On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of SGS Productivity, we share experiences from companies that have known how to use Lean as a tool for evolution and consolidation.
One of them is Cascajares, a food company with strong roots in gastronomic tradition and a firm commitment to quality, innovation and social impact. We speak with Alfonso Jiménez Rodríguez-Vila, president and co-founder, about how continuous improvement has helped the company gain efficiency, strengthen its culture and prepare for the future.
What led you to implement Lean in your company?
We were in a situation where, despite maintaining a good level of turnover, EBITDA was very low. We needed to generate more profit if we wanted to guarantee the viability and sustainability of the project.
What have you achieved thanks to Lean?
The progress has been very significant. Basically, we have achieved three things.
At an economic level, greater business profitability.
Greater control of operational processes.
And one final important aspect: a culture of generating the value that the customer brings.
What was the key moment of the project?
I would say it came around six months in. The results started to appear and the team began to integrate that Lean culture.
Why did you choose us?
We were hesitant to start with the Lean system, but we saw that SGS PRODUCTIVITY had no reservations about “getting their hands dirty” and fully engaging in our processes to help us. That gave us a lot of confidence and it quickly proved that we were not wrong.
Tell us an anecdote. How has your team evolved?
The change process we had to go through as a team during the Lean implementation, leaving behind the way we used to work to adopt a new one, helped us open our minds to change. This later gave us great tools to manage difficult moments such as the pandemic or the fire.
If you had to define the collaboration with SGS Productivity in one sentence… what would it be?
The collaboration has been very positive from the very beginning. They are approachable people, with deep knowledge of processes, and they have helped us improve from the foundations of our operations.