Not since the Foleshill Gas Works stood on the site has Coventry’s Ricoh Arena seen such a surge in industrial energy. Works Management’s Manufacturing Management Show (MMS) came to town on November 23-24 and sent output back up to its highest level since the days when cooling towers, tar and cinder occupied the Ricoh stadium’s plot.
More than 1,000 industry leaders flocked to MMS to sample the show’s promise of free best practice advice on all aspects of successful manufacturing management, under one roof.
Delegates had the pick of visiting an exhibition area featuring more than 50 leading industry suppliers; dropping in on one of 27 hands-on workshops; or sampling a keynote conference programme. The latter featured 13 case study-led presentations on the path to manufacturing excellence and covered areas from compressed air to continuous improvement
The conference began with Tom Russell, senior development officer for Future Talent at Bentley Motors discussing how the luxury car giant had gone back to the drawing board with local colleges to bolster its apprenticeship scheme. Tweaking of a different kind was next up as Coca-Cola maintenance manager, Lee Baker revealed the asset care strategy that has helped deliver a 20% reduction in maintenance and repair spend at the manufacturer’s Wakefield plant.
The bill of materials for the job included the use of a so called ‘Barnsley iPad’, according to Baker.Images of trendy Silicon Valley software developers seeking inspiration from South Yorkshire were, however, quickly dashed.The title was coined by Baker, a native Yorkshireman, to describe the no-nonsense laminated paper instructions that detail daily clean, inspect and lubricate tasks on the line at Wakefield.The rudimentary approach highlighted the importance of keeping maintenance strategy simple, so that employees could understand and implement it, he stressed.
Industry 4.0 and the impact on UK factories
More advanced technology was on the agenda next as the MMS conference keynote debate took Industry 4.0 to task. Panellists including Roger O’Brien, director of the Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice at the University of Sunderland; Martin Bailey, marketing manager at 123Insight; Andrew Dalziel, senior director, Industry & Solution Strategy at Infor; and Allan Harley, EHS manager at boiler manufacturer Vaillant discussed the profit enhancing potential of an interconnected and artificially intelligent factory. Using data to develop more dynamic product servicing packages was one key opportunity, the debate heard. More proactive maintenance, instigated by free-thinking equipment, was another.
But, no matter how smart the plant – you couldn’t overlook the importance of people in tomorrow's factory, the panellists concluded. Highly-skilled employees would be essential in translating machine-gathered data into tangible, value add opportunities, the session heard. Delegates who wanted a further glimpse into the future could find one just across the corridor from the conference room in the show’s main exhibition hall.
Here, Brammer’s Invend vehicle demonstrated the benefits of using automated vending machines to dispense PPE and industrial tools.Factory teams could trim the usage of MRO consumables by 40% if they moved away from manual dispensing, visitors heard. The rise of the machines was also evident on board the RS Innovation truck – a near-22m juggernaut emblazoned in the same black and red paint job as the A-Team’s van.
The truck featured six interactive zones demoing the Internet of Things in action, the Raspberry Pi mini-computer and robotics. The resounding message: it’s time to get a plan together that harnesses the benefits of these break-through technologies on the factory floor.
That blueprint mustn’t ignore good old flesh and blood employees, delegates heard back in the show’s conference theatre.An engaged worker equals discretionary effort and a rich vein of improvement ideas, according to Jeremy Praud, head of UK/Europe at Lauras International. Clear communication, compassion and taking the time to explain the why behind any task were critical in unleashing your team’s hidden potential, the session heard.
The importance of employee engagement
Day two of the show picked up where Day one had left off. This time around it was Nigel Blenkinsop, operations director at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull plant, who extolled the virtues of shopfloor engagement. Team Improvement Circles, which task six JLR employees with implementing a kaizen idea, have brought round a £5.3m saving across the group.
You didn’t have to look too far to witness an example of high levels of engagement. Out on MMS’ exhibition floor delegates got down to business with a range of industry suppliers. Conversations were given a caffeine fused kick thanks to specialist ‘molecular’ coffee brewed up by a dedicated show barista on Kimberly Clark’s stylish café-themed stand.
Under the microscope back in the conference was the feted Toyota Production System. Toyota’s Tony Wallis highlighted the emphasis on teamwork, respect and continuous improvement that underpin the Toyota way. What to do when that teamwork and respect were lost in the workplace was the topic for lawyer, David Beswick of Eversheds. The airwaves at the briefly turned blue as Beswick detailed some caustic case history of harassment, discrimination and victamisation in the workplace during a presentation on tackling unwanted employee behaviours.
Luckily, the next speaker, Mark Bown of Cummins, was on hand to wash mouths out with his toothpaste-based manufacturing anecdote. Bown gave a presentation on the benefits of combining Six Sigma with other CI tools. The talk featured the story of a toothpaste manufacturer that had invested big in high-tech weighing scales after a spate of customer complaints over the supply of empty or under filled boxes of product.
From there on – boxes would be weighed against a standard and production halted until they received the all clear, management ruled. The top bods were busy patting themselves on the back as customer complaints plummeted under their failsafe system. But, just then they saw an operator who had ditched the scales and replaced them with a desk fan next to his section of the line.
The operator was taken to task, whereupon they nodded towards the fan and replied: ‘I was getting fed up with those weighing scales because every time the line would stop, I’d have to walk back and forth to restart it again. So I bought this $6 fan. If a box is empty or underweight then it will simply blow it off the line: problem solved.’
The moral: you need to empower the experts – the operators closest to the work in problem solving – because they often harbour the simplest solutions.
It was a neat allegory for the MMS show too. Break the mould in your problem solving approach by venturing out of your familiar factory environment and engaging with peers and suppliers at this dedicated show. An out of leftfield ideal that MMS had delivered on over the two days, according to those in the know on the shopfloor. “Coming here has made me think differently. A day away from the desk simply creates fresh ideas, said one manufacturing manager. “It has given me snippets of gold that I will take back to the shopfloor in our CI projects.”
Come and find out for yourself by booking in for next year’s MMS. See more at www.mmshow.co.uk
