How we work with you

We usually start our assignments with a client needs business survey focussed in the area of business agreed with the organisation , e.g. Production, Maintenance.

• Develop a brief but overall view of the key business areas of the organisation.
• Assess the value and contribution made to support the business directives by maintenance, production, quality assurance and engineering.
• Understand where action needs to be directed to resolve areas of weakness in production and maintenance performance and thus customer deliverables.
• Review the outcome of the survey with management.
• Seek consensus to input a proposal to work with the organization in generating improved throughput and quality output in the areas of key weakness.

Via a key personnel participative workshop we decide with you where to focus on specific targeted activities which will, for the lowest cost achieve the most benefit and which will, dependent upon the focussed business survey, typically include questions where we for example, look at:

• Are our activities adding value to the business process?
• What activities are contributing to ‘waste’ (non-value adding)?
• Can internal controls and hand-overs be minimised?
  • broaden individual responsibilities
  • create multi-disciplined teams
• How do we initiate / maintain a continuous improvement focus?
• We’d like to initiate “5S” and “Kaizen” activities, what is our starting point?
• How do we provide more focus on reducing lead time, ensuring on-time, right quality deliverables?
• How would we work with a formal materials management system and kanban managed items?
• What needs to be achieved to maximise equipment availability and reliability?
• What strategy shall we adopt for a preventive maintenance policy?
• Should maintenance be in-house or outsourced?
• How should spare parts be maintained?
• How should tooling be managed?
• To what degree are SHE practices being managed?

We then engage with you to deliver in a ‘100 day’ timeframe the initial goal or sub-goals selected. To achieve this, a measurable goal needs to be set in which those participating in your organization in the project can determine a measurable achievement. Our role in the engagement will be to provide the tools, training and guidance on how to achieve the goal and to manage the project ‘milestones’. The short time frame is chosen to be able to demonstrate visible and tangible benefits to organisational profitability.

On completion of the project, we then assess with you its outcomes and perhaps select a new business goal to start another ‘100 day’ cycle.

We sustain the change/improved working method through a process of coaching and mentoring as a ‘hands-on’ activity in the work place. Emphasis is placed on transferring skills to internal staff and developing your own implementers.

So what kind of things do we typically focus on in these ‘100 day’ projects?

“Agile” Manufacturing

• Reducing non-value added activities and measuring the resulting cost reduction
• Simplifying manufacturing processes and measuring lead time reduction
• Effective use of measurement tools to track improved Throughput, Reduced Inventories and Operating Expenses via review of the financial measures of Net Profit, Return on Assets and Cash Flow.
• Lead time reduction, all part of a ‘lean’ and ‘waste free’ environment.

Quality

• Improving process quality capabability– customer satisfaction
• Reducing defects – failure rates
• Reducing variations – statistical rates

Asset Productivity

• Productive maintenance to maximise uptime
• Maintenance re-design for improved serviceability
• Maintenance spares management – what will be most effective
• Operator-based maintenance – using resources more effectively

All the projects have supportive elements which contribute to continuous improvement and the development of people skills.

We would like the opportunity to tell you more about what we do and how we can reduce internal supply chain costs, improve plant uptime, throughput and add significantly to your ROI and competitive capability.