of this process.
MEET THE TEAM
Graham Canning
Managing Consultant
Graham Canning, the Managing Director and founder of Lean FSL Associates has worked in lean and kaizen consultancy roles for nearly 15 years, supported by a further 15 years working in the Manufacturing sector for companies such as Toyota, Black & Decker and Pilkington Glass. He has an impressive record in leading lean transformations in many different industries (including Healthcare and Financial Services).
Graham has developed a network of Associates to Lean FSL who are capable and skilled in all aspects of lean and continuous improvement, which means that Lean FSL are able to support their customer’s lean activity at a significantly lower cost than other consultancy firms.
Selected Clients: Refresco (Food & Drink), Spirax-Sarco (Steam Systems), Siemens (Motors & Drives), Handicare (Stairlifts), Prinovis (Printing)
Selected Industry Sector Experience: Automotive, Food & Drink, Construction, Printing, Healthcare, Financial Services
Stuart Mitton
Associate Consultant
Stuart worked for 15 years in the automotive industry to Senior Management level with Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motor Cars before commencing a career in consultancy. He has developed a vast knowledge, understanding, and ability to practically apply expertise in lean tools & techniques and leadership behaviours used in the Toyota Production System both in Production and Office environments.
Stuart’s multi-sector experiences spreading over 25 years in lean and production systems has provided a solid background for leading operational improvements through the entire Value Stream – from product design and development, supply chain development, procurement, manufacturing, assembly, sales, and after-sales support.
Selected Clients: Sharing In Growth (80 Aerospace & Nuclear Suppliers), DB Schenker (Rail), Wartsila (Ship Propulsion), Highways England (Construction), Morrison’s Manufacturing (Food & Drink)
Selected Industry Sector Experience: Aerospace, Rail & Rail Infrastructure, Formula 1, Ceramics, Plastics, Food and Drink, Construction, Public Sector
Barry Jeffrey
Associate Consultant
Previously a Toyota Senior Manager for many years, Barry has now been consulting in business transformation for close to 20 years across the world. During that time, Barry has gathered a wealth of knowledge in strategic business improvement and knows what it takes to drive operational change at all levels of an organisation.
His hands-on approach means that not only does he support clients at a strategic level, but also enjoys working at the ground level, spreading enthusiasm whilst coaching and mentoring where it’s required. Barry is driven by seeing organisations and individuals succeed. This together with his simple no nonsense approach, means that he can develop strong working relationships quickly at all levels of an organisation.
Selected Industry Experience: Aerospace, Rail, Automotive, Engineering, Machining, Electronics, Pharmaceutical, FMCG, Service sector, Public sector
Eric Ironmonger
Associate Consultant
With over 20 years’ experience at Rolls-Royce at Derby, including establishing the first Kaizen Promotion Office in the 1990s and being trained in JIT techniques by Shingijutsu Consultants, and a further 18 years practical experience as a lean and improvement practitioner, Eric has an enviable track-record of helping businesses with their lean transformations.
He has led a multitude of improvement programmes optimising Quality, Cost and Delivery performance in manufacturing environments. He has also participated in numerous lean projects to reduce lead time, reduce working capital, increase productivity and improve customer service. Eric has particular in-depth experience of creating Visual Perfomance Management systems, and his pragmatic and engaging approach make him highly successful working with both teams and individuals.
Selected Clients: Network Rail (Rail Infrastructure), David Brown Gear Systems (Transmissions), Arjo (Medical Equipment), Gerhardt (Die Manufacture), Gardner Aerospace, Outo Kumpu (Steel), Delco Marston (Automotive)
Selected Industry Experience: Automotive, Food, Printing equipment, Aerospace, Marine Defence, Electrical, Medical equipment, Packaging and Engineered Products.
Peter Rogers
Associate Consultant
With over 15 years’ lean consulting experience – working both in the UK and internationally with Blue Chip manufacturing businesses – Peter has an impressive track record. He has led numerous in depth lean and management activities, challenging ways of working and thinking – leading to significant financial benefit and cultural change within a diverse range of manufacturing organisations
Key consulting achievements include completing a transformation project within a global electronics company focussing on value stream creation, cell design and line balance, which improved product flow and reduced the manufacturing lead time by over 90%. Also, he recently completed a major improvement project within an automotive company focussing on 5S, OEE and TPM, resulting in improving machine OEE from 63% to 87%.
As a capable, pragmatic and experienced Lean Coach, he mentors staff in several companies on a ‘1 to 1’ basis – ensuring understanding, development, deployment, completion and sustainment of key company target conditions.
Peter has experience in project management; successfully supporting lean strategy activities at senior levels using Hoshin Kanri, Policy Deployment and Value Stream Mapping.
Selected Industry Experience: Automotive, Food and Drink, Packaging, Service sector, Electronics, Process and Engineering
SELECTED CUSTOMERS
ASSOCIATE CONSULTANCY PARTNERS
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
I have worked with Graham on a number of improvement projects over the past year and was really impressed with how he transitioned into Financial Services – even though he had never worked in the sector before. Graham consistently displays a pragmatic approach to improvement, excellent stakeholder management skills and a real focus on delivering tangible benefits for the client with his work. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Graham again in the future
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