 "Real
beer people with contemporary plant management experience"
At First Key we understand the struggles of balancing rising
product costs, time to market, customer demands for superior
service and quality, and corporate bottom-line requirements.
Operations must become a competitive advantage, not a millstone
around your company's neck.
First Key has expertise in developing "roadmaps"
for the future through a unique approach to Master Operations
Planning. By helping you develop a tailor-made optimization
strategy, our "Master Planning" program aims to
extend the life of your facility and maximize your return
on investment. We will assess your current plant and operating
procedures, benchmark them against other brewery operations
around the world, and provide you with specific actionable
recommendations and solutions for improvement.
First Key operations specialists are real beer people with
contemporary plant management experience. They assist clients
to improve their cost competitiveness through progressive
productivity improvements, modern product processing techniques,
and superior brewing education and training.
Strategic Process Improvement
…First Key’s Total Quality
Management solution.
Some companies around the world are reaping fantastic benefits
because they have set aggressive performance standards and
have trained all employees on how to continuously improve
performance so they can attain those higher standards. The
continuous improvement process has become a way of life in
those companies. They know that continuous improvement relies
on the commitment of empowered employees working in multidisciplinary
teams to objectively measure and improve business processes
to continually enhance customer satisfaction. So why do some
companies get it right while others fail to reap the benefits?
At First Key we believe that the key reason for failure may
have little to do with the methodology, techniques or tools
used, and everything to do with the improper choice of improvement
projects. When embarking on an improvement program it is critical
to choose those strategic processes that will make a real,
and visible, difference to the business. By focusing on areas
that can have a major impact everyone is energized and solutions
can reap big gains in performance and profit. A properly executed
program (6 sigma) which targets both quality, cost improvements,
and just plain simplification will typically result in savings
of 25 to 40% of the cost of sales. Poorly chosen and implemented
improvement projects create lots of useless work, endless
meetings, minimal results, and generate frustration for everyone.
The First Key formula for successful implementation includes:
- Selecting key strategic processes for improvement.
Fish where the fish are, if you like.
- Ensuring that the improvement team’s composition
is such that it can effect necessary changes on it’s
own. Leaders effect meaningful change.
- Ensuring that improvement team members have a good
in-depth knowledge (competence) of the various improvement
tools, including problem identification and analysis.
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