Lean manufacturing drastically cuts ring slide lead time

MAS is delivered in the South West by a consortium comprising the South West of England Regional Development Agency, EEF, the region’s Business Links and HERDA South West, representing the higher education institutions. It was created primarily to serve the 12,000 manufacturing businesses operating in the region that together generate £11 billion for the local economy and employ nearly 300,000 people.

The programme in which HepcoMotion® participated was for operational leadership. Assistant Production Manager, Chris Pengelly was the delegate and in addition to developing his own leadership skills the programme was designed to help him identify areas of the manufacturing process where better performance could be achieved.

“It has really opened my eyes to a different way of thinking and working,” Chris explained. As a result it has enabled HepcoMotion® to explore and then implement the concept of cellular manufacturing. The company’s Manufacturing Director Barry Engstrom added, “The results achieved speak for themselves and it has given us the confidence to extend this way of working to other areas of the business.”

The purpose of the exercise was to ensure that in line with increased demand for the ring slide products HepcoMotion® adopted lean manufacturing techniques that would ensure smarter working. An important benefit for the company has been a large reduction in value of work in progress and stock thanks to a much tighter production cycle. Additionally there has been a 52% improvement in floor space utilisation. But perhaps the most significant result from a customer’s standpoint has been a massive 4 week reduction in lead time for these products.