Maximizing capacity and reducing inventory are critical metrics for Unga Limited, one of the largest milling operations in Kenya. Through a comprehensive series of Kaizen projects, the company has made substantial improvements in both of these areas without investing in new equipment, and has made visible progress towards a positive and caring work culture.

"Unga has succeeded in implementing KAIZEN practices across diverse business units, manufacturing processes, locations, and management teams," says Vinod Grover, Founding Director of the KAIZEN Institute Africa, whose consulting team assisted with the transformation. "This across-the-board success of the Kaizen journey is not only truly remarkable, but also has a clearly assignable cause - leadership."

Founded in 1908 by settler Lord Delamere, Unga grew to become Kenya’s largest milling company, complementing their flour milling operations with animal feed plants that recycle the flour-milling by-products.  Faced with tough global market conditions, the company ran into financial trouble in the 90’s, and sought outside partnerships to help restore profitability.

In early 2000, the US-based Seaboard Corporation took a significant stake in the company, and in addition to financial backing, has provided access to milling expertise and trading infrastructure that allow Unga to better participate in regional markets. At the same time, Nick Hutchinson, a well-travelled Kenya-born agricultural associated industry business veteran, joined the company as CEO.

In the company that Hutchinson inherited, cash flow was tight, and a major capital investment to replace aging equipment seemed inevitable.  It was also clear that attitudes needed to change within the company if they were to be successful. 

Hutchinson had been impressed with what he learned about KAIZEN during previous trips to Japan, however, he had been advised that KAIZEN would probably not work in an African context. This view changed when, in 2006, he and two of his senior managers attended a seminar hosted by KAIZEN Institute Africa and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. “When we realized that other companies in Kenya had had some really good results with Kaizen, we decided we'd give it a go,” says Hutchinson.

Hutchinson engaged the KAIZEN Institute to create roadmaps of their current and desired future states.  As initial benchmarks, he chose two plants – a flour-milling facility and an animal feed production facility.  “I really wanted to see what was different between the businesses, and to see the overall business from both perspectives,” says Hutchinson. 

Equipment downtime due to aging of equipment was the most visible problem area. “We were having a lot of breakdowns and emergency downtime," says Hutchinson. "Everybody was saying that because our plants are quite old, the only solution was to buy a whole lot of new equipment. “

The cost of inventory was another concern. “We were borrowing money that I didn't think we needed to borrow," says Hutchinson. "After we did the roadmaps, I fully realized how much we had tied up in inventory."

Next came a series of one week long Gemba KAIZEN workshops where cross-functional teams learned the basic KAIZEN tools and began to work collaboratively on solutions. Employees from all levels of the organization were brought into the process. The initial sessions had strong and enthusiastic participation, however, Hutchinson and his senior managers realized that more had to be done to ensure that the sessions were being followed up with concrete action. “After about six months, we realized that the teams weren't necessarily being led by the right people,” says Hutchinson, “so we adjusted the leadership, we made some changes to ensure that top management was more engaged.”

After the first year, the company decided to expand the initiative to the remaining three plants in Kenya, and to their plant in Uganda. In addition, they worked with the KAIZEN Institute Africa to develop what the company calls its PaTaMu model for continual improvement; PaTaMu stands for 'Pamoja Tuangamize Muda' ('Together let's eliminate waste')

In response to the equipment downtime issue, the teams developed an Autonomous Maintenance programme modeled on the Toyota Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) process. The process provides a framework where operators maintain the equipment themselves, eliminating costly waits for maintenance personnel. Unga has initially taken on the first three steps of this process – Initial Cleaning, Countermeasures, and Tentative Checklist, and standards are strictly enforced. “We are now being quite ruthless,” says Hutchinson. “If the machine isn't being sustained at step three then we bring it back down to step two.”

The result has been a dramatic reduction in downtime and consequently, a substantial increase in capacity. “We've more or less doubled our capacity at one plant,” says Hutchinson, “and haven't bought a single piece of equipment. Two years ago I would've written that up for a massive capital expenditure project.”

Other teams took on the issues of inventory and flow. Plants were relying on “safety stock” to compensate for their frequent equipment breakdowns, and for special orders. “We introduced the Kanban system between production and the finished product warehouse,” says Hutchinson. The Kanban system now provides visual information on levels of inventory throughout the plant, reducing the need for large safety stock. Plants have also been able to significantly reduce inventories of packaging materials and engineering spares.

Supply chain partners are next. “We still haven't back-linked to our suppliers, and also, we haven't linked our finished product to our distributors,” says Hutchinson. “We're just starting to work with that now. We wanted to make sure that our internal processes and procedures were in place first.”

Perhaps the most widely visible aspect of Unga’s transformation has been an extensive 5S deployment that has extended from the plant floor to the executive offices. “The basic housekeeping, organizing, and all of that, we call the ‘five K’s’ in Kenya because it's five Swahili words that are translated with K's,” says Hutchinson. “We basically put together an initiative where every single person including myself is on a 5K team, and we have a competition that runs for 12 months at a time where make efforts to improve on our house keeping.”

The programme has created an atmosphere of inclusiveness, and is breaking down barriers. “It's been a lot of fun,” says Hutchinson. “It's about getting senior-level management engaged, actually doing things. I'm on a team - I'm not the leader of the team. I do what I'm told - I go to meetings when I'm told to go to meetings, and I clean my office up when I'm supposed to clean it up.”

Shekhar Deshpande, Senior Consultant with KAIZEN Institute, feels this has been the deciding factor. "Unga has become a real success story because they've used all three vectors," says Deshpande, "Lean / KAIZEN tools, employee engagement, and, most importantly, top management commitment to a degree that is missing in other companies."

Today, the company is seeing a new level of employee initiative. “We have a programme now where they can give continual improvement ideas," says Hutchinson, "and we're just starting to see folk contributing ideas for new KAIZEN things we can do. So, it’s very different from where it was but I would also say that like every KAIZEN journey there's still a long, long way to go.”

The KAIZEN journey, 'PaTaMu - Everyone, Everywhere, Everyday' - has become a reality at Unga. “Every year we're looking for a new idea, some new initiative, something new to get people excited about,” says Hutchinson. “Once you've harvested the low-lying fruit, it gets to be really hard work. But the opportunities are there, there are endless opportunities.”