APM Terminals Apapa said 175 of its employees have graduated as “lean practitioners” since the company started its lean academy in 2019.

According to the terminal, the practitioners are expected to take the lead in introducing innovative solutions to terminal operations to improve efficiency and customer service.

According to APM Terminals, lean thinking is a transformational framework that provides a new way to organising human activities to deliver more benefits to society and individuals while eliminating waste.

APM Terminals Way of Working (WoW) Project Manager, Martin Kjeldsen, said the terminal is transformed by re-tooling and re-educating employees to eliminate waste, boost productivity and promote innovation daily.

“Our employees play a central role in its transformation. They are the ones who will make Apapa a great place to work through involvement and engagement within our WoW, through high level of Lean education and a Lean mindset for immediate, real results and long-term sustainable impact,” he said.

Kjeldsen explained that in the past years, the terminal worked extensively on the identification of talents at Apapa to support the future Lean journey and build relations within the Apapa team to ensure cross-functional collaboration.

He said practicing lean requires a changed mindset from running the business to improving the business and helping to prevent fire-fighting in the day-to-day job.

Another WoW Project Manager, Jan Jensen, while reflecting on the training and coaching progress in 2021, said the tools have been used to improve the business and daily work-life balance of employees in the terminal and its environs.

A practical WoW Coach, Victor Enegide, describes Lean as a systematic way of eliminating waste in operation, while focusing on individual development.

He said it ensures improvement of truck turnaround time and better customer satisfaction as well as reduces bottlenecks to enable the process to flow easily.