Olivia Grant is Operations Director at Brindle Packaging, which makes cardboard boxes and printed packaging for food and drink brands. Brindle has 160 people on three shifts, at plants in Telford and Stafford. The work of each shift stays in Brindle’s own systems, and the climbs, issues, and plan that improve the two plants are in Headwater.
- Cut changeover time on line two to 25 minutesDMOn track
- 1Feeder on line two jams on every shiftDW13 days
Most of Brindle’s 160 people work shifts on the factory floor, away from a desk. The daily production meeting, job schedules, machine downtime, maintenance jobs, and quality checks all stay where they are, in Brindle’s production systems and on the board by each line.
Headwater is the layer above that. It has the climbs that improve a line, the safety and quality issues a team needs to solve, and the plan for the year. Nothing is copied between the two. Dev reads the week’s downtime and changeover times before the Telford huddle, and raises an issue when the same problem keeps coming back.
Choose one of Telford’s items in Headwater to see the entries from 2 to 6 November behind it.
- Mon 06:40Line two changeover, soup sleeves to cereal cartons44 min
- Mon 11:20Job 4471 finished on line one, 38,000 cartons
- Tue 14:35Line two changeover, cereal cartons to biscuit trays39 min
- Wed 15:10Line two changeover, biscuit trays to soup sleeves42 min
- Thu 10:15Line two changeover, soup sleeves to pizza boxes40 min
- Mon 23:10Line two stopped, feeder jam22 min
- Tue 16:05Line two stopped, feeder jam47 min
- Tue 17:00Maintenance job, replace the line two feeder belt
- Wed 02:20Line two stopped, feeder jam18 min
- Fri 05:10Line two stopped, feeder jam25 min
- Wed 09:30First-off check on the cereal cartons passed
- Fri 14:501,200 cartons held with the colour out
- Thu 13:0026 pallets loaded for the Bristol lorry
- Thu 03:40Near miss, a stack fell into the walkway at the stacker
- Cut changeover time on line two to 25 minutesDM
- 1Feeder on line two jams on every shift13 days
- Stack fell into the walkway at the line two stackerOperationsSolved in 6 days
Both plants run three shifts. Earlies work from 6:00 to 14:00, lates from 14:00 to 22:00, and nights from 22:00 to 6:00. Each shift has a manager, and at Telford the three shift managers are in the Telford team with Dev.
Each manager does the Monday check-in at the start of their own shift. They set the status of each of their climbs and raise anything in the way, which takes about five minutes. The Telford huddle is at 13:30 on Tuesday, when earlies hand over to lates.
Liam runs nights, so he isn’t at the plant for the Tuesday huddle. His team holds its own huddle at 6:00 on Thursday, at the change from nights to earlies, and Dev comes in early to join it. Anything the nights team can’t solve goes on the Telford list for Tuesday.
Choose a check-in or a huddle in Telford’s week to open it.
- Train the earlies on the new changeoverWTDoneTelfordCut changeover time on line two to 25 minutes
- 2Two forklift licences run out in DecemberWT8 days
- 3Ink deliveries arrive after the earlies startWT3 days
Brindle plans its continuous improvement work as climbs. A climb is something a person or a team will finish this quarter. It has a “done when” line and a few dated milestones, and its progress is the share of milestones ticked.
Dev’s climb this quarter is to cut changeover time on line two from an average of 41 minutes to 25. Each shift manager has a climb to train their own shift on the new changeover, and each of those climbs supports Dev’s. Their milestones count towards his climb, so its progress includes all three shifts.
At Stafford, Karen’s climb is to cut scrap to 3%, and Rachel’s climb to rewrite the first-off check supports it. The changeover times and the scrap rate come from Brindle’s production systems. The milestones are the steps planned to change them.
Tick a milestone to see the climb move, or switch to the Stafford climb.
Done when Changeovers on line two average 25 minutes or less for four weeks, on all three shifts.
- Earlies 6:00 to 14:00Train the earlies on the new changeoverIndividualWTWes
- Lates 14:00 to 22:00Train the lates on the new changeoverIndividualDWDonna
- Nights 22:00 to 6:00Train the nights team on the new changeoverIndividualLCLiam
At 3:40 on Thursday 5 November, a stack of finished boxes fell into the walkway at the end of line two at Telford. Nobody was hurt. Liam raised it as an issue on the Telford list at the nights huddle, two hours later.
At the Telford huddle on Tuesday, the team ranked it first. Stafford has the same stacker layout, so Dev moved the issue to the Operations list. Olivia, both plant managers, and Rachel are the Operations team, and they solve the problems that affect both plants.
On Wednesday the Operations team solved it and recorded the outcome as a standing rule. Standing rules go in the Rulebook, grouped by area, where everyone at both plants can find them.
Step through the issue from the nights huddle to the Rulebook.
- 1Feeder on line two jams on every shiftDW2 days
- 2Line one glue pot runs dry on latesDW9 days
Brindle is installing a new die-cutter at Stafford, and the work takes a whole year. In Headwater it is an initiative. An initiative is a project that runs from the start of one period to the end of another, and it works towards one of the plan’s pillars, which are its few main goals. This one runs from April 2026 to March 2027 and works towards the pillar “On time, in full”.
Each quarter has one climb for that stage of the project. Olivia ordered the machine from April to June, and Karen’s team prepared the floor from July to September. This quarter they are installing it, and next quarter they will commission it and train the operators. The initiative’s progress is the share of milestones ticked across all four climbs.
Choose a quarter to see its climb, or tick this quarter’s milestones to see the initiative move.
Done when The new die-cutter runs two shifts a day at Stafford.
Done when The order is signed, with delivery agreed for October.
- Agree the budget with Martin17 Apr
- Visit two machine makers15 May
- Choose the machine29 May
- Sign the order12 Jun
- Agree an October delivery26 Jun
Book a demo and we’ll show you how Headwater would run your week, from the vision down to Monday morning.