VV Lean Awareness Course

VV recently delivered a one-day training course to members of the Moray Chamber of Commerce.

The 'Introduction to Lean Thinking' course was held at RAF Lossiemouth on 2nd April 2009, and was attended by employees from William Grant & Sons Distillers, RAF Lossiemouth, Gordon & MacPhail, Hendry Hydraulic (Cylinders) Ltd and from VV itself.

The course was extremely well received by the attendees and covered the following: Brief History of Lean, Principles of Lean, Lean Wastes, Workplace Layout/Organisation (6S), Visual Management, Value Stream Mapping, Lean in Service Environments and Sustaining Lean Business Improvements.

Even though the course was only intended to be a one day awareness-level course, many on the course were left wanting to know more about how Lean Thinking could help save their businesses money and would have liked the course to go on for another day!

If you want to know more about the various Lean courses that VV can deliver then please contact us.  We can deliver courses from 1 to 5 days and can run these at your workplace or at a 'neutral' location of your choice.

Aquidata Excel: Lean & Business Improvement

The Viable Ventures Team have recently begun work in provide Lean and Business Improvement initiatives to Aquidata Excel, a prominent industrial information technology organisation highly respected within Aberdeen's booming Oil & Gas sector.

The work undertaken for Aquidata will be multifaceted and challenging. Viable Ventures personnel will initiate and, where requested, help implement the following:

• Standardise data collection procedures to reduce waste and free up operator time.
• Free up essential management time to address the business process restructuring project (Project Open).
• Implementation of process change and process mapping to eliminate rework and reduce downtime.

The initial 6-month contract will be from January to June 2008 during which time plans to implement Phase 2 will be discussed, leading to a further 6-12 month contract set to begin in the Spring of 2009.

RSL Interim Management

Following the successful conclusion of our first contract with Raytheon Systems Limited, Viable Ventures is engaged in an RSL follow-up contract to provide interim management services for the ASTOR programme.

Viable Ventures facilitators are working ever more closely with RSL personnel, proving themselves more and more invaluable to RSL's challenging, intricate needs.

ASTOR is an advanced reconnaissance capability comprising hi-tech core systems that are integrated into aircraft and mobile ground stations. Raytheon Systems Limited have delivered an exceptionally cost-effective product by extensive use of commercially available equipment and Viable Ventures is adding value in the early stages of the programme's service life by reviewing:

Supply of management support for the ASTOR project.  

The initial 3-month contract will be from October to December 2008.

Plans are in progress to expand the project to two Viable Ventures facilitators effective January 2009.

Maintenance Strategy for Baxters

The Viable Ventures Team has started work on a new and exciting project developing a comprehensive and dynamic maintenance strategy for one of Moray's most renowned companies, Baxters Food Group. 

The process underway is to assist Baxters in developing a comprehensive and dynamic maintenance strategy in order for operators to make standardised, systematic knowledge-based decisions leading to:

Significant reduction in downtime for core/essential processes.

Significant reduction in process waste and time delays.

Improved morale and more effective time allocation for operator tasks.

Phase 1 of the Baxters project began in October 2008 and runs until December 2008 with a potential contract extension of a further 3 months.