OPTIMISING PERFORMANCE TO BRING BENEFITS TO CUSTOMERS

Aaron Williamson, DoorCo’s new Head of Manufacturing, talks about the project the leading composite door supplier is undertaking to achieve greater manufacturing efficiencies through the adoption of lean and world class manufacturing principles.

Lean and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) principles are the fundamental principles behind the ability to minimise waste (time, resources, materials) and maximising productivity. With my background in the medical device industry and mission critical energy supply components, a true understanding of the power of lean is what has driven my first few months at DoorCo, working with the team to restructure, establish and enhance processes to deliver further competitive advantage.

Getting ahead of demand

It’s well recognised that DoorCo has experienced exponential growth over recent times and is now the UK’s largest composite door supplier, and one that is never shy to invest in people and equipment. But from a manufacturing perspective, the current set up was limiting capacity and therefore, the potential for taking the business to the next stage of growth. I was able to take a step back, review the space and the working processes, and grow capacity through strengthening the team and building plans to introduce the principles of WCM and lean manufacturing. We are aiming to create a clean, uncluttered environment, designed to decrease waste, optimise productivity and attain more consistent operational results. A clean and tidy workplace, with everything required for the job located where it should be sounds simple, but getting even this basic wrong can have huge implications on productivity and quality. Having these strong foundations will enable us to one day, achieve the World Class Manufacturing status we are working towards.

People Make It Possible

The core of making this possible is people. The culture of shared values and commitment to continuous improvement at DoorCo is strong and this project has reenergised this further across the manufacturing team.

The redesign has included input from all stakeholders and has resulted in the creation of three new areas of manufacturing focused on specific disciplines: Standard Doors, Painted/Stained Doors, and Glazing. Each cell has a dedicated team, with a clear hierarchy which has enabled us to offer promotions to manage extra responsibility and in tandem, open up opportunities for other members of the team to aspire to, for growth within the business. The teams are empowered to manage these lines effectively and encouraged offer ideas that might help improve the business and service we deliver to our customers.

As we take each step on the journey to WCM, people can see the improvements being made because they’re being listened to. They’re experiencing an improved work environment which creates a positive feedback cycle.

Holistic Approach

Historically, the 31,000sq.ft. manufacturing space at DoorCo was taken up by one big system responsible for all doors and processes including glazing, painting, prepping was part of it, which often caused bottlenecks and delays. A door would travel 250m round the factory – ¼ kmbefore it was ready. Starting with a blank canvas and applying the lean principles of removing the seven wastes –– we have been able to reduce a door’s travel time to just 50m with the restructure. Not only does this indicate the advances we can make in increasing capacity, reduced transportation and motion also means fewer touch points for potential damage to the door, which in turn improves consistent quality.

Lean principles also help to identify where further investment is needed in for example machinery, although it must be justified within the whole manufacturing ‘ecosystem’. As a result, we’ve brought in additional beam saws and also upgraded the significant extraction system.

IT’S JUST COMMON SENSE

None of this is rocket science, but it does require consistency, tenacity and genuine teamwork, which fortunately are qualities seen throughout DoorCo. Our aim is to deliver consistently higher and higher levels of customer service, efficiencies to pass on to our customer through a value for money offering and to futureproof the business to keep ahead as we share and support our customers’ growth.

www.door-co.com