Sheffield Forgemasters win Leadership and Strategy Award

Delighted to report that our client Sheffield Forgemasters won the Leadership and Strategy category at last night’s Manufacturer of the Year Awards ceremony at the ICC Birmingham. Congratulations and well done to Graham and the team!

Congratulations also to overall Award winner GE Aviation Wales.

http://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/ge-aviation-wales-reigns-supreme-at-record-awards-ceremony/

Value-Driven Manufacturing in Action at James Heal

Works Management magazine hosted a superb best-practice factory visit last week to our award-winning client James Heal, based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK: The visit presented an excellent opportunity for delegates to see first-hand exactly how Value-Driven Manufacturing can transform a company, despite the economic down-turn.

James Heal is a highly successful UK precision testing instruments manufacturer delivering outstanding growth, employment and export. Sales have increased by over 50% in the last two years with a significant increase in revenues from new product development and innovation, whilst product costs have been reduced by up to 25%. This success is a direct result of the lean manufacturing programme, innovative product design and a “can-do” culture. 

Visitors took part in an interactive workshop – Value-Driven Manufacturing – facilitated by Manufacturing Consultant Andrew Nicholson, where they learned how to apply the principles of Value-Driven Manufacturing “back at the ranch”.

Watch this space for the forthcoming Visit Report, Case Study and Learning Points!

Better still, sign up below to this blog and never miss any future posts!

For more information about Value-Driven Manufacturing, have a look at the blog posts here or visit the website ImproveMyFactory.com – Value-Driven Manufacturing – where you can download a free guide to Value-Driven Business.

Inside Industry Visit – James H Heal & Co Ltd

We’ve been working with James Heal  since February 2009, and they’re going from strength to strength.  They’re now opening their doors to the manufacturing public for one morning, through the MAS YH Inside Industry programme, to let others see how they’ve started on their Lean journey, what they’ve achieved so far, and what their next steps will be.

The visit takes place on Tuesday 15 June 2010.

If you’ve been considering introducing Lean into your business, but are still unsure, or if you’d like to see how your company could benefit by introducing Lean, come along to the vist and ask those who have taken the plunge themselves.  For more information on our work with James H Heal & Co Ltd, visit our website.  Or visit Inside Industry  to book a place on this half-day factory visit.

The Lean Consortium Foundation Day

Taking place on Thursday 22 April, this Foundation Day is a great opportunity for you to learn some of the basics of Lean.  The Lean Consortium programme is an innovative training programme, designed to help you introduce and improve your employees’ understanding of Lean, and to develop your Lean Leaders skills to take your essential improvement projects forward and instil a culture of continuous improvement throughout the business.

The Foundation Day is a free day of learning and demonstration from The Lean Consortium where you will learn the foundations of implementing and sustaining key lean techniques in your company.  You can participate in a live demonstration of the difference the programme can make to your business processes.

Full information is available at The Lean Consortium website, or contact John Macdonald on 07957 336856.

Continuous Improvement workshop – 23 June 2009

How often has your organisation started the drive to improve; and how often has it dwindled away?  During this workshop we will look at the necessity of good leadership and focus on developing Leadership skills at all levels of the organisation in order to sustain the momentum of an improvement initiative.  If this is a topic you’re interested in, take a look at the full details on our website.

You may not be able to attend this particular event, but the good news is we can run this – and other workshops – in-house for you for a minimum of 8 participants, giving you a more tailored event, addressing your own particular issues.  Contact us for further information.

Inside Industry Vist to Analox, Stokesley, North Yorkshire

Wednesday, 3 June, 9.00am to 12.30pm.

Analox Sensor Technology Ltd is hosting an Inside Industry visit, organised by MAS YH.  Analox is a company we have worked with for many years on its operational excellence programme, including developing employees’ skills in such improvement tools and techniques as Design for Manufacture, FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis), 5S / Workplace Organisation, Performance Monitoring, Process Layout, as well as helping to develop the Analox 5-year strategy for growth.  Based in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, the company specialises in the design and manufacture of gas sensors and analysers and currently employs 64 people.

If you’d like to see Analox in action, and hear the experiences of those who’ve undertaken improvement projects with us, call us on 0191 492 8200, or visit our website for more contact details.

“Ask the Expert”, Business Surgery for South Durham Businesses

We’re on the road again … to take part in “Ask the Expert”, a Business Surgery organised by the South Durham Business Network for organisations in South Durham.  The surgery is taking place on Tuesday, 28 April with representatives from a range of professional services from Accounting to Sales.  We’ll be offering advice on improvement activities you can implement in your business – simple, cost-effective techniques which you can take back to your organisation and put in place fairly easily, and will offer you quick results.  Sounds too good to be true … why not come along and have a chat with us?

The Business Surgery is being held at Spennymoor Town Hall, with sessions commencing at 3.00pm.  There’s more information on our website, www.nicholsonconsultancy.com.

A successful seminar, “Improving Business Efficiency”

Thank you to everyone who attended our seminar at the North East Regional Business Fair and to those who came to visit our stand.

The seminar was well-attended with over 50 individuals, from both service and manufacturing sectors, interested  in “Improving Business Efficiency”.  Angela’s presentation was well-received, with good interaction during the “Questions and Answers” session.  She touched on the basic concept of “Lean” in the workplace; emphasised the importance of getting your staff on-board from the start of any improvement process; Angela then explained the definition of the Seven Visible Wastes, one of the tools we use to help identify where “waste” is occurring; and then finished with a demonstration of the “Ease and Effect” grid which helps you to plan the order improvements need to be made, once they’ve been identified.

If you’d like to have a copy of the presentation slides, just visit our website and complete the form.  It’s a quick and easy process.