Click on the advert above to visit the company web site

Product category: Engineering Business News and Views
News Release from: PICME
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 31 January 2005

Lean manufacturing is the key

Despite good progress over the last 3 years the UK*s chemicals and process industry still needs to increase its use of the lean manufacturing approach, says PICME.

Despite good progress over the last 3 years the UK's chemicals and process industry still needs to increase its use of the lean manufacturing approach to make its manufacturing globally competitive and to meet increasing supply chain and external competitive pressures, according to the Process Industries Centre for Manufacturing Excellence (PICME) Mark Lewis, PICME Chief Executive says: "Since addressing the press at last year's Chemical Industries Association Business Outlook conference, some measurable improvement has been made by a number of leading companies"

"However it remains the case that inefficient and ineffective production methods are still costing most chemical and process companies up to 20 and 30% of their costs".

Working "smarter" and with more awareness can deliver significant additional production or reduce waste and cost, maintains Lewis.

"As ever, the key to unlocking this potential is not about cash or capital".

"It's about people - helping them work more effectively - and using best practice in measurement and improvement", he adds.

Helping the industry identify best practice and achieve these improvements is the responsibility of PICME - the Government's Industry Forum (IF) responsible for the chemical and allied sectors of the UK economy.

PICME's role is to use a full range of manufacturing improvement techniques to improve the sector's performance through actions at company level and in the supply chain.

"Great strides have been made by the chemical and process industries in areas such as Responsible Care, Product Stewardship and Health and Safety", says Lewis.

"But the time is now right for the sector to square up to the role of productivity in achieving a sustainable industry".

PICME's Glyn Hughes has been charged with spreading the word about the role of manufacturing improvement in supporting a sustainable UK chemical and process sector.

He says "the business case for this work is unarguable and yet many companies remain sceptical of its potential and have limited if any relevant resources or expertise".

"My mission at PICME is to change the industry view of the approach and show how it is a plank of the sustainability agenda from hereon in".

Since full establishment by the DTI PICME is on target with saving its process client companies a great number of redundant costs.

To date PICME has helped these companies secure 1st year savings of over GBP 22 million.

Examples of these client benefits through improved manufacturing methods include: increased output of 10-100%; reduced waste of 10-80%; reduced changeovers/clean-down times of 40-80%; and reduced lead times and stock of 50-75%.

All the above has been achieved with minimal financial expenditure with the PICME maxim of working "smarter not harder" and with maximum proactive ownership culture.

The PICME client list include Avecia, AH Marks, Akzo Nobel, Associated Octel, British Vita, Fisher Scientific, Genzyme, Jotun Paints, Novartis, Ocular Sciences, Rohm and Haas, and Wrafton Laboratories".

""The focus for PICME's chemical clients is increasingly on working in greater depth and across more production and other functions in order to optimise all the available gains and savings", says Hughes.

All PICME's initiatives are intended to support its central mission to raise the manufacturing fitness of all UK process manufacturing companies.

In practical terms this means raising capability and competence across the whole of a business operation.

For some companies it might mean sophisticated fine-tuning of operations in order to move to world-class competitiveness.

For others it might mean the beginning of their improvement beginning with measurement, manufacturing assessment and performance benchmarking.

When she renewed PICME's remit and funding in spring 2003 DTI Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt noted: "PICME has achieved impressive results".

"That is what Industry Forums are all about; hands-on practical help that has a direct and measurable impact".

In response to this renewal PICME is now redoubling its efforts to reach the marketplace with an ever-wider range of solutions.

"The thing I cannot stress enough to process manufacturers", says Lewis, "is the importance of starting the manufacturing improvement journey".

"We are there to support the UK's process manufacturers throughout the three main stages; gaining control; improving performance and then going for world class performance and leadership".

The range of PICME services in client benchmarking and manufacturing assessment activity is to be increased through 2005 and PICME is also set to develop specific training for the process industries in these matters.

"This will support improved take up of NVQs and of improved first line supervisor skills", says Lewis", as well as management training to improve use of lean approaches".

PICME is also launching a specific Batch Process Improvement Toolkit in 2005.

"This is designed to help companies resolve difficult choices between process and practices improvement", says Lewis.

"Our tool will allows the use of all the client's manufacturing plant data and will then focus scarce and expansive resources on the right problem".

"It will also allow consistent measurement of OEE across operations without subjective assumptions of output".

Other PICME initiatives for the near future include: collaboration with Crystal Faraday on less wasteful processes linked to our focus on less wasteful practices; work in the food sector to learn more about how this sector has developed responsive manufacturing to meet supply chain pressures; practical industry supply chains work to show how this can improve overall responsiveness in the sector; and development of a plant maintenance masterclass to address this key issue for lean operations in process sector.

The PICME mainstay, however, remains the one-on-one client work which has - in total - yielded such significant savings to the sector and to the economy generally.

• PICME: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Engineeringtalk email newsletter
• Engineeringtalk Home Page

Search the Pro-Talk network of sites

Put your news on Engineeringtalk  |   Advertise  |   Get the free Engineeringtalk newsletter  |   Engineeringtalk Home
About Engineeringtalk  |   Copyright © 2000-2008 Pro-Talk Ltd, UK