Get the high hanging fruit. Case Study: Hughenden teams up with Westmill Foods to embed their IBP process Harmony

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1 Case Study: Hughenden teams up with Westmill Foods to embed their IBP process Harmony

2 In ethnically diverse Britain, leading authentic foods company Westmill Foods has a veritable feast of planning challenges. Demand for specialist foods peaks during religious festivals like Ramadan, Diwali and Chinese New Year. With demographic sands in cities from Liverpool to Birmingham to Edinburgh always shifting, even planning for normal demand must be continually fine-tuned. Hughenden teams up with Westmill Foods to embed their IBP process called Harmony Westmill, which serves up popular brands like Patak s, Amoy and Habib to restaurants and takeaways, was a good business that aspired to be great. In early 2012, Jonathan Downes, supply chain director at Westmill Foods, suspected a key to making this leap was to introduce an integrated business planning (IBP) process to unite cross-functional departments to achieve shared goals. He explains, There were some links between planning processes but financial reporting and budget setting needed to be brought into the fold. I wanted the team to come together under clearly defined and joined-up processes, but without sacrificing the value in people s individual contributions. One of Jonathan s early moves was recruiting Phillip Thorndike, a process expert who had recently led Sales & Operational Planning for British Sugar. Phillip joined Westmill in the summer of 2013 to design and lead a new IBP project from scratch. To complement his strengths, Phillip sought experts to help motivate and involve Westmill s people. His vision was for employees across all business functions to get involved in designing and synching up the various processes so that change would be truly embedded and sustainable. Phillip decided that the right experts to support the people dimension of the IBP change were Hughenden Consulting. Phillip had met Hugh Williams (pictured), Hughenden s managing director, at an industry conference and recalled the lively, interactive and creative way in which he had chaired the event. Phillip had also taken part in one of Hughenden s Supply Chain Club meetings and was similarly impressed. Westmill also liked Hughenden s collaborative approach. Phillip elaborates: not only did Hughenden seem to have a knack for the people side of change, its people agreed from the outset to mentor and coach us rather than drive the change themselves. They were genuinely there to motivate our people to get involved, guide them towards the right processes and then hand over their know-how so that we could manage independently Hughenden Ltd Page 2 of 6

3 Involving the board Hughenden s first job was to present the IBP goals to Westmill s board. Hugh Williams set the scene, emphasising to board members that sustainable change hinged on leadership and being able to bring people along on the journey. The board members responded very positively. According to Jonathan, the board really got it and were eager to learn which parts of the businesses needed their support most urgently and how they could help make the change happen. Aligning IBP expectations In this collaborative effort, Phillip ran the first Alignment phase of the project, working with directors and senior people to align their expectations of IBP. Together they came up with a list of characteristics and steps involved for four different high-level process streams: product management demand supply integrated reconciliation For each high-level process area, the team then identified two centrepieces at the heart of each review. For instance, the demand review focused upon a phased and summary demand plan. The supply process stream included a capacity plan that would deliver against demand requirements. Process design workshops The next process design phase was comprised of four day-long IBP design workshops. Westmill ran the first product management workshop and Hughenden supported the subsequent workshops on demand, supply and integrated reconciliation. In these, teams of eight and 12 people worked on further defining each of the process areas established in the Alignment phase. This included agreeing the different review points, input and outputs, dependencies and the people and roles that should be involved at different stages. According to Phillip, The energisers really helped people in the groups get into the swing of things. In the supply management workshop, we even had people doing the Can-Can at one stage! Although that may sound a little frivolous, serious thought went into all of these exercises. To motivate Westmill s people, the workshops had to be stimulating and interactive - not a series of one-way presentations. Hughenden designed the workshops so that each day started with an energizer to break the ice and set the context for the day. For instance in the supply management workshop, the day started with a constellation -style exercise. Each team member put a plaque around their neck that represented a specific stage in a process. The group then mapped out the process by physically moving to the place that represented their stage in the process Hughenden Ltd Page 3 of 6

4 A pleasant surprise from the workshops was the extent to which they started driving the change then and there. When people could actually simulate how the processes might work in a production environment, they started flagging inconsistencies, duplications and other considerations, like the need for longer planning horizons. According to Phillip, This opened up people s eyes and developed a genuine desire to get involved with the change. Our new challenge became having to channel people s enthusiasm, without dampening it. With a collaborative process, it s important that you don t have some individuals running too far ahead of the pack. Harmony is born The collaborative IBP effort gave birth to Harmony, no longer to be considered a project, but a way of working to be embedded into Westmill and continually evolved and improved. Five stages would now live at the heart of the monthly planning process: Product management for a more focused approach to product management Demand for a consensus of what Westmill thinks it can sell Supply for more scenario planning to match supply and demand Integrated reconciliation for financial evaluation of the plan Management business review for a direct connection to board-defined strategy and performance Launch and communication Westmill had originally planned for managers to communicate the IBP programme to their respective teams using a PowerPoint and handing out paper briefing packs. However something didn t feel right to Phillip about using this conventional approach to launch such a collaborative, people-centred initiative. He explained his dilemma to Alain Vix at Hughenden and asked for suggestions on what to hand out at the day-long conference that would launch Harmony. A video would capture the spirit of the review meetings and the wide range of people involved in Harmony, from managing director Paul Kenward down and across the business areas Hughenden Ltd Page 4 of 6

5 Hughenden produced the video, which summarised and captured footage from each of the IBP work streams. The video featured interviews with Paul Kenwood, the Forecasting and Supply Manager Anton Kadouchkine, and Jonathan Downes, and used the Harmony theme to tie it all together. Each manager who attended the conference then received a branded USB stick, which included the video, a detailed briefing on Harmony and a presentation delivered by Alain Vix on the day, which offered a wider industry perspective on IBP. These USB briefing packs armed the managers with everything they needed to communicate Harmony to team members across the entire Westmill business. Achieving greatness Westmill has just completed the roll out of Harmony to all its product segments and will continue to focus upon its development throughout FY2015. The aim is to continually improve the process, embed operationally and deliver business benefits. Despite having only recently been introduced, some of these benefits are already shining though. Forecast accuracy is now regularly above 70 % and improving. This will be measured more formally when Harmony has been embedded long enough to make year-on-year measurements. Westmill also see positive changes to team culture and individual behaviour. Phillip explains: Because everyone is contributing to one set of numbers, people can see how their actions are shaping decisions. Hughenden This Consulting is extremely motivating. We also notice that people are much 6 Lancaster more court confident when it comes to flagging up risks and opportunities. Coronation These Road are the kinds of cultural changes that are taking us from good to great. High Wycombe HP12 3TD, England Tel +44 (0) Hughenden Ltd Page 5 of 6

6 Hughenden Consulting 6 Lancaster Court Coronation Road High Wycombe HP12 3TD, England Tel +44 (0) Hughenden Ltd Page 6 of 6