A family confectionery business on the cusp of considerable change, Buttermilk sought SWMAS’ support as part of their bigger picture vision. We caught up with Buttermilk’s Production Manager, Clare Pengelly, and Financial Controller Lisa Oakes to find out more...

What did you want to achieve?

Clare began with Buttermilk’s ambitions: ‘With our intentions to significantly improve our production facilities and bring in new product ranges, we knew we had to develop our team structure and processes too.’

‘It was important to us that we had a sustainable way of building capacity in the team and growing the business, and so sought help from SWMAS,’ added Lisa.

How did SWMAS help?

‘Our SWMAS Manufacturing Specialist supported us in completing a range of improvement projects, one of which included embedding a way in which we can also identify and develop our own improvement projects.

‘With their support, we also created a team structure, and everyone had the option to go on a course focusing on the lean basics and continuous improvement. The mixture of on-site training and facilitation provided helped our team associate their responsibilities, be more accountable, and has developed their capacity to undertake operational improvements.

'With the team leaders then appointed, SWMAS helped us to implement the new lean tools and continuous improvement techniques across the business.’ said Clare.

What's been the result

‘The result is a massive cultural shift,’ explained Lisa. ’The team is much more involved in making the decisions. Identifying efficiencies and cost savings is now integrated into everyone’s job role. We have a production meeting every week to which people come with solutions, and we believe we have identified over £55k in savings.’