Workshop promotes best manufacturing practice

More than 60 UK chemical and process manufacturers attended PICME's one-day workshop on best manufacturing practice at The Heath, Runcorn, Cheshire at the end of last month.

More than 60 UK chemical and process manufacturers attended PICME's one-day workshop on best manufacturing practice at The Heath, Runcorn, Cheshire at the end of last month.

The event followed on from a successful benchmarking event organised by Process Industries Centre for Manufacturing Excellence (PICME) for the chemicals sector some 18 months ago.

Current indications are that PICME's central message of manufacturing improvement is beginning to take effect.

"Many of the companies who benchmarked their performance data with us last time have taken forward improvements and actions to make their businesses more competitive", says Mark Lewis, PICME Chief Executive.

"Much more of this needs to happen if UK chemical manufacturers are to advance towards world-class standards.

Lewis adds: "The results of PICME's collaborative benchmark programme across a number of sectors in the UK continues to show skills gaps and opportunities for productivity improvement using lean manufacturing ideas.

The results of the workshops we run with support from the DTI prove that the opportunity to improve exists.

Sustainable change can indeed be achieved at low cost".

The workshop, run by PICME for the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) Manufacturing Committee, is one in a series of events that have been designed to assist operations managers and directors in the sector.

Presentations were given from the three CIA Manufacturing Improvement Award winners, namely: David Allison from Rhodia Pharma; Stuart Irvine of Contract Chemicals; and Chris Lakin from DuPont.

Delegates also heard a presentation from Robert Hall, Judge of the 2003 CIA Manufacturing Improvement Award, which highlighted some of the excellent practices and performances he had seen in his round of judging the UK process sector.

Delegates also learned about developments at Maxserv, the Europe-wide, web-based and online resource for process sector manufacturing improvement.

PICME itself reported on the results of its collaborative benchmark programme for the process sector.

For the first time, results for the batch process manufacturing sector were presented.

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