Professor Dave Smith
Consultant Cardiologist, Swansea Bay University Health Board
Since 2009 Morriston Hospital has specialised in minimally invasive trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), for the treatment of aortic stenosis which is the commonest cause of heart valve disease. During this time we established Morriston Hospital as a European centre of excellence for procedural training.But despite our progress, we struggled with increasing demand, static treatment capacity, and struggled to get proper stakeholder buy in. Whilst procedural outcomes were good, waiting times were too long and patients were coming to harm on the waiting list.Darren helped us develop a greater understanding of the entire pathway of care, better understanding of the thinking behind the Lean process and enabled us to create a culture of continuous improvement with the dramatic results of reduced waiting time and increased procedural volume.
Results: 85% Reduction in waiting time 52 to 8 wks
200% increase in procedural volumeGabor Szabo
Site Director, MARS Petcare
“The Site reached +10% Efficiency improvement in 2 years”The Bokros Site was established 25 years ago and through year by year significant investment it has grown with two factories operating on very complex production lines, serving 50+ markets Worldwide.Site performance was in the top league of Operations, however a systematic problem solving, structured strategy deployment and lean management system were not in place. Searching from many consultants, Darren Walsh was selected to train and develop local Management mindset shift in order to lead toward to Site Vision.Darren helped us to understand the concept and mindset of Lean philosophy, and map our Lean journey, especially on Go & See mindset, focusing on Value Creation at the Gemba. Introducing the A3 concept for Strategy Deployment or using the A3 structure for advanced problem solving, the Site reached +10% Efficiency improvement in 2 years, applying these tools operations delivered step change on Waste elimination. Associate Engagement increased as through the Strategy Deployment several engaging dialog and involvement happened resulting in operational excellence.
Linn Marita Otneim
Director Sourcing and Procurement, TechnipFMC
Subsea services is a global service division of TechnipFMC a leading technologies provider of systems and services for the energy sector.Business improvement was not new for us, and like many organisations we had spent years going through various improvement initiatives.My Procurement team were constantly firefighting, chasing deliveries and myself was running in meetings to explain the reason for parts missing in the workshops.Darren helped me correct the fractures in our management system. With his support and coaching we managed to implement key tools from the Lean toolbox, A3 and Obeya boards. As a result, our KPI performance “On Time to Requisition” went from 45 to 90%, getting zero escalations and freeing up time to keep develop my team further.
Michael Vellinga
Global Improvement Leader, DLL Financial Services
“Darren helped us develop a clearer path to improve our service, TAT and business performance.”DLL Financial Services is a world leading provider of asset financing used across multiple sectors, we had been on the improvement journey for over 4 years, we regarded ourselves to be advanced in some areas of tool deployment and at the early stages in others with examples of: std work, problem solving, visual boards etc.But despite our progress, we struggled to embed a culture of continuous improvement, we had several big improvement initiatives, restarts and struggled to get proper buy in from management. Service performance levels were too low, costs too high, and problems seem to grow.Darren helped us develop a clearer path for the steps we should take and avoid the all to common pitfalls, deepen our understanding of the thinking behind the tools and work on the right setup to create a culture of continuous improvement and improve our service, turn-around-times and business performance.
Karl Lloyd
Fmr Supply Chain Manager, Boston Scientific
“Darren quickly identified gaps that freed up 180 people for new projects and improved output, saving > $20Mn.”After spending over 10 years on the improvement journey, applying the latest improvement techniques and being advised by leading business experts, BSIL still struggled to improve productivity beyond 3 or 4% each year.When Darren joined BSIL’s improvement effort, he quickly identified gaps in the thinking behind the improvement tools, techniques and management system meaning that the team were not reacting to the right things in the right way.This led to several projects, one of which improved output by >50% from 22k to 36k units per week whilst freeing up 180 people for new projects and improving output from 37 to >95 products per person, saving > $20Mn.
Ewan Reed
Operations Director, Technip FMC
“Darren helped us embed a series of management routines that improved our output across all areas by over 50%”TechnipFMC is a leading technology provider to the traditional and new energies industry. We have been on lean / CI journey for over 10 years, our processes and systems had matured to the level of operating obeya’s and a good level of visual mgmt.Despite our maturity, we struggled to tackle recurring problems across our value chain that were ultimately impacting our ability to consistently meet our production / customer commitments.Darren helped us develop deeper understanding of the thinking behind the lean tools, linkages in our visual management systems and has helped us embed a series of management routines that have enables us to build and maintain our standards. Today we have improved our output across all areas of our manufacturing plant by over 50% and we are developing a culture of solving recurring problems at the right level – from Snr Management to Operator level.
Matt Appleton
UK Operations & Improvement Mgr, MANN + HUMMEL UK
“Darren helping modify our lean behaviour, resulting in performance figures of >20% OEE improvement and >99% delivery performance, whist maintaining zero defects.”MANN+HUMMEL (UK) LTD is a global market leader in filtration, our lean journey began back in 2004. The operations production systems were very mature with a high number of tools in use including: std work, problem solving, visual boards, TPM, Kanban & Gemba walks etc.But despite our maturity we still struggled on executing daily problems which spiraled when the plant had high loads resulting in decreasing OEE, decreasing delivery performance and added costs.Darren Walsh of the Lean Enterprise Academy (LEA) were partnered to support us on our lean journey, identifying our shortfalls, stabilise and improve. We were taught broader than the tools within lean and were really shown lean thinking; focusing on the biggest problems, A3 thinking, Daily Lean Management and improved flow. We would achieve this by Darren helping modify our lean behaviour resulting in performance figures of >20% OEE improvement, >99% delivery performance on time and in full whist maintaining zero defects and more importantly the recognition off the customer.
Example of Business Support
With 25 years experience working for some of the best inc: Parker Hannifin, Boston Scientific, Zodiac Aerospace, Sega, Aiwa, Hobbs Valve.
Plus 8½ years with the Lean Enterprise Academy and the Lean Global Network. Supporting organisations and their teams and contributing to global working groups, inc: Lean Product & Process Develop, Lean Digital and the Lean Transformation Framework
Plus 8½ years with the Lean Enterprise Academy and the Lean Global Network. Supporting organisations and their teams and contributing to global working groups, inc: Lean Product & Process Develop, Lean Digital and the Lean Transformation Framework
Adidas
Alcoa
Ampacet
Baker Hughes
Boston Scientific
Bucking University (BLUE)
Business Wales & Welsh Government
De Gruchy
DLL Financial Services
Dresser-Rand, a Siemens Business
Alcoa
Ampacet
Baker Hughes
Boston Scientific
Bucking University (BLUE)
Business Wales & Welsh Government
De Gruchy
DLL Financial Services
Dresser-Rand, a Siemens Business
Dublin City University
Edwards Lifesciences
ExxonMobil
Fintech Foundry Wales
GE
Innovia Medical
International Baccalaureate
LB Bentley, Severn Group
London Underground
Mann+Hummel
Mars
Edwards Lifesciences
ExxonMobil
Fintech Foundry Wales
GE
Innovia Medical
International Baccalaureate
LB Bentley, Severn Group
London Underground
Mann+Hummel
Mars
May Gurney
Middlesex University
MOORES of Coleraine
NHS, Morriston Hospital
SSAB
Swansea Bay Health Board
TechnipFMC
Welsh Quality Centre
Westons Cider
Zip Water
Middlesex University
MOORES of Coleraine
NHS, Morriston Hospital
SSAB
Swansea Bay Health Board
TechnipFMC
Welsh Quality Centre
Westons Cider
Zip Water
Let's Get Crystal Clear On The Underlying Issues That Are Holding You Back - And More Importantly, What You Can Do About It...
What our customers say about us
- As former students of the MSc Lean Operations in Cardiff, I've also had the pleasure of working closely with Darren for nearly three years in Boston Scientific. During and since this time, I have come to know Darren as being one of the most passionate and transformational Lean thinkers in the network. He brought a whole new dimension to Lean whilst at Boston Scientific and has a proven track record of influencing and leading successful site-wide transformations. There are very few people who have a profound understanding and proven capability in the area of process excellence and Lean thinking, and no doubt, Darren is one of those few.
Cathal O'ReillyDirector, Quality Operations Strategy and Process Excellence at Johnson & Johnson - I had the opportunity to work with Darren while he was Division Lean Manager at Parker Hannifin. Darren has a way to make people understand Lean and the benefits of incorporating it and thinking Lean that everyone understands. Darren is also witty, calm and caring as a colleague while at the same time very focused and goal oriented. I would say among all the British colleagues I had the opportunity to work with, he was the one of those few that gave me a really good impression and teachings for life but then of course he is Welsh and not English.
Magnus AronssonSupplier Quality Engineer at Autoliv - I worked with and supported Darren in a HR capacity at Boston Scientific. His Lean knowledge and ability to share that knowledge was second to none, such that he planted the seed in my own head to study more and I later qualified with a Lean Black belt. His approach was always one of collaboration and sharing as a way of getting things done and as a way of ultimately delivering value to the customer
Louise Boyleformer HR Manager at Boston Scientific - I worked alongside Darren when he was Division Lean Manager at Parker Hannifin. He has an obvious passion for his subject. His approach is to develop people to strengthen processes following the lean guidelines rather than just applying tools. This leads to a deeper and more sustained improvement.
Anne HarrisDivision Lean Manager @ Parker Hannifin
The Book
Over the years, I have been asked countless times by business leaders how they can:
Fix stubborn recurring problems and streamline processes
Turn underperforming teams into robust high performers
Establish a highly effective improvement culture
And what they needed to do differently to ensure that strategic improvement actions make a real difference to the business…
I’ve seen leaders and managers across numerous sectors frustrated by their business performance and witnessed hundreds of teams who struggled to solve problems.
Some, even involved ambulances being regularly called out to deal with the stresses of business, whilst many others had already resulted in personnel changes in hope that someone else could solve the issues.
It’s time we ended these struggles, but here I even struggled to recommend a good book that went beyond the improvement techniques and helped leaders learn to recognise and overcome the improvement pitfalls. Until now...