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Lean thinking implementation at a safari park

Lean thinking implementation

Denyse M. Julien and Benny Tjahjono Manufacturing Department, School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK

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Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a research project at a safari park in Buckinghamshire, UK. The aim is to introduce lean principles to the park, to enable the park to increase profits through eliminating waste and improving the efficiency of key processes whilst concurrently increasing customer satisfaction. The research is based on a case study approach within the organisation over a period of three months. The project team worked together with management and staff to deliver tangible benefits to the park. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a case study approach within the organisation over a period of three months. The project team worked together with management and staff to deliver tangible benefits to the park. The team adopted a three stage approach linked by two decision points and used a variety of lean tools to help map the current state of practices in the park and to identify areas for improvement in the park’s processes. Findings – The project succeeded in identifying several key areas for improvement. The current situation across a range of customer facing processes is mapped and through detailed analysis and simulations, recommendations for improvements have been delivered to the management. The scope of the project is broad and so for the purpose of this paper, only one key area will be elaborated on, feed logistics. Feed logistics is the distribution network of feed throughout the park from receipt from the suppliers, the storage locations, through to the preparation areas and ultimately the animals. Originality/value – The project demonstrated that in fact the underlying philosophies and tools of lean thinking can be used with significant benefits to drive improvements in the unusual setting of a safari park. The successful application of lean thinking into a safari park proved to be an extremely unique opportunity to observe the impact of those principles in generating both tangible and intangible benefits to that organisation. In particular, as discussed in this paper, the simplification of the feed network and distribution for the park eliminated waste in the form of movement, time and inventory. Keywords Business process re-engineering, Process efficiency, Waste minimization, Animal feed Paper type Case study

1. Introduction Lean thinking is all about adding value, where value is defined by the customer. Whilst lean thinking has its roots in manufacturing, there are numerous examples of its impact on operations in other sectors in particular the service sector. Woburn safari park (WSP) falls into the leisure sector and as with other similar organisations the customer interface for many aspects of experience with WSP is at the park during the actual customer experience. This closeness to the customer should be viewed as an advantage to any organisation interested in understanding and meeting their customers’ expectations. However, as with other similar businesses such as theme The following individuals are part of the project team and their contribution to the work reported herein is gratefully acknowledged: Mr Bryn Sharp, Mr Gregory Se´fe´rian, Mr Maxime Brichet, Mr Pablo Dı´az Gonza´lez, Mr Rene´ Madsen, Ms Sandra U. Ngueveu.

Business Process Management Journal Vol. 15 No. 3, 2009 pp. 321-335 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1463-7154 DOI 10.1108/14637150910960585

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parks, the closeness can also potentially be very risky especially in a business that depends heavily on word of mouth recommendations to attract customers (Mielke et al., 1998; Braun and Soskin, 1999). The management at WSP were interested in implementing lean thinking in the park as a part of the journey towards delivering on their stated mission to be financially secure whilst providing one of the UK’s premier leisure destinations and experiences.

322 2. Industrial context Consumer demand for leisure products and services fluctuates with the changing economy like other non-essential household commodities. Personal disposable income (PDI) is one of the key measures for the consumption of these “products”. The PDI in UK increased by an estimated 12 per cent between 2001 and 2006 (based on 2001 prices), exceeded by the growth of consumer expenditure, which grew by 14 per cent during the same period. These trends are expected to continue towards 2011 where PDI is projected to reach almost £878 billion and consumer expenditure over £836 billion (Mintel, 2006). Day-out activities saw an estimated 492 million visits to over 7,000 attractions in UK in 2005. The days out market is currently highly weather-sensitive, with around 40 per cent of all visits being taken in the months of July and August. With 47 per cent of visits initialised by asking friends or relatives for suggestions (Mintel, 2006), word-of-mouth is by far the most significant source of information for day out attractions to attract visitors. The day-out activities are spread out on different types of attractions where Wildlife attractions and Zoos combined accounts for 7 per cent of the visits. This number brings the total expected visitors to Wildlife attractions and Zoos in 2006 to 35 million. These visitors will be spread over nearly 500 Wildlife attractions and Zoos but where the top ten attractions will attract nearly six million visitors alone. 2.1 Company background WSP is part of the Woburn Estate, owned and run by the Duke of Bedford. The estate dates back to 1955 when Woburn Abbey was first opened to the public. Besides, Woburn Abbey and WSP, Woburn Estates consists of The Inn at Woburn, Woburn Golf and Country Club and the 3,000 acre Woburn deer park located by Woburn Abbey (Woburn, 2005). WSP opened in 1970 as the second safari park in UK. In 1972 the WSP had a record attendance of 1,000,218 customers where as the number of customers in 2005 was 449,402. Currently, there is a perception within the WSP senior management that the maximum number of visitors throughout the year should be no higher than 550,000 so as to not stress the animals (Woburn, 2005). From 1974, WSP was managed by a circus family, the facilities in the park were originally designed to last 25 years and during that time no attempt was made to renew the facilities. When the current management took over in 1993, apart from very low staff morale, the park was losing money and the facilities needing replacement. The management have managed to turn the park around and the park is now profitable and employs 68 full time staff. Owing to the nature of the business and the seasonal fluctuations about 200 seasonal staff are also engaged as needed. 63 per cent of the revenue comes from the entrance, 18 per cent from catering and 12-13 per cent from retail. Today, WSP is an award-wining attraction that makes a valuable contribution to conservation and research. The 121-hectare safari park offers

customers a full day out providing fun, entertainment and a relevant educational message. A day-out combines the excitement of the Safari Drive with the fun of taking the Foot Safari around the Wild World Leisure Area. A day out allows meeting the animals, enjoy the many demonstrations, keeper talks and feeding times. The organisation of WSP follows a typical functional structure consisting of seven areas: retail, education, animal collection, maintenance and facilities, leisure, administration, and catering. The current Chief Executive Officer believes there is a six-figure saving to be made by reducing overheads within the different departments in the park. 2.2 Project aim and objectives The aim of the project was to introduce lean thinking to WSP, to enable WSP to increase profits through eliminating waste and improving the efficiency of key processes whilst concurrently increasing customer satisfaction. Several objectives were defined to achieve the overall aim of the project, they were: . Understand the relationship between customer expectations and value-adding activities to direct focus appropriately. . Establish reference data that captures current processes and their associated resource requirement. Identify and prioritise key processes. . Analyse key processes to determine the flow of value, information, and resource. . Propose and validate possible improvements to key processes that would generate maximum benefits whilst having the shortest payback period. . Ensure improvement sustainability through obtaining employee buy-in and knowledge management. The list of deliverables as agreed on by the Cranfield team and the WSP management team were: . Process maps including As-Is and To-Be states. . Simulation models. . Resource planning tool. . Training documentation. . Improvement proposals. 3. Literature review 3.1 Lean definition Lean is not a set of tools. Instead, it is a philosophy of operation. Lean is about waste prevention whilst focusing on value for the customer in a flexible and responsive way to sustain and improve the business competitiveness. Although lean is a relatively new term, the philosophy can be traced back to the factories of Ford in 1920s and later in the Toyota Production System that developed from the 1950s until the present day (Bicheno, 2004; Womack and Jones, 1996; Womack et al., 1990). By using different investigative techniques, mapping tools, visual control concepts and incentive plans, lean allows positive change to happen. When applied to administrative processes for example, lean enables standardisation and waste elimination for a better utilisation of available resource.

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Womack and Jones (1996) describe five principles to create a lean manufacturing system. The five principles are: (1) Specify value (what makes the customer happy?). (2) Identify value stream (what is the sequence of processes from supplier to customer?). (3) Create flow (make the value flow and never delay a value-adding activity; do not batch production but make “one-at-a-time”). (4) Pull products through the system (only make what is required by the customer, when it is required). (5) Perfect the system (continuously improve the system by reducing waste). All lean initiatives begin by identifying what creates value for the customer. Understanding value and customer expectations is essential when improving operations. If value is not properly defined the result of improvement activities might well be making the wrong thing better, which in turn leads to an increase of waste. Any operation or process consist of value adding and non-value adding activities. All non-value adding activities are to be considered as waste. Since not all non-value activities can be eliminated lean operates with two types of waste – Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 wastes are activities that do not add value for the customer but that currently are necessary to maintain operation, for example by assisting management to control and run the business. Type 1 waste is easy to add but difficult to remove. The amount of necessary but non-value adding activities should be kept at a minimum and is normally reduced by simplification. Type 2 waste creates no value for any stakeholder and should be eliminated completely.

3.2 Lean tools Lean thinking uses a wide variety of powerful tools for standardisation and simplification. A few of the tools that were used extensively during the project are described in the following sections. 3.2.1 Process mapping. Once value is defined, mapping the process is essential to understand the value stream. Mapping the process creates a deeper understanding of the activities in the process. The outcome is a map that can be used as a description of the activities in the process – a standard or procedure to reduce variation in operations. Another very important outcome is a list of areas for improvement. The process of the creation of the map will help employees question the normal procedures and in effect be able to identify waste in current procedures. The benefits of process mapping when done by the users of the process are many (Julien, 2005): . It helps users to visualise the flow. . Makes it possible to see waste and causes of waste. . Provides a common understanding and language about processes. . Forms the basis of an implementation plan. . Creates buy-in from users which will ease implementation and help sustain the future situation.

3.2.2 5S. Often a lot of time is wasted searching for missing or misplaced items. A messy manufacturing or service production site is prone to errors and delays and the first step to improving activities and preparing for a flow production is to clean up the work space. 5S is just about that – basic house keeping. In the following section the 5Ss will be described briefly (Bicheno, 2004). 3.2.3 Sort. Throw out what is not used. Systematically, classify all items based on how frequently they are used and store, respectively. If never used or in doubt, red tag it or throw it out. Repeat the sorting stage on a regular basis. 3.2.4 Simplify. Locate tools and materials where used. This minimises searching and transport. Reduce number of items stored at workplace to the ones needed. Place items in an ergonomically way and reduce excessive movements. 3.2.5 Shine. Clean the work place at regular intervals and check while cleaning. Look out for any abnormality and identify root cause. This helps prevent accidents and malfunction. 3.2.6 Standardise. Standardising is the bottom line of 5S. Only when the workplace is sorted, simplified and swept does it become possible to create standards for doing the right job right first time. This includes giving every tool its own place and building in mechanisms for mistake proofing. 3.2.7 Sustain. All employees must participate in 5S and it requires self discipline to sustain a clean functional workplace. All employees must therefore on a regular basis be involved and participate in the 5S steps. The review of the 5S can be done by performing house keeping audits and reviewing work standards. Table I presents some examples of 5S as applied to different situations.

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3.3 Application of lean thinking in the service industry Lean enhances a more effective response to the needs of customers by providing faster and more valuable services. In a very competitive environment, lean is usually the solution to track costs while optimising some of the repetitive and wasteful steps, so as to obtain flexible and adaptive processes. When implementing lean it is essential to involve the staff mainly because they are the ones with the best understanding of the processes of the organisation, and because their involvement will help sustain the changes made (Drew et al., 2004). Although the lean philosophy can be transferred to the service industry, there are some differences between service and manufacturing that are important to consider if Inventory Sort

Throw out all dead and excessive stock Simplify Arrange stock in best positions Shine Regularly review dated stock and ABC category changes Standardise “Footprints” for location of stock Sustain Audit ABC part classification with regular intervals

Workplace

Suppliers

Remove tools not used to carry out operation Arrange workplace so everything is easy to reach Keep the workplace clean and tidy

Select the best two in each category and scrap the rest Cut all wasteful, duplicate transactions Improve supplier performance by cooperation and improvement projects Payment procedures

Every item its own place Everybody participate and are responsible for continuous improvements

Audit performance Table I. 5S examples

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lean implementation is to be successful. One of these differences is the definition of value (Bowen and Youngdahl, 1998). In a manufacturing context, the value of a product is often closely related to the specific functionality of the product and it is therefore relatively easy to distinguish between value adding and non-value adding activities. In the service sector, however, the customer is – in many occasions and specifically in WSP – directly involved in the production of the service. This has the effect that on top of the naturally large difference in customer expectations the rapport between staff and customer has a significant impact on the added value perceived by the customer. Akama and Kieti (2003) measured the customer satisfaction at a wildlife safari in Kenya by employing 29 attributes, of which 17 of them measuring the quality of service given by the staff. They clearly indicated the added value of the national park. Mayaka (2002), on his study at a wildlife national park in Cameroon, expressed similar findings but focusing on the sustainability of the park. A study at a Spanish-Mediterranean theme park was reported by Bigne´ et al. (2005). They analysed factors influencing customers’ satisfaction and tested these factors in order to better understand the perceived value of the park, in the form of, e.g. excitement, pleasure, loyalty, etc. Mielke et al. (1998) developed an information system to help visitors plan their visit by better estimating the queue length at each attraction at two local theme parks in Virginia, USA. The system allows the theme parks’ staff to advise the customers as to minimise waiting time by following a specific attraction order, or even to avoid obstacles of a concern to handicapped customers. 4. Methodology The methodology upon which the study described in this paper is based was a case study, where WSP approached Cranfield University for assistance with looking for ways to improve their overall performance. The case based methodology is of particular relevance in new or emerging situations where not much is known about the particular area under study (Hartley, 1994). Case-based research is particularly effective at examining a phenomenon in the context of its real business environment (Yin, 2003). The novelty of the particular application to the faculty in the Department of Manufacturing combined with the need to have people on the ground to understand the business context made it a good fit with the case-based approach. The project approach consisted of first understanding the big picture in order to be able to have enough perspective before moving to a lower level of detail. Subsequently, the challenge was to focus on the key areas of improvement and to work out the most feasible solutions to achieve the aim of the project. The team undertook a methodology based on the objectives split into three main stages as outlined in Figure 1, which are linked by two decision points in collaboration with the WSP senior management team. During the first stage, the departments of WSP were analysed to get a clear overview of what is going on in the park and to identify each department’s major activities. This phase was the occasion to highlight the areas for potential improvements. Many semi-structured interviews and brainstorming sessions were performed during this stage of data gathering and process selection with employees of WSP at all levels of the organisation. This helped the team to get a clear overview about the key areas, and to create maps for the most important activities.

Lean thinking implementation Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

• Objective 1: • 21 activities identified • Description of activities • Reference data • Resource requirements

• Objective 3: • Analysis of key areas • As-is maps • Flow of value • Flow of information • Flow of resources

• Objectives 4 & 5: • Short term actions • Detailed analysis • To-be maps • Simulation experimentation • Quantified benefits • Sustainability • Recommendations

• Objective 2: • Key success factors • Customer expectations • Value adding • Relationships

Decision point Matrix analysis

Decision point Meeting with Management

The WSP key measures of success were also obtained, these key measures reflect the parameters that the senior management wants to improve or, at least, to keep at the same level. These key measures were used as decision criteria to determine the areas on which to focus in the later stages of the project. During the meeting at the end of Stage 1 a matrix linking the key measures to 21 key processes identified was created and used to help the team agree on the focus going forward given the limitation in time (Figure 2). The output of this review meeting was an agreement to focus on entrance management, customer flow, feed logistics, retail inventory management and resource allocation within maintenance. Finally, the key factors to consider when investigating these five areas further were: internal customer service level, external customer service level, number of man hours and profit. In the second stage, the current state maps were produced for the five key processes identified. The goal of this stage was to identify the waste in these activities in terms of money, time, transportation and other parameters. To highlight the wastes different tools were used depending on the activities each department was responsible for. A variety of tools and techniques were used including simulation, spreadsheets, integrated computer-aided manufacturing definition language diagrams, flowcharts and process charts. The findings were presented for validation to the staff concerned at a second review meeting. At this meeting it was decided in collaboration with WSP senior management that the resource allocation section of the project be stopped. The Maintenance Department had many constraints that made it difficult to include it in the first wave, and it would potentially have a negative impact and perception on the initiative. In the final stage, the four areas were analysed more deeply in order to elaborate future state maps. Again, these areas are very different and the work was not

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Figure 1. Project stages

Key WSP factors Customer service level (internal) Customer service level (external) Number of Manhours Per capita spend Profit Guest refferals Staff retention Number of staff/animals Brand awareness Total/activity Total

Coefficient

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Creative learning

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Inventory management Retail functions Management Sales revenue Growth 3

Catering Customer research

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Entrance management Company communication 3

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Events Management 3 6

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Transport management Enclosure monitoring (People and animals)

Education Water management 1 2

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Animals welfare systems 4

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Health and safety

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Resource allocation

Figure 2. Decision matrix 4

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Grounds maintenance

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necessarily to find the solutions to the problems, but rather to develop recommendations to help WSP reach a leaner situation. This paper will present the results from one key area; feed logistics. Feed logistics is the management and distribution of feed throughout the park from receipt from the suppliers, into the storage locations, through to the preparation areas and ultimately to the animals. 5. Feed logistics – current state Feed logistics covers all the activities related to the feed acquisition, storage, preparation and distribution. There are two main areas of investigation within feed logistics: the flow of feed from supplier to animal and the flow of information in the other direction (Figure 3). The first flow has been called dispatch system. It includes all the movements, storage locations, transport and distribution of feed. The flow of information includes the dietary demand of each animal, the requirements of each team based on the demand of the animals in their area and the orders based on the aggregated requirements across all the teams.

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5.1 Downstream flow: dispatch system The dispatch network for the Animals Encounters area is presented in Figure 4. Whilst it is the simplest of all the networks that were mapped during the project, it illustrates some of the complexity that has developed in the systems over time. It shows the dispatching activity of the different types of food and their frequencies and movements within the park from supplier through to the end consumer – the different animals. The suppliers deliver to three major warehouses on the park: Main warehouse, Antelope warehouse and Hay warehouse. The food is then dispatched to secondary warehouses, which currently include encounters Carnivore store area; Rhinoceros preparation area; Giraffe preparation area and Elephant store area. From these secondary warehouses the teams provide the food to the animals they are responsible for. The dispatch process is performed according to different frequencies defined by the animal requirements and constraints of WSP. Within the current dispatch system, different patterns have been identified in the food preparation; some of the teams prepare the food in the warehouse, some in the secondary warehouses, some in the preparation areas and some prepare the food directly in front of the animal. No proper inventory control management is currently performed. Each employee is in charge of Dispatch system

Suppliers

WSP

Teams

Demand upstream information flow

Animals

Figure 3. Feed logistics flows

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Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly – Thu) Dry Food Antelope (Weekly – Tue) warehouse

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Lorikeets Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu)

Dry Food (Daily) Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu) Encounters

Parrot Food (1/2 months)

Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu)

Fish (Monthly)

Meat ?

Meat ?

Figure 4. Feed dispatch network in the encounter area (current state)

Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu)

Fish (Daily) Main warehouse

Monkeys

Sea Lions

Parrot Food (Every 1 to 2 months Fish (2 to 3 times / week)

visually checking the quantities in the different locations, and depending on the level of stock, the decision of whether to re-order or not is taken. 5.2. Upstream information flow The sequence for ordering feedstuff is as follows. Senior members of staff will monitor stock in the feed store on a weekly basis and draw up what is needed for the following week. If the animal teams do not send their requirements, the person in charge of ordering assumes that amount the required to be ordered is equal to the amount ordered the week before. Orders are then brought to the Animal Head Office for the Secretary or Department Manager to give a code, work out which supplier for which product and then place a phone or fax order. Stock delivered is cross-referenced using the purchase order. Invoices for each purchase are coded by the Department Manager or his secretary and charged to the relevant budget. Suppliers are chosen that can offer the best price, discounts and availability. The keepers are aware of animal requirements, this awareness and knowledge is not documented and is only held in the minds of staff. Currently, the concerned people have a clear knowledge of the animal requirements; however they do not have a system containing all the information, the system is based on each member of staff’s individual knowledge. In order to understand the animal requirements and therefore the demand, the team has carried out an exhaustive documentation of the diets of the animals. This information was gathered with spreadsheets provided to the team leaders of the different Animal teams. The information asked for each animal was: the products provided (.100 across the park), the frequency (.40 different diets), the quantity and the measure that they use to prepare the feed (.25 measuring units used, scoops, handful, units, bunches, etc.).

Once the diets for each animal were gathered the team then consolidated the requirements for all the animals in the park and linked them with their respective suppliers and costs. No information with this level of detail previously existed within the park, with the analysis demonstrating that the park had seven key suppliers two of which represent 65 per cent of expenditures. The keepers do not perceive any added value to spending time on activities such as handling of feed, administration tasks or warehouse management, the perception is that time spent with the animals is more value adding.

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6. Feed logistics – future state The work carried out and the recommendations made regarding the two main areas for improvement identified will be presented in the following section. Specifically, the dispatch system and the feed requirements will be the main focus. 6.1 Dispatching improvement Three different scenarios were developed for the different parts of the on-site distribution networks. The grouping used was around very clear end consumers’ (i.e. the animals and their teams of keepers) needs and locations in the park. Revised networks were created to demonstrate the reduction in complexity in movements around the park, along with their potential savings. The different proposals and recommendations will allow animal collection staff to estimate the pay back period and to decide whether or not implement them. For continuity only Scenario 1 will be presented which focuses on the animal encounters network. In this scenario, feed for animal encounters is directly delivered to the animal encounters warehouse and the other two intermediate storage locations are bypassed (Figure 5). From the current state map, double handling from the primary warehouses

Suppliers

Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu)

Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly – Thu)

Parrot food (1/2 months)

Lorikeets

Dry food (Weekly – Tue) Encounters Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu)

Fish (Monthly) Meat ?

Fruit & Vegetable (Weekly -Thu) Parrot food (Every 1 to 2 months Fish (2 to 3 times / week)

Monkeys

Sea Lions

Figure 5. Feed dispatch network in the encounter area (future state)

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to the animal encounter warehouse was identified. WSP staff is responsible for moving the feed around the park once the supplier has delivered it. This scenario proposes that the intermediate warehouses are removed in order to reduce waste and also reduces the footprint by having the suppliers deliver direct to the final location. The need to modify the layout of animal encounters warehouse to accommodate the change, and also to either invest in a fridge or to move the fridge of the main warehouse to animal encounters warehouse to be able to keep the fresh food, was also identified. Some of the expected improvements and benefits would be the reduction of the daily dry food and fish transfers. In addition, the weekly delivery of fruit and vegetables from the intermediate warehouse was pure waste as the supplier was also on a weekly delivery pattern. The total savings calculated from simplifying the flow of materials in this area alone was £4,663.41. 6.2 Upstream information flow The goal here was to develop a system which provides better visibility to the keepers and the animal department. The system was named the animal resource-planning (ARP) tool that was designed using Microsoft Excel. The ARP is able to display and update the feed requirements of all the animals (and therefore the demand), and also to plan and forecast the resources required based on accurate information regarding demand, suppliers and cost (Figure 6). This system also displays the breakdown of cost by teams and animals and should show the impact of changing the diets and number of animals. The ARP tool combines three linked databases (Figure 7) covering the following information flows: (1) Teams and animal management – contains information about the number and types of animals in a sector, and also the teams responsible for that group of animals. (2) Feed management – contains a list of feed products and their specifications that are used to feed the animals. The information can be used to calculate the cost of feeding the animals.

Figure 6. Animal resource planning (ARP)

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Management of teams and animals

Product-supplierscosts-nutrients

Figure 7. ARP databases

(3) Feeding base – contains the feeding details within the park such as quantities, frequencies, weights and costs. Different reports can be generated by running different queries to the databases. The diets for every animal in the database can be produced, or grouped by species. Nutritional information on the feed products, i.e. the suppliers and which animals consume it, can also be generated. The tool also allows the management of the teams to look at the teams, size and animals in their care. Overall, it has provided increased visibility across a number of dimensions that will facilitate the removal and reduction of waste. Some of the expected benefits would be: . Reduction of inventory levels due to more accurate forecasts of requirements. . Improved welfare of animals: diets are monitored and can be adjusted. . Improved employee satisfaction: better understanding of tasks. . Improved management of the Animal Collection Department. This tool improves decision-making through showing accounting visibility. 7. Conclusion The key learning from this research project is that when focusing on customer value and elimination of waste across functional boundaries it is possible to produce large savings and increase profit without affecting customer experience negatively. The recommendations, tools and training material provided by the team can, if used consistently, empower management and staff of WSP to continuously improve processes

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throughout the park and focus on value-adding activities. From the areas analysed in this project a potential annual bottom line improvement of £91,000 was identified. Through the increased understanding of the processes and their relationships throughout the park, it becomes possible to provide the right information at the right time to customers. A better understanding and a focus on value for the customer leads to improved scheduling of events and staffing, which combined with better customer information enables the customers to enjoy a full day out at WSP completely, hence increase the external customer service level. Mapping processes and value streams within WSP also increases the understanding of the internal customers (i.e. WSP staff) and their expectations which is the first step towards increasing the service level. Providing staff with an understanding of the entire value stream for the external customers creates an understanding on how staff internally can help each other in providing better service. This along with involvement of staff in implementing lean also increases employee satisfaction and in effect staff retention. Implementing lean principles at WSP has only just begun. Throughout the project the team has worked closely with WSP management and staff to initialise this journey. Through this process, the team has proven that lean principles can be applied successfully in the service industry. During the project some of WSP management’s perceptions have been challenged by the findings in the four key areas analysed. The project has given WSP a greater understanding of the “DNA” of the park, and the deliverables and recommendations will help them improve customer experience as well as profitability.

References Akama, J.S. and Kieti, D.M. (2003), “Measuring tourist satisfaction with Kenya’s wildlife safari: a case study of Tsavo West National Park”, Tourism Management, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 73-81. Bicheno, J. (2004), The New Lean Toolbox: Towards Fast, Flexible Flow, PICSIE Books, Buckingham. Bigne´, J.E., Andreu, L. and Gnoth, J. (2005), “The theme park experience: an analysis of pleasure, arousal and satisfaction”, Tourism Management, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 833-44. Bowen, D.E. and Youngdahl, W.E. (1998), “‘Lean’ service: in defense of a production-line approach”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 207-25. Braun, B.M. and Soskin, M.D. (1999), “Theme park competitive strategies”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 439-43. Drew, A., McCallum, B. and Roggenhofer, S. (2004), Journey to Lean: Making Operational Change Stick, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. Hartley, J.F. (1994), in Cassell, C. and Simon, G. (Eds), Case Studies in Organisational Research, Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research: a Practical Guide, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Julien, D.M. (2005), “Lean manufacturing overview”, unpublished – notes from Consultancy Tools 2 module. Mayaka, T.B. (2002), “Wildlife Co-Management in the Be´noue´ National Park-Complex, Cameroon: A Bumpy Road to Institutional Development”, World Development, Vol. 30 No. 11, pp. 2001-16.

Mielke, R., Zahralddin, A., Padam, D. and Mastaglio, T. (1998), “Simulation applied to theme park management”, Proceedings of the 1998 Winter Simulation Conference, Vol. 1998, pp. 1199-203. Mintel (2006), “Days Out – UK – April 2006, internet resource”, available at: http://reports.mintel. com/sinatra/reports/search_results/show&&type¼ RCItem&page¼ 0&noaccess_page ¼0/display/id¼ 173594 (accessed June 3, 2006). Woburn, A. (2005), Woburn Fifty Years on: A Celebration of Opening 1955-2005, Jarrold Publishing, Norwich. Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T. (1996), Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Simon & Schuster Ltd, London. Womack, J.P., Roos, D. and Jones, D.T. (1990) The Machine That Changed the World: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5-Million-Dollar, 5-Year Report on the Future of the Automobile Industry, Rawson Associates, New York, NY. Yin, K. (2003), Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd ed., Sage, Newbury Park, CA. About the authors Denyse M. Julien is a Senior Lecturer and the Course Director for MSc in Manufacturing Consultancy. She has been involved in research focusing on issues surrounding supply chain management and managing manufacturing particularly at the approach to the development of supply chain strategies that balance value for both shareholders and customers. She has extensive experience working for a large multinational company involved in the area of defining the approaches to managing the supply network to guarantee the promised quality at the point of consumption. She was subsequently promoted into an internal consultant role implementing best practices in the area of materials handling across the various operating companies spanning the Asian, African and Oceania region. She has continued to develop on her interests in both Supply Chain Management and Quality Management and in particular the fusion of the two areas. Benny Tjahjono is a Lecturer and the Director for Manufacturing Masters Programme. He has a strong academic, research and industrial background in modelling and analysis of manufacturing systems. He has been working closely with global companies such as Ford and Rolls-Royce on a number of industrially funded projects associated with the decision making process using discrete-event simulation. The companies have been able to gain benefits from the projects which typically include inventory reduction, productivity improvements and design/redesign of production facilities, which all contributed to the improved competitiveness and persistent growth of the companies’ manufacturing operations. Benny Tjahjono is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

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