Author: Jim Brydon

A Visit to Worldwide Fruit: Excellence in Action

Located in Spalding, Lincolnshire, Worldwide Fruit is a major player in the UK fresh produce industry. The company packages apples, pears, avocados, and stone fruit for major UK supermarkets.

On the latest visit hosted as part of the Onsite Insights visit program, visitors were able to ee first hand a world-class manufacturing facility, digital innovation, and a people-centric culture.

A Model of Enterprise Excellence

Worldwide Fruit has been on their journey towards Enterprise Excellence since 2011. They have deployed the S A Partners Enterprise Excellence Model, which focuses on Purpose, Process, and People to support them in their goal. This framework has helped the company align its strategic goals with frontline activity, embedding a culture of improvement and high performance throughout the business. The organisation’s purpose is to be the ‘customers first choice’ and this is reflected in its sustainable practices and customer commitment, while processes have been optimised through Lean thinking to reduce waste and enhance efficiency. But perhaps the most important factor is people — with staff engagement, development, and empowerment at the centre of everything they do.

Innovation and Improvement in Action

An exciting insight during the visit was the use of AI technology in the manufacturing process where the company is trialling software that can predict quality and sort fruit varieties. These innovations have transformed how the product is managed and packed. Through smart data analysis and real-time monitoring, the business can make better-informed decisions — ensuring more fruit makes it to customers and less is wasted. In the packhouse, new systems for sorting and classifying produce have further enhanced product utilisation, driving efficiency and reducing environmental impact.

Steal with Pride

The visit to Worldwide Fruit was organised through the Onsite Insights programme — a long-running initiative founded in the 1980s by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and now delivered by S A Partners. The programme’s mission is to give UK organisations the opportunity to “Go See What Good Looks Like”, and Worldwide Fruit is a perfect example. Twelve attendees took part in the visit, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The group awarded a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +92, a clear indicator of the visit’s value and impact. Visitors were particularly impressed by the openness and operational discipline on display.

“Very impressive – an open and transparent team.”
“Great experience seeing CI in action.”
“Very insightful visit – it was inspiring to see the culture that has been built and embedded through all levels of the business.”
“Fantastic to see and feel such a positive culture, strong leadership and accountability.”

Visual Management, Culture, and Leadership

Tour highlights included the sites visual management boards which make real-time performance visible and actionable at every level. The meeting audits and the team’s proactive focus on hot spots — high-priority areas for attention — stood out as particularly effective tools in driving accountability and engagement. What truly resonated with visitors, however, was the atmosphere: a palpable sense of positive culture, leadership, and empowerment. From the shop floor to the leadership team, the commitment to improvement and mutual respect was evident.

Worldwide Fruit is a superb example of what happens when clear leadership and a sense of purpose combines with effective processes, and an empowered workforce. The company’s journey demonstrates the power of aligning strategy with people-led improvement. With thanks to the excellent team at Worldwide Fruit for another fantastic visit.

Our next visit, for more information or to book CLICK HERE

 

About Onsite Insights

Established in 2004, the Onsite Insights visit program exists to encourage the sharing of innovation and best practice between companies. This is achieved through a series of one day visits to award winning companies where visitors get to see best practice in action. No theory, no text book, just what works and why from organizations that have achieved success.

 

For More Information contact:

Jim Brydon
Programme Manager
Onsite Insights
Jim.Brydon@sapartners.com

Growing Excellence: A Best Practice Visit to Double H Nurseries

In the heart of horticultural innovation, our recent best practice visit to Double H Nurseries stood as a vivid reminder of what is possible when lean principles, workplace organisation, employee engagement, and a culture of continuous improvement are embedded in the DNA of a company.

From the moment we stepped onto the nursery grounds, it was evident that Double H is not just growing plants; they are cultivating a workplace culture rooted in purpose, pride, and progress. Double H have been on their lean journey for over ten years and the site has evolved considerably over this time.

The deployment of lean methodologies including 5S, Visual management, a focus on waste and workplace organisation has enabled them to grow as a supplier to the UK’s most prestigious supermarkets and they have more recently been developing new commercial opportunities within the horticultural markets.

Double H have been a part of the Onsite Insights programme for over 10 years, supporting other organisations on their journey to excellence.  14 visitors attended the latest event from a wide range of sectors including food & drink; engineering and logistics.  All took ideas and inspiration away and there was a great open discussion around visual management in particular the controversial should boards be paper based or electronic!

One topic resonated with the group – the drive for digitisation within the manufacturing process. Increasing licensing fees from various platforms and growing complexity has led Double H to adopt a simplification approach with a push to building inhouse solutions. It was a strategy being adopted by others in the room who have seen similar cost escalations with large scale platforms.

What else stood out:

• The agility in the business has enabled them to adapt to changing customer needs.
• Innovation and progressive thinking has ensured a great culture
• Simplification & employee engagement were clearly evident
• The passion for improvement and continuously challenge the norm.

The visit achieved a Net Promoter Score of +88 which is outstanding. One visitor commented:

“You could feel a real passion and desire from the whole team to continuously improve.”

For organisations aspiring to elevate their performance, the lessons from Double H are clear: invest in your people, innovate; commit to lean thinking, organise with intention, and never stop improving. The seeds of success are already within reach—we just need to cultivate them with care and conviction.

Our next visit, for more information or to book CLICK HERE

 

About Onsite Insights

Established in 2004, the Onsite Insights visit program exists to encourage the sharing of innovation and best practice between companies. This is achieved through a series of one day visits to award winning companies where visitors get to see best practice in action. No theory, no text book, just what works and why from organizations that have achieved success.

 

For More Information contact:

Jim Brydon
Programme Manager
Onsite Insights
Jim.Brydon@sapartners.com

On 12 June 2024  Cummins Turbo hosted their latest Onsite Insights visit for a group of senior leaders from the Food & Drink; Defense and Logistics industries.  It was clear from the moment we arrived at the recently renovated facility in central Huddersfield that the company has an unwavering commitment to their customers and to business improvement.

Our hosts for the day, Dale Lodge (Operations Manager) and Tommy Goldstein (Head of Operational Excellence) were such brilliant hosts to a diverse group, sharing with us the Lean & CI journey on the site, the latest introduction of digital platforms to support communication and management of their operational excellence program.

Cummins is the only manufacturer focused solely on medium-to heavy-duty diesel engine turbo technologies. For more than 60 years, they have delivered innovative, reliable turbocharger solutions for their customers. Commercial diesel engines require advanced technologies that deliver efficiency and meet strict emissions requirements.

Today, Cummins Turbo Technologies engineers are actively developing state of the art solutions for the next generation, including assisted turbocharging, new bearing systems and enhanced compressor stage performance. The site manufactures over 300,000 turbo chargers per year and employs over 1000 people.

Some of the highlights of the visit included:

Making Learning Fun

During the visit participants took part in a lego-based learning game which is used by the site to bring lean principles to life. Through a series of iterations participants identify ways in which they can improve flow; reduce cycle times and optimize the flow of production.  This is a great exercise even for those with decades of lean experience as it reminds us to consider all the fundamental principles of lean thinking, particularly as they relate to waste and flow.

Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream mapping is at the heart of many Lean and Continuous Improvement programmes and it was great to see the ownership of team leaders for their departmental value stream maps and how they are actively using these to identify improvement initiatives and pin pointing opportunities to eliminate waste.

Investment

Over the last six years, the site has been going through a major investment of over
£20 million, to renovate the iconic factory in the heart of Huddersfield.  The investment can be seen not just in the upgraded manufacturing plant and its three main assembly halls but in a transformed research and development centre, renovated offices, canteen, gym and newly installed electric vehicle charging points. The plant itself has a new roof (currently being kitted out with solar panels), new external walls, new floor, new electrical and heating and ventilation systems, energy-efficient LED lighting and greater wheelchair access. The investment included over £800k in solar panels which aligns to the wider Cummins group environmental commitments and net zero strategy.  The visitors were particularly impressed with the warehouse upgrade and improved lighting systems, making it a modern, bright working enivironment.

Embracing Digital

A highlight for many was getting to see how the site has embraced technology and introduced their own purpose built digital Tiered Management System. They also integrated their suggestion scheme into the same platform to make management easier.  The touchscreens located in key areas around the site emulate the previous SQCDP physical meeting boards, they are easy to use and interact with, allow for live management of KPI reporting; as well as helping them track and improve the management of the suggestion scheme within the business.

Ailsa Carson, the Program Director of Onsite Insights was proud to present the organization with their Host plaque at the end of the visit and said

“We are so grateful to the team at Cummins for their involvement in the visit program, a program that supports the sharing of innovation and best practice between organizations.  Visiting companies benefit so much from these visit days enabling them to improve productivity and performance in their own businesses as a result.”

The next visit to Cummins Huddersfield is on 19 November 2024, for more information or to book CLICK HERE

 

About Onsite Insights

Established in 2004, the Onsite Insights visit program exists to encourage the sharing of innovation and best practice between companies. This is achieved through a series of one day visits to award winning companies where visitors get to see best practice in action. No theory, no text book, just what works and why from organizations that have achieved success.

 

For More Information contact:

Jim Brydon
Programme Manager
Onsite Insights
Jim.Brydon@sapartners.com

In May 2024 Lear Corporation hosted their first Onsite Insights visit for a group of senior leaders.  They set an incredible standard for their first visit with an Net Promoter Visit  Score of +100 – the highest score possible.  

There were so many reasons for this – much was to do with the openness, honesty and authenticity of the hosts Jack Boatman (Continuous Improvement Manager) and Gavin Bullock (CI Lead). But it was also testimony to the high standards of engagement in continuous improvement and lean visible within the manufacturing facility. 

Lear, a global automotive technology leader in Seating and E-Systems, enables superior in-vehicle experiences for consumers around the world. Lear’s diverse team of talented employees in 37 countries is driven by a commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and sustainability. Lear is Making every drive better™ by providing the technology for safer, smarter, and more comfortable journeys. Lear, headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, serves every major automaker in the world and ranks 189 on the Fortune 500. Further information about Lear is available at lear.com. 

Some of the highlights of the visit included:  

Kaizen Journey 

Creating an improvement mindset has been pivotal to the Lear CI journey and fundamental to this they have embraced the phrase ‘Protect the next car’. This simple act creates a heart message, an emotion that can be embraced by all the team.  The organizations kaizen competition and program also encourages the improvement mindset and embraces suggestions.  The program focuses on recognition in various forms, partially monetary but primarily soft recognition – thank you’s and congratulations across the board.  A nice touch seen on the site tour was the placement of the lightbulb symbol in areas the best Kaizen activities have occurred.  

Visual Management  

The site has a high standard of visual management, not just through the tiered meeting boards but also line side to control takt and buffer stocks.  There is clear visualization of line performance and controls so all associates and team leaders have an understanding of what is required by hour and by shift.   

The site also has an impressive Activity Centre (Obeya or Control room)  where the Leadership team meet twice a day to review performance and projects on site.   

Team Improvement Circles 

There are so many reasons visitors loved the TIC program.  Multi-disciplinary engagement across the site on projects that ranged from Process problem solving to increasing their charitable food bank donations.  The program run in conjunction with their primary customer JLR is not about money.  It is about establishing and encouraging effective problem solving methodology and enabling the team to apply this thinking to every aspect of their environment.  

Engagement  

Their Leaders on the Line program was clearly of interest to visitors – their name for Gemba walks which is undertaken weekly across all areas of the factory.  The site and line managers are clearly present within the operations environment and there is a level of openness and trust between all of the team which shows very positive employee engagement.  

We saw some great signage when entering the operations environment where all of the Leaderships contact details were shared with a link to the Whatsapp messaging platform. A small act with a big impact.  

On the day of the visit the group were also lucky to see a HR initiative being undertaken in the on the floor training area – a pay drop-in clinic for all employees where they can come and talk directly to HR and the plant manager about any pay issues as they arose.   

Another activity which resonated well was what I would call ‘Bunker Sessions’ an activity I first saw at Buhler Group in London (another of our hosts). Essentially this is a monthly meeting of associates and the Leadership Team where they get to discuss any ‘issues’ or ‘challenges’ that they currently face. The sessions often lead to unexpected CI gains and also support engagement and a culture of openness on the site.  

Strategy Deployment 

Jack Boatman shared how the strategy of ‘Together we Win’ a corporate led initiative is tiered throughout the company and site through a series of scorecards, which are all aligned to common objectives: Leadership; Work Environment, Employee Involvement and Team Empowerment. 

Lear are definitely an organization committed to a journey of excellence. The customer is at the heart of their decision making and in this highly demanding environment they have created a aura of calm effectiveness, where the team genuinely enjoy their jobs and are engaged in improvement.  

Lear’s next Onsite Insights visit is on 26 June 2024, for more information or to book CLICK HERE 

 

About Onsite Insights 

Established in 2004, the Onsite Insights visit program exists to encourage the sharing of innovation and best practice between companies. This is achieved through a series of one day visits to award winning companies where visitors get to see best practice in action. No theory, no text book, just what works and why from organizations that have achieved success.  

 

For More Information contact: 

Ailsa Carson
Programme Director
Onsite Insights
Ailsa.carson@sapartners.com 

Encouraging the sharing of innovation and best practice between organisations sounds like the remit of government departments and local authorities, however for the last 20 years Onsite Insights has been delivering a successful pan-industry initiative that has seen over 15,000 people visit some of the UK’s most successful organizations.   

Onsite Insights is a programme of one-day visits, where organisations in the public and private sector get to spend a day looking at how successful organisations are run.  It  was established in 2004 as a successor to the highly popular Department of Trade and Industry programme Inside UK Enterprise (“IUKE”).  IUKE was set up in the early eighties and was run by the government for over 20years.   

The success and popularity of the programme, was and remains down to the fact that businesses recognise the value of sharing real life experience – there are no text books, no theories and no consultants, just real evidence of what works and why from businesses that have implemented change.  

Government and funding changes resulted in the closure of the IUKE programme back in 2003, but the team behind it’s delivery recognised the popularity and potential for the programme.  Ailsa Carson, Onsite Insights founder commented that “when we announced the closure of the IUKE programme there was an overwhelming response from customers and the host companies, it would have been difficult to see such an initiative disappear – and I am glad to say it didn’t, we talked with the DTI at the time and they were more than happy for us to launch a privately funded programme.  

The types of companies that have hosted over the years have included household names and global brands such as: Mars, Toyota, BMW, Nissan, BAE Systems, Fujifilm, Siemens and JLR alongside smaller businesses such as Double H Nurseries, Happy, Crowcon and Vitacress.   

Buhler Group, London – Hosting since 2004

Over the years each of the hosts have brought their story to life for the benefit of visiting organizations.  Topics have varied over the years but one thing has remained constant – visitors are primarily interested in how organizations have achieved a culture of improvement; they want to see not only how they have improved, but more importantly how the company has engaged their team in the journey.  

Stuart Wood a previous host on the programme, who now works for the leading charity Alzheimers UK has been a regular user of the programme commented that the programme works because “one of the principle tasks for today’s organizations is Continuous Improvement, and one of the best ways to experience first-hand the practical application of the tools and techniques that will help drive a business’s continuous improvement initiatives is the first class programme of visits offered by Onsite Insights.” 

Double H Nurseries – Best Practice Host site since 2008

It is evident that the continued growth and success of the programme is down to the passion and honesty with which the host companies both large and small share their ideas and experiences with their visitors.  They all believe that the sharing of innovation and best practice between organisations will generate improvements for every sector, making all companies more competitive globally.  Hosts benefit as the visits are not industrial tourism, they are a two-way discussion where new ideas and solutions can be debated, and they also benefit as they are able to visit other leading companies thereby improving their own organisation.   

Feedback shows that over 85% of visitors have identified improvements for their own companies and 100% of visitors said they would recommend this form of learning which clearly demonstrates that the sharing of ideas and innovation directly between companies does not create competitive issues but an opportunity to grow, improve and become more competitive. 

This year which is our 20th anniversary we will be celebrating both the host companies and the visitors that have made it so successful.  

Media enquiries: 

Ailsa Carson  

Programme Director 

Onsite Insights 

Tel: 023 9246 8978 

Mob: 0783 222 3453 

Email: ailsa@onsiteinsights.co.uk