Adam Harvey Business Performance Partner – Manufacturing The Learning Wave

 

Every manufacturing leader knows the cost of problems no one owns. A defect that slips through. A rework job that eats up a shift. A delay that puts you on the back foot with a customer.

Often, these issues live in the gaps between teams or sites. The kind of problems that don’t belong to one department. So they linger, costing time, money, and goodwill.

At Altus®, they decided to change that.

They knew that stronger results in productivity, quality, safety, and engagement wasn’t just about better processes. That it was about better leadership. The kind that connects the dots across the business.

That’s how Elevate was born, a seven-month leadership journey for Altus® team leaders and managers built around one big idea: collaboration.

People first, and then process

Instead of starting with processes or machinery, Elevate began with a much more human question: What if the key to lifting performance wasn’t in the tools we use, but in the way our leaders work with each other and their teams?

Elevate wasn’t about taking them out of the business to talk theory. It was about giving them the tools, space, and confidence to lead their people. It was about helping leaders under pressure realise that they didn’t have to go it alone. That the best leaders understand that real success comes from collaborating with others.

Learners developed skills to lead through vision and values, improve cross-departmental collaboration, and seek out opportunities to solve problems both with and within their teams.

Solving real problems, delivering real results

The heartbeat of the programme was the Team Performance Improvement Project, small, cross-site teams tackling real Altus® challenges.

One team tackled a costly issue: scratched products during site transfers. The project leads laid out the numbers: “It’s costing us big every month.” Collaborating across departments, the team found the root cause, crafted a plan that would guarantee the biggest impact, and trained their team on the new packaging process.

The result? A reduction in the scratch rate to just 16% of the original figure – an improvement of around 70%. And they’ve kept it there month after month.

And that was just one of several projects delivered through the programme, each one tackling a real issue, delivering measurable improvements, and building leadership muscle at the same time.

The real shift

The biggest change wasn’t just in the projects. It was in the way leaders approached problems.

They stopped firefighting alone. They started bringing the right people into the room, looking at the root causes, asking better questions, encouraging new ideas, and working out the best way forward.

Leaders began picking up the phone to other departments before making decisions. They started asking “why” more often – and listening to the answers. They created space for their teams to think, contribute, and own solutions.

One leader told us:

“I learned that leadership is not about holding a title. It’s about setting a vision, motivating people, and creating an environment where everyone can contribute effectively.”

Another said:

“Elevate helped me recognise my potential and how to use it to influence my team and the people I work with.”

Elevate proved that when leaders think and act like this, they get more ideas, better solutions, and stronger productivity.

Bottlenecks disappeared, innovation grew, and teams started pulling in the same direction. And that showed up where it matters: in output, quality, customer satisfaction, and safety.

What’s your 70% moment?

If you run a manufacturing business, you already know the pressure: meet targets, keep quality high, stay safe, and keep customers happy.

You also know how quickly a lack of leadership can cost you, in rework, waste, delays, and missed opportunities.

The temptation is to throw more at processes and machinery. But Altus® has proved that there is another way. That better leadership is just as powerful, if not more so.

Altus® proved that better leadership changes the numbers you care about most. Not with slogans or theory, but with measurable savings, stronger teamwork, and a culture shift you can feel.

So here’s the question:

What’s the cost of your leaders staying in their silos? And what could you gain if they didn’t?

Because the answer might be worth far more than you think.