Lean in Action: Lessons from Dairy and Beyond
Lessons from Automotive Industry
Lean started at Toyota in post-war Japan and helped them compete with limited resources. Farms today face similar pressures — scarce labour, water, nutrients, and carbon constraints. Lean principles help reduce waste, align resources, and maintain high-quality outputs
LEAN PRINCIPLEs, Cow-centric
- Define Value: Milk is the product, cows are the value producers. Everything else supports them.
- Map the Value Stream: Identify all steps in milk production, heifer replacements, and herd exits.
- Create Flow: Remove obstacles to the cow day — feed, water, cubicle access.
- Establish Pull: Match production to demand; avoid overstocking and unnecessary replacements.
- Pursue Perfection: Continuous improvement through small, incremental changes.
on-Farm Examples
Each farm is unique, and so is the challenges and improvements that are delivered, however some examples are:
- Improving housing to give provide better access to resource
- Right sizing replacements to production output
- Maintaining total output with fewer animals
- Improving the quality and delivery of heifers
- Reducing cow issue (e.g. lameness, mastitis, high cell count)