The Challenge

Speedwell Reinforcement produces welded mesh and reinforcement products for the pre-cast concrete industry, with a turnover of £3m and 60 employees in Sheffield. The business has established a reputation for both product quality and service, producing bespoke products to meet the demands of customers across a wide range of sectors including water authorities, railways, cable and telecommunications and construction.

Speedwell had been operating from its previous five-acre site for over 40 years. In September 2005 the Managing Director decided that the business needed to look at relocating to new premises with the aim of:

• Improving organisation of the factory and production processes to increase efficiency and reduce unnecessary handling and movement of materials.
• Using the move as an opportunity to review and upgrade manufacturing techniques and processes, to increase flexibility and reduce costs and cycle times.
• Establishing a factory layout and structure which would enable the business to deliver its objectives for the next 10 years.

Solution

Before any plans were made a comprehensive review of current manufacturing requirements was undertaken. Particular attention was paid to the range of products being produced, as flexibility and responsiveness are critical to Speedwell’s business strategy.

Factory layout needed to allow for even better responsiveness and a key aim was to
eliminate any historical anomalies in the production processes. It was an ideal time to deal with all of those “if you were starting from scratch you wouldn’t put that there” issues. Speedwell deliberately carries quite a high volume of raw material – this helps with cost control as bulk buying is economical, and having raw material in hand supports their strategy of responding swiftly to customer demands.

Once the information gathering exercise was completed, layout schemes were created and perfected to provide a final agreed layout. This allowed the production team to visualise the layout and create a detailed plan to ensure a smooth move.

Implementation

New furnished facilities were identified nearby and in March 2006 the move was set in motion. A new layout was developed in conjunction with the production team and this has enabled multi-machine manning with four operators simultaneously operating
16 machines – a major improvement on previous practice.

Seventy machines were transferred from the old site to the new factory, two overhead cranes were installed, and power, water and air supplies were routed to all machines.

Achievements

As a result of the project, Speedwell’s relocation was completed with minimum disruption and achievement of the following key benefits:

• £240,000 increase in gross value added
• 80% improvement in space utilisation
• 10% increase in overall equipment effectiveness
• 60 jobs safeguarded

The new layout has made visible the proportions of stock held as raw material, work in process and finished goods and highlighted the benefits of a different approach to planning and process control. As a further consequence, three machines for the wire straightening, cutting and cropping process were replaced by a single high speed machine, further improving efficiency.

Case study provided by David Jack, ibd Adviser.