Implementing Agile on the factory floor

*This case study was co-authored with Matt Riordan, whose perspective and experience were instrumental in shaping the analysis you’re about to read.

A U.S.-based food manufacturing network, composed of multiple factories organized around value streams such as meat and dairy, wanted to radically improve how best practices and innovations were implemented across locations. Despite a centralized Center of Excellence (CoE) generating high-value process improvements, local implementation was minimal and inconsistent. With an estimated $30M in unrealized efficiency gains, the company turned to Agile as a new way to drive ownership, collaboration, and measurable outcomes on the factory floor.

• How cross-functional “pods” of factory workers—from electricians to finance controllers—took ownership of improvements once driven top-down by the CoE.
• Why short sprints, daily stand-ups, and structured handovers across shifts turned experimentation into a sustainable routine.
• How visible financial impact, like reducing yield losses, built trust and motivated teams to keep improving.
• What challenges emerged—from competing priorities to cultural distance between corporate and factory—and how Agile practices helped bridge them.

Download the full case study to see how Agile became a scalable solution for driving improvement and impact on the factory floor.