Just two weeks to the Best of British Manufacturing IT conference 2006

Delegates will hear ‘warts and all’ lean improvement stories achieved using better business processes and IT across manufacturing, engineering development, supply chain and operations from 20 manufacturers – including Stadco, Lotus, Bentley, Red Bull Racing, Cadbury Schweppes, Diageo, Sony, Stannah Lifts, Worldmark, Unipart and Deltron-Emcon. The event has been designed for operations directors and directors and managers of finance, IT, production, purchasing and design – manufacturing business management teams wanting real advice on how to drive maximum sustainable business improvement. Paul Lamert, retail cash drawers manufacturer Cash Bases’ continuous improvement manager, will explain how the company implemented its Exel ERP and Preactor APS (advanced planning and scheduling) system – and, as a result, improved on-time, in-full delivery performance metrics from 34% to 94%, cut work in progress (WIP) from 30 days to just 10, improved productivity by 15-20% and substantially improved OEE (overall equipment effectiveness). Nigel Nash, financial controller at vitamins and minerals supplier LycoRed, will describe how his company moved to an agile ERP environment consistent with food industry requirements, enabling it to compete with much larger rivals on flexibility, speed, lead times and quality of service. And Martin Blackburn, group IT manager at Magal Engineering, will tell delegates how to get ERP systems in, up and running for less than £50,000 each, including licences, infrastructure, configuration and implementation. And that’s for systems designed to underpin the group’s lean manufacturing and inventory reduction initiatives. In all, the event will play host to 20 case study presentations with extensive Q and A in eight streams, covering automotive, automotive supply, parts & components, the process sector, project engineering, electronics/high tech, electro-mechanical and configure to order manufacturing. For information and to book go to http://www.bestofbritishmfg.co.uk/programme.htm or contact Kerry Wilkins on kwilkins@findlay.co.uk or 01322 221144.