Fortress Systems Pty. Ltd. is a designer and manufacturer of custom-made power resistors and had been acquired by the Post-Glover group when they first began working with TXM.
Following the Post-Glover acquisition in 2009 half of the business was relocated to a new site. The resistor business found itself occupying a factory area that was much larger than it needed. The business had strong resources in finance and engineering, but the small production team was under-resourced and lacked the skills to independently achieve significant operational improvement.
Plant layout was poor and lacked a clear production flow. The excessive space was quickly being filled in a disorganised manner. The business suffered from project driven peaks and troughs, and these were traditionally being covered by casual labour and high levels of overtime. This was at a high cost to the business. There was no effective measurement of productivity.