Client Stories — Poplar Field Consulting

What clients say

Helen spent a morning on our packing line and spotted that we were walking 40 metres for every label roll change. Moving the storage cut our afternoon batch time noticeably — though I wish she had flagged the forklift path issue earlier, we sorted that ourselves the following month.

— Marcus T., Production Manager, Riverland Preserves, Murray Bridge

The handover template James left us is plain and usable. Our night crew actually fills it in now. We still argue about who owns the scheduling board, but at least the information is on paper.

— Priya S., Owner, Adelaide Sheet Metal

We booked the scheduling review before our citrus season and grouped our marmalade runs by jar size. Changeover time dropped enough that we added a mid-week batch without overtime. The report was direct — no filler pages.

— Linh V., Head Baker, Hillside Artisan Jams, Stirling

James understood our welding bay constraints immediately. His layout sketch was not pretty, but the team followed it and the grinding station move alone saved us twenty minutes a day. I would have liked more detail on ventilation, but that was outside his scope and he said so upfront.

— Tom R., Workshop Foreman, Barossa Fabrication Co.

Project account: Riverland Preserves packing line

Challenge. A 12-person preserves operation was missing afternoon dispatch deadlines during peak citrus season. The owner suspected staffing but could not pinpoint where time was lost.

What we did. Helen observed two full batch cycles — a morning marmalade run and an afternoon chutney run. She mapped 14 changeover steps on the labelling line and timed material walks between the cold store and the packing bench.

Outcome. Three changes were implemented within two weeks: label rolls relocated adjacent to the applicator, a batch numbering field added to the handover sheet, and citrus runs grouped on Tuesdays and Thursdays to reduce jar-size changeovers. The owner reported meeting dispatch windows for four consecutive weeks after implementation. We have not verified long-term figures, but the owner invited us back for a pre-season review the following year.

Project account: Adelaide Sheet Metal night shift

Challenge. Morning crews regularly restarted setups the night crew had already completed, causing duplicated tooling changes and occasional scrapped parts.

What we did. James attended two shift changes — one midweek, one after a weekend. He interviewed four operators and reviewed six weeks of informal logbook entries.

Outcome. A one-page handover template was introduced with fields for tooling position, incomplete jobs, and quality holds. Night-to-morning rework incidents dropped from roughly three per week to one or fewer within a month, according to the workshop foreman. The template remains in use with minor edits the team made themselves.

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