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Tag: #Lean

122 Hours Saved Per Year: 5S Workplace Organisation at S-MIC QC

Posted on by Lee Walker

Sometimes the most powerful improvements come from creating order where there was none. The S-MIC QC team engaged Walker Business Transformation to deliver a 5S workplace organisation programme across five operational areas including sample receipt, equipment storage, QC storage, plate reading, and speciation.

The Challenge

Disorganised workspaces, unclear labelling, and inefficient layouts were consuming time across every area. Staff were spending minutes searching for items that should have been immediately to hand. Multiply that across a team and across a year and the cost in time and money becomes significant.

What We Did

WBT delivered 5S training to the QC team in September and October 2023, then worked alongside them to systematically apply Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise, and Sustain across each work area. Named team members were assigned accountability for each area with clear progress milestones and sustainability reviews.

The Results

  • 122 hours saved per year across all areas
  • 3,959 pounds in cost savings via workplace organisation
  • Sample Receipt: 22.4 hours per year saved
  • Equipment Storage: 15 hours per year saved
  • Plate Reading: 42.7 hours per year saved
  • Speciation: 41.9 hours per year saved

5S is often underestimated. But when a team can always find what they need, where they need it, when they need it, they spend less time searching and more time doing work that matters.

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker. Call 07736 379911 or email info@wbt.org.uk

Building a Team That Improves Itself: Lean at the Wellcome Sanger Spatial Genomics Team

Posted on by Lee Walker

Continuous improvement in a scientific research team starts with helping people see their own work differently. The Spatial Genomics team at Wellcome Sanger Institute were a relatively new team using cutting-edge techniques. With a scale-up deadline approaching and all delivery under strict Covid restrictions, they needed to analyse and improve their processes quickly.

The Challenge

The team needed to operate at a significantly higher scale from early 2021 but their processes had never been systematically mapped or improved. Lab layout was complex. Sample tracking was consuming significant time. And all of this needed to be resolved through remote delivery.

What We Did

WBT designed and delivered a series of half-day collaborative workshops, blending Lean learning with live improvement activity. The team were helped to understand their processes in their entirety including the people, process, and technology.

Key outputs included a redesigned lab layout using optimal flow principles, a visual management board for real-time sample tracking, smaller batch size experiments, and Statistical Process Control (SPC) measures developed by the team themselves.

The Results

  • New lab designed using optimal flow methods and implemented
  • Visual management board introducedcontinuous improvement scientific research team with every sample tracked in real time
  • Research scientist customers receiving data back faster with significantly fewer queries
  • Team fully self-sufficient in continuous improvement, owning and driving their own change agenda

“By learning to see our process through a Lean lens we were able to identify the waste steps, which primarily revolved around wasting significant amounts of time tracking samples.”

Minal Patel, Senior Scientific Manager, Wellcome Sanger Institute

“Spatial is no longer something I stress about. I know they are doing the critical thinking and improvements for themselves and they are just on top of things now.”

Rachel Nelson, Senior Scientific Manager, Wellcome Sanger Institute

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker. Call 07736 379911 or email info@wbt.orWalker Business Transformation helped the Wellcome Sanger Spatial Genomics team prepare to operate at scale, redesign their lab, and build the confidence and tools to drive continuous improvement themselves.g.uk

From 28 Days to 9: Eliminating a Backlog in the Wellcome Sanger Genotyping Lab

Posted on by Lee Walker

Lean Six Sigma laboratory improvement delivered dramatic results at the Wellcome Sanger Genotyping Lab. Following a period of staff turnover, the team was in difficulty. A backlog of 160 plates had built up. Processing times had stretched to 28 days. Clients were chasing work daily and some had already begun outsourcing to third-party suppliers.

The Challenge

Newer team members lacked the skills to handle the full range of work. Experienced staff were cherry-picking easier plates, leaving the hardest work untouched. The team had no shared understanding of their own performance.

What We Did

WBT applied a Systems Thinking approach, helping the team see how their work actually flowed, not how they assumed it did.

  • Introduced 5S, all work organised in date order, eliminating cherry picking
  • Developed team-owned performance measures using Statistical Process Control (SPC)
  • Introduced daily huddles around a shared work board
  • Built skills transfer into daily workflow with experienced staff coaching newer members on harder plates in real time

The Results

  • Processing time reduced from 28 days to under 9 days
  • Backlog reduced from 160 to 23 plates
  • Approximately 30 daily client chase requests eliminated entirely

The team moved from working as individuals to operating as one unit with shared accountability and daily improvement routines embedded into how they worked.

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker. Call 07736 379911 or email info@wbt.org.uk

30% Capacity Opportunity: Cross-Site Lean Review at i2 Analytical

Posted on by Lee Walker

Lean process mapping revealed extraordinary efficiency opportunities at i2 Analytical, a growing commercial analytical laboratory business operating across seven sites in the UK. As the business scaled, manual processes and fragmented systems were consuming capacity and limiting growth. They engaged Walker Business Transformation to understand the true efficiency of their Order-to-Invoice lifecycle.

The Challenge

One process in Watford alone had 92 steps, involved 6 different systems and 3 roles, and took over 5 hours per instance. Of those 92 steps, only 10 added direct value. That pattern was repeated across the business.

What We Did

WBT conducted a comprehensive cross-site Lean review, mapping over 200 processes across Laboratory Operations, Customer Services, Logistics, Administration, and Invoicing, all captured using the Engage Process platform.

  • Heavy reliance on Outlook and Excel for core operations identified
  • Multiple incompatible LIMS platforms mapped across sites
  • Widespread duplication and manual data handling documented
  • Lack of standardisation at process handoff points identified
  • Invoicing dependencies causing regular manual rework uncovered

The Results

  • 200+ processes mapped across 7 sites
  • Up to 30% of operational resource releasable through redesign and automation
  • 92 steps to 10 value-adding steps identified in one single process

A Target Operating Model was designed, unifying CRM, LIMS, and invoicing into a single integrated framework with a strategic roadmap and five prioritised next steps for implementation.

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker. Call 07736 379911 or email info@wbt.org.uk

Mapping 124,000 Calls to Transform a Telecare Service: Bradford Council Safe & Sound

Posted on by Lee Walker

Bradford Council’s Safe & Sound service provides a vital lifeline — keeping vulnerable residents safe, supported, and living independently. When the service needed to strengthen operational performance and manage growing demand, Bradford Council engaged Walker Business Transformation to carry out a rapid Lean review.

The Challenge

The service was experiencing rising demand without a clear picture of what was driving it. Not all demand is equal — some calls represent genuine need, others represent failure demand created by the system itself. Without understanding the difference, it’s impossible to make the right improvements.

What We Did

WBT applied a data-led, frontline-focused methodology across the full service:

  • Analysed 124,000+ calls to separate Value Demand from Failure Demand
  • Mapped 13 end-to-end processes and 19 sub-processes
  • Facilitated collaborative improvement workshops with operational teams
  • Prioritised initiatives using a benefit-versus-effort framework
  • Launched immediate high-impact actions to build early momentum

Key Findings

  • 80% of total demand generated by just 8 call types
  • ~60% of call volume from just 20 frequent callers
  • Demand peaked consistently between 10:00 and 17:00 — enabling precise workforce planning

The Results

Response times improved by around 10 seconds within weeks of early actions being implemented. Clear evidence-based pathways were identified to accelerate service resilience, reduce avoidable demand, and enable sustainable growth — without proportional cost increases.

For a service protecting vulnerable people, every second of improved response time matters.

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker — 07736 379911 | info@wbt.org.uk | www.wbt.org.uk

From 19 Days to 2.5 Days: How Lean Transformed Covid-19 Genome Sequencing at Wellcome Sanger Institute

Posted on by Lee Walker

Lean process improvement in scientific research can deliver results that seem impossible. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the Wellcome Sanger Institute faced an extraordinary challenge: scale genome sequencing from a few thousand samples per week to tens of thousands, with a turnaround time of 19.5 days. The government needed results in days, not weeks.

Walker Business Transformation was brought in to help.

The Challenge

The Covid-19 Genomics Surveillance Project (Heron) had grown from a small-scale operation into one of the most critical scientific programmes in the UK. The existing process was not designed for this scale. Every day of delay meant slower insight into how the virus was spreading and mutating.

What We Did

We deployed a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) methodology — working alongside the Sanger team to map the end-to-end pipeline, identify root causes of delay, and implement targeted improvements at every stage of the process.

Critically, we didn’t just fix the immediate problem. We embedded continuous improvement capability within the team itself — so they could sustain and scale improvement independently.

The Results

  • 19.5 days → 2.5 days — turnaround time for genome sequencing
  • 1,500 → 64,000 — samples processed per week
  • 43x scale-up in throughput achieved

“WBT consultants were essential to the success of the Covid-19 Genomics Surveillance Project at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. By bringing continuous improvement into the culture of all teams involved in the project, we have been able to deliver unprecedented numbers of high-quality genome sequences of Covid-19 to the British Government and the scientific community. WBT drove considerable improvements on turnaround times from more than 19 days to less than 3 days and provided fundamental counsel at important decision-making instances.”

— Senior Scientific Manager, Wellcome Sanger Institute

The Lesson

The Sanger project demonstrates what’s possible when Lean methodology meets genuine operational urgency. The process improvements weren’t theoretical — they were designed collaboratively with the people doing the work, tested quickly, and scaled at pace.

Whether your organisation faces a scaling challenge, a quality problem, or simply too much time consumed by work that adds no value — the same principles apply.

Could your organisation benefit from a similar approach?
Book a free 30-minute diagnostic call with Lee Walker — 07736 379911 | info@wbt.org.uk | www.wbt.org.uk