EuroDairy – Lean management on a dairy farm

Lean management is an approach to managing a farm that supports the concept of continuous improvement.

By applying Lean thinking, you do not have to look for big improvements, for even little ones can add value.

Improvements should be found in the way of working and in the processes. The goal is to eliminate waste in order to make sure that everything runs smoother, easier and more efficiently.

Moreover, according to the Lean philosophy, you never do this alone as a manager. You should involve everybody who is working on the farm. Everyone can have insights and ideas to do things differently and better. Employees or other family members might even suggest things you as a manager never thought of.

The first question one should ask when applying Lean-thinking is “What adds value for our customer?”. What does your customer expect from you and your product? And how much is the customer willing to pay for your product?

The dairy farmer can apply this thinking to internal customers, e.g. the feed production will be given to the cows. What do the cows expect from their feeding? How much do they need? What should the quality be? 

Secondly, you must look at the value stream. That is the steps you need to take to develop your product.

By investigating each step, you can look for waste. Are we doing everything in an effective and efficient way? If not, what can we do to eliminate the waste?

A farmer should try to obtain flow in his work. Is all the material available when needed? Does everyone understand what needs to happen? Do we have all relevant information?

The objective is to avoid delays and standstills by making sure everything is working properly.

In a Lean environment, the production follows the demand. Instead of pushing the product to the market, one should establish a pull system.

We are producing what is needed by the next step in the chain.

Finally, a farmer should seek perfection every day. This is not something they should do alone. They should involve everyone who is active on the farm, as everyone can come up with improvement ideas.

Elke started looking for improvement possibilities at her farm after reading a book about Lean. She implemented multiple ideas.

For example, she placed a blackboard in the barn, where she and her husband can write down how much feed they have given the young cattle. By doing so, it is now immediately clear how much more the other person should give.

Elke was also willing to host a Lean meeting at her farm. During the meeting, Lean-consultant Susanne Pejstrup and some other farmers did a gemba walk. They did a tour of the farm and looked everywhere for improvement suggestions and possible waste to eliminate.

Allowing others to give feedback on the way you're working can help detect new issues. If multiple farmers do this together, they can help and learn from each other.

We chat to Andrew Fletcher, a dairy farmer and member of the AHDB Dairy Board from Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Andrew wanted to learn more about Lean management and how it could help him to improve his business, so he recently attended two EuroDairy Lean management workshops: one at Reaseheath, UK, in September 2018 and another international workshop in Denmark in November 2018.

Lorna Gow from AHDB Dairy caught up with Andrew to find how the workshops went and if he has made any changes on his own farm as a results of the workshops.

What got you into Lean management?

As we started to dramatically expand the farm a few years ago across more sites, we ran into real issues with managing our units; we were expanding rapidly and it was unmanageable, so we needed to put some structure in place without losing the people-first element. We wanted to have some form of over-arching system in place across sites that our staff can work with and that helps to drive improvement.

Why did you want to learn more about Lean management?

I wanted to gain a methodology for improving productivity, to create not just a piecemeal approach but an overreaching format to help make decisions and drive productivity on my own holdings. Essentially, I wanted to learn how to make improvements in a structured way, a broader-based general push.

What did you implement in terms of Lean?

One of the key things I have learnt from Lean is the importance of collecting data. The Lean management workshop helped us to realise that in order to make good decisions, you need good, high-quality data.

For example, we started collecting data on the mobility scores of all of our herds so we knew precisely where the lameness figures were. A lame cow is an unproductive and unprofitable animal, so if we maintain low lameness levels, we are winning from both an economical and welfare point of view. Once we had those figures, we could actually review and start to drive improvement. It represented a move away from relying on opinion to a set of figures, so you are basing your work on facts, which helps with managing staff as everyone is on the same page.

What did you make of the Denmark Lean management trip and what stood out to you?

I was really keen to learn what the rest of Europe are doing differently to us and what direction we should be moving in. I think we have done some very good stuff so far in the UK, but their view of people management is far more advanced than ours and I learned that you need to engage people a lot more in order to tackle particular areas of your business and solve personal issues.

What did you find most valuable from the workshops?

It was good to see the difference between bad Lean management and good Lean management. However, the main thing for me was the mixture of farmers and researchers; it was really valuable to get that level of insight and understand the different perspectives. It means that you can lock in where you are and compare yourself against others. As a farmer it can be hard to understand the theoretical approaches, but likewise a load of farmers talking together will go off on tangents, so there was a nice, healthy mix.

Would you be interested in attending future Lean workshops?

Definitely! Lean management principles have withstood the test of time, manufacturing companies have been using and sharpening the techniques for many years, and we are now seeing agricultural companies getting involved and picking up Lean. It’s something that remains relevant, and I think in ten years’ time, Lean principles will be a standard within farm businesses.

What would you say to people thinking of implementing Lean management on their farms?

I think the main thing I have taken away is that good people drive the whole farm operation. You have to put people first, and if you increase the capabilities of your staff, you will in turn increase the profitability of your business.

This project has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 696364.