Category: Local Initiatives

A small problem on the shop floor is easy to hide. Put a plaster over the missed changeover, the recurring jam, the report that never quite matches what happened on the line, and move on to the next fire. The trouble with plasters is that they do not fix cracks, they cover them, and in…

Somewhere in your building there is a whiteboard from an improvement programme that started with real energy. A consultant ran the workshops. The team learnt the tools. For a few months, the metrics moved. Then the whiteboard stopped being updated, the huddles got shorter, and the gains quietly slid back to where they started.  If…

UK manufacturing productivity stands roughly 10% below the G7 average (the average productivity of the world’s seven largest advanced economies: the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Canada), with German output per hour worked exceeding the UKs by 16%1.This gap persists despite a wave of technology spending: 76% of UK manufacturers are currently…

Kris Finlay Continuous Improvement LeadUnited Drug In conversation with Kaizen Institute At United Drug, continuous improvement is more than a methodology it is a mindset that shapes how the organisation operates, makes decisions and drives long-term progress. Driving this transformation is Kris Finlay, Continuous Improvement Lead, whose leadership has helped embed KAIZEN™ Principles across multiple…

Paulo Magalhães Founder & CEO, Tlantic Nazaré Pinto Head of People OperationsAuchan Retail The schedule goes out two days before the week starts. A manager spends Monday morning patching the gaps. Someone called in sick. A delivery arrived earlier than expected. A peak hour built faster than forecast. By midday, a fifth of the week’s…

Rob Breare COO Malvern College Corporation & CEO Malvern College International Francisco Salgado UK Senior Director at Kaizen Institute In conversation with Kaizen Institute  Founded in 1865, Malvern College is a leading independent school educating students from across the world. It is widely recognised as a centre of academic excellence, with a long tradition of…

In March 2026, approximately 25% of UK manufacturers indicated an increase in supplier delivery times, representing the most substantial deterioration in vendor performance since July 20221.  In the same month, manufacturing output declined for the first time in six months, entering a phase of contraction. The issue did not originate in the order books; rather,…