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Lean Leaders recruiting Lean Leaders
Factura’s pedigree and reputation as headhunters for the recruitment of experienced Lean Leaders is unrivalled in the UK, whether for Operations Director, Managing Director, Head of Lean, or Senior Consultancy or Interim roles. This is due to a history now extending back over 20 years.As a graduate engineer himself with manufacturing management experience Mike South began to get interested in the early translations of the Shingo and Ohno books in the 1980’s. “I was reading an early version of Shingo which included some very wonderful but idiosyncratic translations, I especially remember one phrase “Time is the shadow of Motions”, which seemed a quite esoteric way of putting it, trained as I was in pretty down-to earth work study!”
Mike joined Jonathan Lee Recruitment and in 1991 was very fortunate to lead the recruitment of the launch team of 170 engineers and managers for Toyota Motor Manufacturing when they established in the UK in Derby and North Wales. The quality, process driven discipline and planning of the Japanese co-ordinators was impressive.
Mike was hooked and decided to learn more about the basics of the Toyota Production System and Kaizen methods by seconding himself back to the shopfloor, working double shifts in a car components factory to lead improvement activities under the revealing guidance of a Japanese ex-Toyota production engineer. “I began to appreciate waste was something the customer was no longer prepared to pay for, and how to eliminate waste by applying the tools, techniques and key measures, to finally satisfy and respond to the voice of the customer.”
“We then started recruited for operations leaders, consultants and major teams to carry out what was starting to be called lean implementation, initially in automotive, but then for aerospace, chemicals, ceramics, steels, furniture and many other industries. It became clear to me that for lean to succeed the Chief Executive or MD had to be totally committed, with a very capable Operations Director in place, and sometimes with the customer driving its supplier to achieve lean. After achieving “flow” and “pull” in your plant you then had to lean the supply chain, the Value Stream needed analysing and improving from end-to-end.”
Massive productivity improvements began to be realised in those businesses seriously adopting lean working, measured in hard Quality, Cost and Delivery parameters. “We were very fortunate that the Japanese vehicle manufacturers had all chosen to manufacture in the UK, and our home grown Lean expertise rocketed in the 1990’s”. But some of the greatest benefits were the positive effects on shopfloor and other staff: “You saw incredible changes in attitude, people would stop leaving their brains at the gate and start gaining NVQ’s in Improvement, and sometimes this even scared middle managers.”
In more recent years programs of lean improvement are taking place across the public sector including the armed forces and hospitals, construction, and in service sectors including the banking and insurance industries, with these organisations frequently looking to Factura to source candidates with the expertise required.
Throughout, Factura has been closely connected to the lean leaders in the market and has carried out a multitude of projects where Lean Transformation skill has been a key requirement.
“We know how to probe candidates with the right questions to enable us to understand their real achievements, and we are hearing of the best achievements in the field. I believe it is to our credit that we have been recommended to many new clients by some of the most influential lean experts in the UK and beyond.”
Factura genuinely wishes to support its clients to achieve maximum success, and in many cases has now sourced the leaders who have made all the difference.
Mike feels the Lean community in the UK is something to be proud of: “They now possess expertise sought worldwide, and usually share a genuine enthusiasm, commitment and a wish to serve, which is exactly what healthy organisations value”.
