Manawatu management consultant and dairy farmer Jana Hocken has taken some of the principals often used in big multi-nationals and put them into a New Zealand dairying context in her new book, The Lean Dairy Farm.
Hocken’s book is based on the concept of lean, aiming to achieve continuous improvement of things in farmers’ control.
“So, the first step in the process involves shifting the mindset from focusing on external factors like low milk prices or the weather that are outside our control and, instead, accepting responsibility and concentrating on the internal factors within the farm business that we can control.”
Her work is tempered with more than 17 years working for Toyota with the company’s lean philosophy and as a lean practitioner in consulting roles.
Hocken has worked with hundreds of companies in the industrial and service sectors internationally and a return to her husband’s dairy farm inspired her to apply the same approach to the farm.
“Compared to many places overseas NZ is still a little behind on the concept of lean management and it is not so unusual to find it used on farms in Europe and United States. That’s mainly simply due to not many people being aware of the methodology and I see plenty of potential here.”
She also now has a body of experience beyond her Manawatu farm, having rolled out the LeanFarm programme in 2017 with 100 farms on board.
“It soon became obvious I needed to get a book out on the subject.”
Her experience with Toyota involved a car company that, like any farm business, faced external pressures on its performance including currency movements, shifts in steel prices, regulatory changes and competitive pressure.
“Yet they still managed to be the most profitable car company in the world because they use lean principles and focus on internal factors they can control and continuously improve upon.”
Visualisation is one of the key tools to get all the farm’s team members on the same page knowing what they are trying to achieve.
“Making all the information visual and transparent means it is shared by all.
“Everyone in the team knows what the farm’s goals are: metrics, priorities, plans, actions, problems and what the status is against these. The team can then take ownership of the information and make the right decisions and actions based on it.”
Standardisation is a second tool and is about ensuring everything done on farm has a clear, documented, visual standard process, whether it is how to fix a trough or what accepted pasture residue is when the cows leave the paddock.
Only with an objective standard being set for the farm can monitoring then begin on whether those standards are being met.
“That’s basically the foundation for lean improvement. From this comes the ability to minimise waste, with everyone working to that standard, also saving time and ultimately improving your farm’s productivity and sustainability.”
She says while lean is a concept often adopted by big corporates it is applicable to any dairy farm and interest from dairy businesses has covered the spectrum from small family units to big multi-farm corporate operations.
“Ultimately, we want to see farmers have more time to enjoy what they do and to be able to step out of those day-to-day demands and focus on the bigger picture while also having a more productive, profitable farm.”
The book can be bought online at www.theleandairyfarm.com
