Productivity reigns in Redcliff, Alberta
Lyle Aleman, operations manager at Red Hat Co-operative Ltd., is helping to bring new lean practices to his venerable employer. Red Hat is a grower-owned co-operative that’s been an Alberta fixture for 40 years. All 60 members produce greenhouse veggies and send them to the Red Hat facility to be graded and packaged. Red Hat distributes them across Canada and the US. And it’s a busy outfit; since 1998 the Co-op has doubled its output. There was a general assumption that it was time to expand.
“We had been looking at a $3 million expansion,” says Aleman. “In the end we figured that it wasn’t the direction to go.” Aleman ended up attending a Medicine Hat District Chamber of Commerce-sponsored workshop on lean practices. “It was the perfect timing for us to evaluate how we do things.”
After the Productivity Alberta assessment Red Hat looked into hiring a lean consultant. When the people they’d hired from ProSolve Consulting Ltd. walked in and said ‘we can do a lot for you,’ Aleman was skeptical. “But once we went through the process with the consultant, we saw that we didn’t have to add on. We could use the existing facility more efficiently.” Projections indicate that the current facility, with renovations, will be able to handle an additional 30% of produce and require no extra space. Red Hat undertook plans with an eye to the future. “Businesses make decisions based on immediate requirements,” Aleman says. But by thinking ahead, Red Hat was able to avoid putting a maintenance shop in where they might choose to have a palletizer in future years, for example.
“The plan really opens up the plant,” says Aleman. Packaging, for example, is delivered to the correct location, where workers can start using it right away, rather than having to store it temporarily and move it for later use. The biggest factor for him was the removal of interior walls. “I’ve been working here for 10 years,” he says. “You just get used to the walls being there and think you have to work with it.” The disappearing walls mean fewer corners for arbitrary storage, which means that Red Hat has to deal with goods that they could previously set aside and ignore.
Only a few months into the lean process, the Co-op has been undertaking training with key supervisors. They have been evaluating what they need to have on the floor and in storage. “Real estate is valuable,” Aleman says. “If stuff is out there and you haven’t looked at it for three months, you have to ask what it’s doing there.”
Everything in and around the shop has been tagged accordingly. The Co-op members met in November and approved the renovations to take place during their seasonal downtime in December and January.
It’s not as simple as just ordering renos. Red Hat, like other companies, has to make sure that any new undertaking is in keeping with existing health and safety and food safety programs. But some lean practices will actually make keeping it up easier.
“One goal was to reduce forklift travel. Once you do that, you have reduced opportunities for accidents.” Renovations will reduce forklift travel between package lines by 90%.
Instead of adding an extra 30,000 square feet to the building, Red Hat will be making their existing structure more efficient, and not incurring additional property and utility expenses. “It’ll still cost us money to renovate, but not nearly as much,” Aleman says.
For more information on Red Hat Co-operative Ltd., visit their website
Visit Productivity Alberta’s Productivity Improvement Services to learn how an on-site assessment can start you on your own pathway to productivity improvement.
