Meet Steve McNamara, appointed to head up our Continuous Improvement team
As part of an on-going drive to invest in the future of the British agricultural industry, pig and poultry feed manufacturer ABN has appointed Steve McNamara to head up its new Continuous Improvement (CI) team, overseeing operations across AB Agri UK’s monogastric businesses.
Having taken up the position as Head of Continuous Improvement in December 2022, Mr McNamara has already introduced a series of initiatives designed to bring to life the philosophy of development and improvement, while linking in with the strong sustainability agenda across all AB Agri businesses.
“By investing in our own infrastructure, we are showing a commitment to investing in British agriculture, by providing the best level of service and support, and the highest quality products to our customers,” says Mr McNamara.
“Continuous improvement and investing in talent are key pillars in our approach to driving the business forward, and I am delighted to be initiating and introducing methodologies that will ultimately be rolled out across all business processes, across our supply chain,” he adds.
Everyday Excellence
In his first five months in the role, Mr McNamara and his team have initially focussed on the mill operations, introducing a new programme entitled ‘Everyday Excellence’.
“In essence, it is a simple approach, with the aim to be ‘a bit better every day’. The programme focusses on operational excellence, and doing what we do, really well,” explains Mr McNamara.
“It starts with serving the customer of-course, but works back through the supply chain, and is about our aspirations to achieve world-class manufacturing and to be the best possible producer of compound animal feed,” he adds.
Mr McNamara’s team have already been involved in some specific targeted work with the teams at two of ABNs manufacturing sites, based around the concept of ‘world-class asset care’ and ‘focused improvement’.
“World-class asset care means how we manage and maintain equipment, and importantly the engagement of our people. This is not a top-down approach, it is very much bottom up, getting our colleagues involved and encouraging high engagement,” he continues.
“Focused improvement is about understanding whether there are opportunities at each location to do things better, and to define and launch specific project-based activities to improve,” he adds.
This involves supporting the teams at our sites to lead on projects, forming a programme of coaching to develop capabilities in order to make improvements, all of which are very much led by the team. Part of this focused improvement also includes energy efficiency and savings, matching up with ABN’s sustainability commitments.
Continuous Skills Development
“Another emphasis of the ‘Everyday Excellence’ programme is ‘Continuous Skills Development’, and investing in our people,” adds Mr McNamara.
“It is about ensuring we have got excellent processes to define people’s roles, and ensuring they are capable and competent in those roles, through a structured training programme,” he says.
The Everyday Excellence approach has been initially targeted at four pilot sites but will be rolled out across the whole estate through the remainder of 2023 and into 2024, including ABN’s 11 feed mill sites.
“Our role is not to parachute in and do improvement projects for people, the whole premise is to get high levels of engagement and to be able to coach the teams in good practices, which in turn lends itself to a more sustainable approach,” says Mr McNamara.
“Although manufacturing centric at this stage, these approaches will be adopted across all departments, with cross-business improvement events taking place across all areas,” he adds.
Excited to be back
Originally from the North West of England, Mr McNamara is married with two children and lives in Suffolk. With a background in various food industry and agricultural supply chain roles, he is actually returning to familiar territory, having spent six years with another Associated British Food (ABF) business, British Sugar.
“I am excited to be back as part of the ABF family of businesses, with AB Agri. I have always thought of the AB Agri UK monogastric businesses, ABN and Premier Nutrition, as entrepreneurial, possessing a high volume of enthusiastic people, with a great workplace ethos,” says Mr McNamara.
“This has been very much conveyed from my early experiences in this new role. The teams have been very receptive to improvement, demonstrating a desire to be a part of the future success of the business. I look forward to working across the estate and engaging with our teams as we support this high level of interest and willingness to not only improve, but to succeed by getting a little bit better every day.”
Investing in UK agriculture
With UK agriculture navigating through perhaps the biggest period of challenge and opportunity ever faced, ABN is at the forefront of providing the support, services and products needed to succeed in this era of change.
This commitment to continuous improvement, alongside other key strategic and product developments, including the announcement of the planned new ‘super-mill’ in the East of England, is a further demonstration of ABN’s investment into the future of the British pig and poultry industry.