Client Case Study
Smallaire
What began as a local business in Horsham in 1974 now caters for clients across Australia and overseas, including Russia, the United States, South Africa and New Zealand.
The current Managing Director, Lolita Small, is the daughter of Founder, Gary Small.
The business prides itself on the fact that it caters for the needs of each individual client and their circumstances relating to air movement, be it agricultural, commercial, or domestic.
As a business, whose entire team are committed to creative innovation and continuous improvement, the organisation sought to take the next step in developing their people and processes. After attending a Lean based short course, General Manager Jock Baker saw the potential advantage of introducing similar concepts to the whole team. As a result, LMA were engaged to run their Operational Excellence program with the whole team of 18 people across the site in December 2022.
From the very beginning of the program, Martin Schembri, LMA’s onsite Facilitator praised the buy-in, total commitment and responsiveness of everyone to the OpEx program. Management ensured that provision was made for the employees to be released for both the training workshops and the on-the-floor applications as they started identifying areas for improvement.
“Smallaire has received a positive impact from participating in the Operational Excellence program. It’s truly impressive how the staff has honed their issue identification skills and now approaches challenges with confidence. The course has instilled a strong sense of pride in the workplace, motivating everyone to strive for excellence, whether it’s maintaining a tidy and productive work environment or enhancing production processes. Smallaire has undeniably reaped significant benefits from completing this course.” – Jock Baker (General Manager).
From March to December 2023, 22 improvement initiatives and projects were identified.
All 18 Participants were involved across 3 teams to implement these improvement opportunities. A steering committee consisting of managers and team leaders was also set up to meet monthly and discuss the CI project implementation. 17 of the 22 were completed by the end of the program leading to improvements in the following areas:
• Improved quality and reduced rework
• Significant time savings
• Enhanced safety
• Better stock control / reduced inventory
• Reduction of stock outs