It is a challenge we are meeting through the introduction of our LEAN Academy, using a data-driven approach to optimising efficiency, saving money and improving margins.

As well as cost savings, the transparent nature of the process significantly boosts customer satisfaction as it requires us to develop a highly detailed understanding of their needs so that we can create value and be more proactive.

LEAN Academy

LEAN: Making a difference

to our clients

•£1,100,000savingsforecast across the business

•5%clientsavingonthreemajor transport contracts: Siemens London Midland, Heathrow Express and South West Trains

•EastCoastMainLinereviewhas enabled substantial client savings on the new tendered contract

•Potentialsavingsofupto£1 million identified on our Tubelines contract, to be shared with theclient(70%)

To date, the scheme has already yielded annual forecast savings of over half a million pounds for our customers, including Northern Rail and Tubelines.

Originating from Japan’s automotive industry after the Second World War, LEAN methodology takes a customer-centric approach to efficiency improvement and as such is fully aligned to our own values and approach as a business.

With squeezed margins and raised customer expectations causing unprecedented demands on FM teams, the need to apply a formal methodical framework for process improvement has never been so critical.

How it works

Using the dual methodology of LEAN and Six Sigma, the two concepts combine to improve the speed of work and elimination of waste (LEAN) with the quality and elimination of variation (Six Sigma).

This ensures that any cost reduction is matched by a customer-driven focus that meets the highest quality standards.

The measurement framework breaks down the process into a series of

stages: Define, Measure, Analyse, Implement and Control (DMAIC), to enable practitioners to drill down deep into the contract to identify performance improvement issues.

Techniques including fishbone analysis (cause and effect), process mapping and statistical analysis, ensure a rigorous and structured approach, enabling the root cause at the heart of any business problem to be identified and addressed.

“LEAN turns discussions from anecdotes into facts and data.When you have hard facts, it’s so much easier to make decisions and implement changes,” said Simon Wisdom, Managing Director, ISS Facility Services - Regions.

“While the analysis tools will often identify causes that a team was already aware of, the fact the issues are quantified and documented make them more visible, understandable and actionable.”

Simon Wisdom Managing Director, ISS Facility Services - Regions

2

Yellow belt Kerry Gear and soon to be green belt Chris Hayward, in the LEAN room

Empowering our people to drive efficiency

Through the Academy, a number of individuals across the business are trained and mentored to become proficient in applying LEAN Six Sigma methodologies themselves.

Selected through a competency-based interview process, participants have addressed areas including time management and attendance,

While LEAN has been applied to many sectors, over the years, take up within facilities management has been slow with deployment on a piecemeal basis.

To realise its full potential, LEAN needs to be fully ingrained within an organisation’s culture and as such the Academy is committed to building capability through leadership, language, methodology and a toolkit, so that it becomes the defining structure and language for performance improvement within our business.

Embedding LEAN within the business culture

Brian Raven, MD, ISS Facility Service – Transport explained: “Cultural change in a business takes time, so the Lean Academy certainly provides a fulcrum to drive customer centred change.

“It shows that the senior leadership team is committed to it and it starts to give people the words and language to talk about waste, efficiency and performance improvement.”

productivity issues, window and carpet cleaning, hotel staff turnover, fleet management and staff recruitment and retention. Further issues being investigated include overtime, energy and waste.

Reflecting LEAN’s heritage, participants attain certification based on Judo belt colours,

determined by the level of training undertaken and savings achieved with 14 green belts and 36 yellow belts already trained to date.

A yellow belt is attained following a day’s training that can expect to deliver£1,000insavings,whilstaGreen Belt follows five day training programmeandsavingof£50,000.

ISS Facility services London MD Ed Bolton concurred: “For us, as more colleagues get involved, it is going to help build the continuous improvement culture that our customers deserve as we’re always looking for ways to work smarter, deliver better and keep our costs low.”

Matt Brabin presents Richard Brown, Emma Thompson and Tom Maton with the LEAN Academy certificates

3LEAN practitioners attain certification based on Judo belt colours

The need to apply a more integrated approach to cleaning with better staff alignment and reduced manned levels was a core objective for applying LEAN processes at McLaren Group’s iconic campus in Woking.

A number of metrics were used to review existing work schedules and map these against the specific customer requirements to identify areas of inefficiency that could be rectified.

“We looked at the current workload and realised our schedules would benefit from more detail and structure. We also identified benefits of further integration between the

Having researched LEAN for some time, Paul was keen to transfer the principles from the manufacturing environment of its origins to a service arena.

LEAN in action

He found the structured process of the methodology particularly effective in highlighting areas for improvement and, as a result, has created significant cost savings for a customer through a project to deliver window cleaning efficiencies.

“From the six sigma training, you need to work through the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control phases carefully and in order, remembering not to jump to the solution,” he said. “This helped me think clearly and propose a workable solution at the end of the process.”

With all the cleaning excellence team receiving LEAN training, he is seeing the concept becoming successfully embedded. A visit to

Paul Fereday, Head of Operations, Cleaning Excellence, ISS UK

Elinor Abbott, Assistant Operations Manager, ISS Facility Services London

the Toyota factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire, to see first-hand the production system highlighted the level of workforce engagement, as well as ideas such as visual display boards, that keep staff informed on progress made in meeting KPIs, inspiring his team’s approach. Added Paul, “We’ve introduced the ‘Waste Walk’ so that whenever we go into contracts we’re looking for the seven wastes identified from the LEAN training and the best ways to remove or minimise them.

We’ll be looking to help contract managers understand and then do their own waste walks and introduce visual display boards to keep staff informed on where we are in terms of meeting our KPIs.”

McLaren Technology Centre and the McLaren Production Centre,” said Elinor.

As a result, equipment that boosts the efficiency of tasks has been introduced, operative routes have been changed and some operative tasks integrated.

“Although the project had such a short time frame, we had a lot of help from the LEAN Academy team, which acted as mentors and was very supportive. Now we have the skills to keep moving forward,” she added. “While I initially thought about a defined project, I now understand that we have committed to a continuous journey. Our race will never end.”

Matt Fieldhouse - National Sales DirectorISS House, Genesis Business Park, Albert Drive, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5RW - United KingdomEmail: Matt.Fieldhouse@uk.issworld.com Phone: +44(0)7711535654 Web: www.uk.issworld.com