Jersey Dairy is located on the island of Jersey and is owned by a cooperative of 20 farmers. All their products are made from milk produced exclusively by the finest pure-breed Jersey cows, which can trace the purity of lineage back to 1763.
Business Improvement Project
Alan James (Production Manager) and Wayne Sparks (Assistant Production Manager) participated in the Business Improvement Programme focussing their project on the ice-cream production process. Jersey Dairy produces 2.25million litres of soft serve ice cream which equates to approximately 22million cones of ice cream per year.
During the Business Improvement programme, the team learnt new skills and demonstrated good use of process mapping, Pareto charting, problem solving and 5S. As they began the project they created a high level value stream map of the ice cream production line, and this remains displayed in the company’s training room. It has become a focal point of group discussion and has highlighted many opportunities for improvement, ranging from duplication, bottle-necks and excessive paper work.
There is high number of ice cream recipes, and standardisation of these will greatly assist in reducing some of the issues outlined above.
A key tool used in the team’s analysis was an Ishikawa diagram which displayed the root causes which can lead to high operational costs.
Improvements and benefits
- Removal of the need to add flavouring at post-pasteurisation – this will reduce processing tie by 37.5hrs per year on the vanilla production line alone.
- Reduction in the risk of post-contamination and improvement of micro biology results – one mistake can cost the business £3,600.00 and the improvement made will aim to eliminate this from happening in the future.
- Replacement of artisan vanilla flavour profile with commercial vanilla – annual cost reduction £18,000.00
- Reduction of paper work and duplication –
- Upgrade of tank / VAT capacity – an investment of £6,200 that will be paid back within one year and which will continue to benefit the company every year thereafter
- The team have begun to analyse start-up waste with a focus on standardisation of temperatures – this has the potential to save £6,300 per annum.
Overall, the project plans to save £37,500 per annum with a CAPEX cost of £6,200.00
"The course was very good and extremely helpful. It gave us a better insight on how we can move our business without the need of spending huge amounts of money."
Alan James
Production Manager, Jersey Dairy
Project benefits
"The focus is on simplifying the way we work and reducing wastage from each and every process we do, we would recommend this course to any and every company."
The aim of the Business Improvement Programme is to support established organisations to become more efficient and to deliver sustainable growth that will create market competitiveness and a solid operational platform for the future. It is managed by Jersey Business, funded by the Government of Jersey and delivered by Accelerate.
