Employees jump on board to boost business efficiency

Based in Rotherham, Kostal UK is a subsidiary of a German family owned business that designs, manufactures and assembles plastic moulded electrical switches for the automotive industry. Its major customers include Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Volvo, V.W. and Porsche.

The company has been severely hit by the economic downturn (with sales declining by more than 50% since this time last year) forcing Kostal to make a number of redundancies to safeguard its position (dropping from 380 staff down to 300 in January 2009).  The remaining team is now stepping up its drive to implement ‘Lean’ thinking and reduce waste whilst production remains slow, putting them in a stronger position for when the industry recovers. 

23 junior management employees have undertaken the City & Guilds Senior Award in Lean Manufacturing through the Manufacturing Masters programme, which requires them to undertake work-based projects to improve the efficiency of their own work areas, demonstrating the Lean tools and techniques they have learnt.

Supported by Yorkshire Forward, Manufacturing Masters is a business improvement programme that provides high level learning opportunities for manufacturing employees, giving them the capability to drive change and improvement within their organisation.  The qualifications within the programme have been developed jointly by industry specialists from The Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) together with experts at the University of Leeds Business School.

The chosen individuals were coached by Manufacturing Masters deliverer Kerry Cochran of Lean Business Solutions in how to apply Lean tools and techniques.  They were then divided into five cross-functional project teams, and each team focused on a specific project area with measurable objectives for improving efficiency (stock accuracy, quality standards, paperwork and reports, Kaizen and scrap reduction).

Fiona Harrison, HR Officer at Kostal, explains: “We’re already seeing some impressive bottom-line results thanks to the efforts of our people.  Working in cross-functional teams has broken down a lot of communication barriers at Kostal, which has been a real plus point for us.  People are now talking to each other across departments to address issues themselves as, following the redundancies, there is no longer someone to ‘just report it to and forget about it’.”

Amongst the improvements already realised are a 25% reduction in scrap, achieved by staff preparing standard documents for identifying defects and training the operators in how to inspect samples using visual guidelines.  Stock losses have also reduced by 75% as a direct result of improvements made to procedures, and coaching of the wider workforce in how to follow these new procedures consistently. 

Barry Johnson, HR Director, concludes: “We have all seen how close redundancy can be and survival instinct has kicked in – we recognise what needs to be done and the Masters programme has given our people the confidence to see it through.

"Obviously cost is a big issue for us at the moment, but you have to map out your priorities and commit to spend where the most value can be added in the longer term.  This has definitely been a worthwhile investment for us.”

For more information, visit www.manufacturingmasters.co.uk