The Clarke family own a self-contained dairy farm just south of Clinton, in south Otago. They employ five full-time staff on the dairy unit, and although only part-way through the programme, they all agree the benefits are already clear.
FarmTune is a DairyNZ initiative that uses the “lean management” principles that originated in the Japanese manufacturing industry to embed a culture of efficiency and continuous improvement into a farm business. The primary focus of lean management is – as the name suggests – reducing waste in the system to become more efficient and therefore leaner. Efficiencies can be achieved through a systematic and continuous process of identifying and reducing waste.
The introduction of lean management to the dairy sector began when Synlait Farms (now Purata) in Canterbury applied the concept to their farms. Venture Southland, the agency responsible for economic and community development initiatives in Southland, also ran a mini-pilot programme about the same time. Based on the success of these programmes, DairyNZ decided to develop a programme tailored specifically for dairy farms. Canterbury-based consultant Sarah Watson is contracted to develop the FarmTune and to co-ordinate the roll-out to a wider audience at a national level.
FarmTune introduces farmers to key “lean” concepts and helps them implement them in their own businesses through a step-by-step process.
“Last year the FarmTune progamme was piloted across 10 farms in Southland and we had great results,” Sarah says. “We took the feedback from participants in that pilot and improved the programme into the version that is now being delivered to participants in Southland, Canterbury and Waikato.”
The Southland FarmTune Programme consists of 10 farm businesses, with 15 dairy units between them. It involves a series of eight workshops and includes onfarm activities that involve the whole farm team, delivered over a three-month period. A key principle of FarmTune is all employees are empowered to take responsibility for maximising value and minimising waste through all the processes in the business.
“It’s not about the boss putting a system in place – the team have to own the systems and have input into them,” Sarah says.
Another key point emphasised in the course is “people don’t fail, processes fail people”. Where there is wastage it isn’t the person’s fault, it’s a problem with the process.
A major outcome of Farmtune is improved use of time.
“This means either staff can go home earlier or they can focus on other areas that need improving and refining,” Sarah says. She also adds the focus is on continuous improvement, saying “there is no end to it – lean thinking becomes embedded into the business and the team have to constantly be looking for ways to improve and refine systems”.
The course starts off by defining what waste is and how to find it. Participants then develop a ‘process map’ for the milking process on their own farms.
“We have 15 key steps in our milking process, from getting the cows from the paddock to the dairy, milking them, and shutting them away. Some of these steps are happening simultaneously. For example while the first herd is being milked the second herd is moving to the dairy,” Suranga Durage, assistant farm manager for the Clarkes, says.
Once the milking process is mapped out in detail the next task is to identify waste that occurs in the milking process.
“Each time we have an issue with the milking process we write it on a pink Post-it note and stick it on the process map at the point where the issue occurred,” Will says.
The issues are referred to as OFIs – an acronym for ‘opportunities for improvement’. The staff were surprised they found 98 OFIs in their milking process.
“It just goes to show how many minor things can crop up that you don’t really think about until you have to record them,” herd manager Gareth Ward says.
The OFIs might seem minor but collectively they can add up to a lot of time, cost, and frustration for the business, and addressing them can improve efficiency and make the process work better for the whole team. Farm staff also record the start and finish time of each milking on a chart in the dairy. This lets them monitor how often milking exceeds the targeted time for completion, and helps keep them focused on looking for ways to improve the process.
The Southland programme is now at its half-way point and the current focus is to identify the root cause of each OFI.
“We have put our OFIs into a spreadsheet and we then identify the root cause of each issue,” Will says.
FarmTune teaches participants how to drill into the root cause of each problem to find the key reason for the issue happening. The root cause needs to be correctly identified before an appropriate solution can be found.
“We’re not at the point yet where we can jump into finding solutions but we have made a few small changes to our milking process based on what we’ve already found,” herd manager Miguel Herrera says.
They have also started to re-organise storage places by eliminating clutter and having a designated place for everything in and around the dairy and workshops. This will reduce the time they waste looking for the tools and equipment they need to do a job. Will says the ultimate goal “is to walk into the workshop and find any piece of equipment we need in under 60 seconds”.
Although there is a reasonable time commitment involved in attending workshops Will says with a bit of extra planning it has been manageable.
“It hasn’t been too bad. We’re in a quieter time of the season now and the benefits to come will far outweigh the time and effort that we’re putting in right now,” he says.
Gareth adds “the whole team is on board with this programme and we are looking forward to reaping the benefits of working smarter not harder.”
The Farmtune programme is aimed at teaching and showing the how-to of the lean management approach so participants can apply lean management thinking to their individual situations.
By the end of the programme they will be able to use the lean management approach to map any process in their business and identify waste in that process, identify the root true cause of waste and problems in the process, and apply repeatable solutions to remove the waste and improve the process. They will also have developed a culture where everyone in the team is focused on continuous improvement and using their initiative when they do their job to achieve small, incremental changes every day.
Will predicts FarmTune will be “an absolute game-changer” for his business.
“We expect to see savings across the board. A more efficient business means everyone has time to do important jobs, there’s less frustration, less time being wasted, and staff will be happier in their jobs.”
Farmers who would like to start implementing some lean management concepts in their own business should sign up for the Waste Hunt Challenge through the DairyNZ website. If you are interested in participating in FarmTune or would like more information about it contact Sarah Watson on 021 800 887 or email sarah@peoplemad.co.nz.
Key principles of lean management
- Focus on the system and the people
- Identify and understand how the work gets done
- Manage, improve and smooth the process and workflow
- Remove non-value adding steps and waste
- Reduce variation and sustain changes
- Involve and equip the people in the process
- Take action to continue improving
Farm facts
Farm Owner: Clarke Agri Limited
Location: Clinton, South Otago
Milking area: 315ha
Production: 450,000kg MS from 940 cows at peak
Full-time staff: Five
Dairy: Fully automated 50-bail rotary
