Productivity boost for blinds manufacturer
The Challenge
Lesley Sharrock, Managing Director at James Robertshaw & Son Ltd, approached the Business Growth Hub for help reaching new customers and improving their productivity.
"We were looking to increase our net profit in order to reinvest in the business,” Lesley explained. “We had ideas around developing our product portfolio and an ambition to reach new markets, but we wanted to bring in expertise to help us plan this strategically.
“In addition, we wanted to look at the culture of our organisation. We wanted our people to focus on agility, innovation and continuous improvement.”
Andy Hinton, Manufacturing Advisor at the Hub, conducted a Productivity Audit which recommended an operational improvement plan.
This included:
- Adoption of Lean techniques to eliminate defects and rework
- Introducing KPIs to identify future bottlenecks
- Apply for a grant from the Manufacturing Growth Fund to bring in additional expertise on cultural change.
I’m so pleased that we bought in support from the Business Growth Hub. Innovation is the exciting part of what we do, but unless you are getting your existing processes right you’re actually wasting materials, time and profit unnecessarily.
Lesley Sharrock, Managing Director
The solution
The business worked with Andy to implement Lean techniques such as Root Cause Analysis to identify bottlenecks in production. He also worked with them to implement key performance indicators which would enable the production team to measure performance and provide a benchmark to quickly identify any issues with production in the future.
Simultaneously, the business brought in additional expertise to implement a culture change programme designed by the business and their advisor. This intensive project was delivered by a business consultant and 30% of the cost was funded by the Manufacturing Growth Fund.
Lesley said:
"I’m so pleased that we bought in support from the Business Growth Hub. Innovation is the exciting part of what we do, but unless you are getting your existing processes right you’re actually wasting materials, time and profit unnecessarily.
"By getting the basics right we’re in a much better position to enter new markets with confidence."
It worked for James Robertshaw - it can work for you too...
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