Banks call in manufacturing improvement programmes to cut waste

Lean programmes pioneered at factories are now the toast of the City, WM's Show Me the Money meeting heard. Banking chiefs praised manufacturer's skill in developing the tools at the roundtable meeting with SME businesses. Alexander Baldock, md at Lombard said: "We've just started a big Six Sigma lean programme in our lending process and I was embarrassed to find how many inefficiencies and inconsistencies were uncovered." He added: "We've borrowed the practices from places like GE and Toyota. We're focussed on making the borrowing process from your point of view a lot more efficient." Applying continuous improvement will help banks enhance services to manufacturers agreed Stephen Pegge, director of SME markets at Lloyds. He said: "What this enables us to do is free up time to add value. There is a lot of back office non customer facing time which is wasted."