Throughput Improvement with Lean Deployment at Callan Bacon

Callan Bacon

About Callan Bacon

Callan Bacon is a family run pork and bacon processing company based in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. The company has been in business since 1924 and moved to a purpose built 54,000 sq.. premises in 1990. Annual turnover is over €40M and the company has the capacity to process 45,000 tons of product per annum.  Callan Bacon employ 140 people.

Key Programme Objectives

• Increase throughput per person in the plant.
• Direct engagement with employees to support the setting up of a continuous improvement culture.
• Establish teamwork on processing lines.
• Train and implement as many Lean tools as are needed to improve the performance of the operation.

Putting Lean into Practice

• Leadership training plus Management and Supervisory Lean training.
• Standardised method for developing and reviewing performance against KPIs across the plant
• Conducted daily PIT meetings where issues were openly discussed and resolved.
• Setout a long term strategic plan for the company with clear objectives.
• Setup and mentored continuous improvement teams focused on exceeding milestones set-out in the strategic plan.
• Improvement in master planning process to improve availability of products.
• Developed Standard Work method to understand and improve changeovers on the processing lines.

The Results

• All Management, Supervisors and lead hands taken through and deployed Lean tools to improve the operation
• Increased the throughput of the plant by 33%
• A strong continuous improvement (CI) culture has been developed through teamwork  on the site.
• Significant technical breakthroughs and cost savings have been achieved through CI teamwork projects.
• A robust capacity planning module has been developed for the site.
• Capability to deploy a wide variety of Lean tools for problem solving into the future.