Product category:
Bearings
News Release from: NSK UK
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 03 November 2000
NSK-RHP team wins Michelin Excellence
Award
Effective teamwork to achieve grinding improvements that will save £500,000 per year has earned a four-man team from NSK's Peterlee Bearing Plant this year's Michelin Excellence Award
Employing effective teamwork to achieve grinding improvements that will save an estimated £500,000 per year in production costs has earned a four-man team from NSK's Peterlee Bearing Plant this year's prestigious Michelin Excellence Award The Michelin Excellence Awards are an annual national event aimed at promoting teamwork to drive improved performance
They are organised by the National Society for Quality through Teamwork (NSQT), and are judged annually at the NSQT's National Conference, held over 2 days at Warwick University.
NSK Peterlee has an unequalled record of reaching the finals of the event, providing finalists six times in six years and winning in 1996 and 1997.
This year was no exception with two teams from NSK Peterlee, "Grind Right" and "Lets Get Packing", represented in the finals.
The fact that two teams from the same company made it to the final stages was cause for celebration alone, as both had to overcome stiff competition from more than 100 teams representing large companies right across the UK.
The NSK teams were joined in the final by six others.
Each team was allotted 20 minutes to present their project theme to a conference audience of several hundred people, and to a panel of six judges who decided on the winner.
The basis of the judging was the logbooks, which each team was required to compile.
The logbooks detailed the team's improvement projects and how they were managed from start to finish.
In the case of NSK's "Grind Right" team the project was to find a cost-effective way to optimise the grinding processes that are used in the manufacture of bearings to produce ultra-fine tolerances and specifications.
Grinding is at the very heart of NSK's manufacturing process and the problem the Peterlee team tackled had exercised the minds of their counterparts at other NSK locations worldwide without a satisfactory solution being found.
The NSK Peterlee team - Chris Dudgeon, Keith Slater, Brian Sutherland and Colin Docherty - approached the problem from an analytical perspective.
They went to the Institute of Grinding Technology at Bristol University (recognised as a centre of excellence in this field) and they also attended a high-level seminar in Holland hosted by the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Science.
The effectiveness of the team's programme and planning can be judged from the benefits now being realised.
Team Leader, Chris Dudgeon: "We are already realising real benefits from our problem-solving solutions.
We estimate we will save about ?500,000 per year on the production process at Peterlee.
Additionally, the results of our work have gone to our group headquarters in Japan, so we are confidant the benefit to the NSK group as a whole will be even more substantial." The fact that NSK's other team, "Lets Get Packing" did not actually win should take nothing away from their achievement.
Comprising Paul Caswell, Dave Evans, Gary Cook, John Down and Hugh Healey, this team devised a cost reduction plan centred on packaging materials.
The team achieved their objectives, saving over ?54,000 without affecting production or product quality and also reducing the manning requirements in their department.
This in turn released operators to other more effective roles elsewhere. Request free introductory details about products from NSK UK ...
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