Category Archives: General

Inside Industry Visit – James H Heal & Co Ltd

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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.

Strategic Business Reviews – Business Development Vouchers

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Did you know about the Business Development Vouchers accessed through Business Link Yorkshire?

Eligible businesses can now undertake a 100% funded programme with us using the Business Development Vouchers, to work with your senior management team to undergo a strategic business review; to develop a practical business strategy; and to work with you to implement the key actions to achieve your goals.

Are you eligible?

  • Is the business located in Yorkshire & Humber?
  • Is the business over 36 months old?
  • Does the business employ over 4/5 people?
  • Are you committed to achieving change and have some ideas of how to move forward?
  • By undertaking the Strategic Business Review, will you create new jobs, safeguard existing jobs, increase profitable turnover?

The service is 100% funded by Business Link and delivered at a fixed price of £3,000 (exc VAT).

Why not take a look at our Business Strategy page or our downloadable Strategy information sheet, and if you have any questions either about the Business Development Vouchers, or about Business Strategy and Strategic Reviews, just drop me an email.

SMED Training Package

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SMED – Single Minute Exchange of Dies – is a well-established method used to reduce how long it takes to set-up or changeover your machinery.  Did you know that when applying SMED techniques for the first time it’s often possible to halve the time taken?  Just think what that could mean for your business.

Is this something you’ve implemented?  Or perhaps you’ve considered using SMED but aren’t sure how to go about it?  We’ve been working hard on putting together a SMED training package, with a 13 minute video demonstrating the SMED process, step-by-step, to help you get the benefits of set-up reduction.  We’ve also included Excel spreadsheet templates so you’ll have everything you need to get started.

The whole package is available to download at £16.95 plus VAT and we’re so convinced of its value for money that we’re offering a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.  Take a look at our SMED video webpage for more information.

75% Support for Yorkshire & Humber Manufacturers

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We’re pleased to advise that MAS YH are now offering 75% support to all manufacturers in Yorkshire & Humber for all new projects effective from 6 May.  This opportunity means that when you undertake an improvement project, for every £1.00 you commit, the government will commit £3.00.

As an approved MAS specialist, we have worked with many manufacturers in Yorkshire and the Humber on many varied projects:

  • process improvement, both back office and on the production line
  • developing employees’ skills in leadership, team working; performance management
  • engaging the workforce in improvement activities
  • training the workforce in lean techniques
  • improving the factory layout
  • restructuring
  • relocation
  • software systems
  • management systems (ISO9001, ISO14001)
  • developing a medium or long-term strategy

Typically, the companies we’ve worked with have benefited from:

  • reduced lead times
  • increased turnover
  • increased productivity
  • increased space utilisation
  • improved leadership skills at all levels
  • overall savings typically range from £25,000 to £500,000

There is no better time to go ahead with your MAS project than NOW.  Visit our website for more information on Lean Manufacturing and for our contact details.

VACANCY FILLED – Production Engineer, North Yorkshire

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RMS is looking to appoint a dynamic and talented individual as Production Engineer. RMS designs and manufactures specialist electrical connectors for use with Electrical Submersible Pumps used throughout the global oil industry.  The company is a subsidiary of James Fisher Group Plc.

The role is a largely hands-on position, reporting to the Production Manager.  The candidate must have skills/experience in mechanical design as well as knowledge of (or the ability to learn to use) CAD packages and it’s desirable to have good communication skills and good practical experience/knowledge.  It’s preferable for the candidate to hold an Honours degree in mechanical, production or similar engineering discipline.

THIS VACANCY HAS NOW BEEN FILLED

Lean for tough times

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You’ve probably seen a number of “Ten Tips to Survive the Credit Crunch” articles recently, so instead let’s focus on what our most successful manufacturers are actually doing at the moment. You might not believe it if you watch the current TV news coverage but some of our clients are continuing to grow and to make money. They’re cutting costs in the short term but also investing for the upturn (which is when most business failures actually occur).

In no particular order, here are some areas to work on. If you’re already doing these -well done! If you’ve got some ideas of your own, please post them here. If they’re new to you – look and learn (remember: Plan-Do-Check-Act).

Demonstrate that you’re taking effective steps to manage through the downturn. Make it clear to everyone the two or three most important objectives over the next year and understand the benefits you will produce for your Customers, your Business and your employees (Cus, Bus, Us). For example – focus on reducing lead-times, eliminating waste (the Seven Wastes) and increasing value.

Take a cold, hard look at what will add value over the next 12 months. Get rid of anything that won’t (products, plant, premises or people) and do it now.

Cash is king and funding is hard or impossible to find. Free up cash by reducing your working capital – use Lean tools to reduce stock and work in process, slash lead-times and speed up your cash collection process. If you’ve got cash, pay suppliers promptly in return for reduced prices or extra value. If you haven’t, provide the same to your customers (see below).

Look at ways in which you can do more for your customers – if you can, preserve prices but offer more value (get more value into the product and provide the best service you possibly can). Get closer to your customers – go see them, understand their business and help them get better. Train them to understand your products better and to use them more effectively.

Use any spare time created to train people to perform better. Do this with a mix of new job skills (multi-skill the workforce if you haven’t already) and improvement skills. Make sure you’ve got an up to date skills matrix covering every single employee. Include all key skills. Specify how many people you need with each of those skills and identify the gaps. If you haven’t already, make sure that everyone understands the basics of Lean thinking, how to spot non-value-added activities and how to solve problems. Get free and/or subsidised training and support from national and/or local government schems (in the UK contact the Manufacturing Advisory Service www.mas.dti.gov.uk). Provide free training for your suppliers.

Get together with other manufacturers in your region to share the costs of training (www.leanconsortium.co.uk), logistics, support services.

Cut your costs and admin. overheads by streamlining all of your non-core purchasing (see www.fcprocurement.com). Glen Feechan of FC Procurement also has a blog which you may find of interest (see www.notjustnumbers.co.uk).

Most of all, stay positive, focus on those things that you can do and don’t worry about those that you can’t.

See you on the other side…

Times Past, Present and Future

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The New Year is a good time for reflection and review, for planning the year ahead and for resolving to improve. The time of year – and the title of this blog – Manufacturing Times – got me to thinking about the importance of time in a business. In many ways the squandering of time is one of the worst forms of waste – it’s invisible and once it’s gone we can never get it back. As manufacturers our approach to times – manufacturing times – has changed greatly over the last 20 or 30 years, and not always for the better, in my view.

 I’m talking in particular about production times – the time that it takes to achieve a specific task or perform a value-adding operation.

I would argue that accurate times – or at least good estimates – are pretty much essential for a well-run manufacturing business. Why? Because they’re so fundamental – we need accurate times so that we can:

  • Calculate the true cost of a product, so that we know the margin or contribution that each product creates
  • Plan the loading of machines and people, so that we have the right capacity in the right place at the right time
  • Establish a realistic production schedule, so that everyone knows what to make when
  • Quote achievable and competitive lead-times, so that we attract and retain customers
  • Measure performance, so that we know where we’re doing well and where we need to improve

Back in the early days of mass-production there was a great emphasis on Scientific Management, Work Study, Industrial Engineering and the like. With the advent of Lean Thinking, many manufacturers no longer have any effective means of establishing accuracte production times. This strikes me as particularly ironic since many of the great pioneers of Lean – including Taichi Ohno at Toyota – were first and foremost Industrial Engineers. Perhaps we no longer want to employ the armies of Work Study engineers that were once common in most manufacturing businesses but in my view it’s essential that we at least understand and apply the basic principles.  In a future article we’ll consider exactly how to calculate Standard Times but for the moment let’s look at some of the basics:

Perhaps the most important point – and one that confuses many people – is that we need to establish a “standard” time for each operation. This should represent the time taken by a competent operator to perform the task at the maximum rate that can comfortably be sustained over the working day and working week. The word “Standard” is so important – Lean is all about setting standards, measuring and improving performance and following “One Best Way”. Employing a random group of individuals and having each of them do things in their own way and at their own speed and to their own level of competence might be the right approach for a group of creative professionals but in most production environments it’s often a recipe for poor performance, low morale and ineffective leadership. Let’s think first about how we should approach the task of establishing Standard Times:

  •  involve the people who work in the area that’s being measured – where possible, train them to do this
  • start with the current “one best way” of performing each task
  • wherever possible, assess a competent, trained operator
  • take at least ten measurements of the time taken for each task (statistically, the accuracy of our results depends greatly on the number of measurements or observations that we take), and use the average (mean) of these

If you’re one of those many manufacturers who would benefit from more accurate production times, I hope that you’ll “resolve” to tackle this in the New Year and we very much look forward to hearing your comments and experiences …….