Ibstock Brick, Building blocks

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer
Published : October 2005

Ibstock Brick is building on its continuous improvement programme and its influence on innovation, quality, customer service, people and culture. Ruari McCallion spoke to John Lambert

Ibstock makes both wire-cut and moulded soft mud bricks. Soft mud and genuine handmade bricks are particularly popular in the south-east of the country and Ibstock is the leader not only there but across the UK, producing around 900 million bricks each year.

Soft mud bricks are often more rugged and have a handmade appearance, which has a strong appeal in some parts of the country, but wire-cut bricks are also very popular and actually represent the greater proportion of Ibstock’s output. It depends very much on local conditions and preferences. Adapting to changing demands led the company to convert its Ellistown factory from wire-cut to soft mud production – but flexibility is important and it has retained the ability to convert it back, subject to the balance of customer demand.

Its flexibility gives it a competitive advantage in the marketplace and its strong presence in the south-east of the country means that it will be well-placed to supply the requirements of the Thames Gateway. That project involves the eastern, London and south-east regional development agencies, and represents the largest-ever residential development project in Europe.

Ibstock employs around 1900 people at its 24 plants around the country, from Glasgow in the north to Bexhill and Exeter in the south. That presents something of a management challenge, especially if the company is running a business-wide continuous improvement programme, as Ibstock is.

“Yes, it is something of a challenge,” said John Lambert TPM/project manager. Ibstock has based its continuous improvement strategy around TPM (total productive manufacture). “TPM is core to continuous improvement within manufacturing. The appeal of it, to us, is as standardisation of products and services increases people are often the only point of difference between competing organisations. The tools and techniques allow us to utilise and develop our people better.” Ibstock’s heritage is as a traditional operations/maintenance company: the operators ran the machines and did very little with maintenance. They let the maintenance teams know whenever anything went wrong and waited while it was fixed. The frustration for the operators – and, ultimately, management – is that the people who ran the machines knew how things could be better – and had some good ideas of how to stop breakdowns in the first place.

“TPM is the world class manufacturing approach to maximising the effectiveness of machinery and equipment on the factory floor. It not only addresses maintenance but all aspects of the operation and installation of manufacturing facilities and at its very heart lies the motivation and enhancement of factory floor personnel.” It is also “a change mechanism that concentrates on the facilities used within the company and involves people in a way in which they probably have not been involved before, thus changing the very culture of the company. TPM then helps to employ technology more effectively and gradually shows the need for company organisation and systems to be changed and helps bring about that change,” he continued. Implementation of TPM as a strategy has been achieved in a carefully structured way. “I work closely with all the factory managers, each of whom has the remit to drive TPM forward. My role is to develop the overall strategic direction and objectives for TPM in Ibstock and then provide guidance, support, and encouragement to the factories.” Each site manager has two key individuals supporting their efforts. As site facilitator and site co-ordinator, they drive the initiative forward in front-line roles. The company has had TPM in place now for nearly five years and the structure is pretty well established, but there were issues to be dealt with along the way.

“There was an element of the fear factor. As we trained and upskilled machine operators to do the basic maintenance that allowed the fitters to do more complex work – but there was the fear that there would be lost jobs,” he said. After five years, no fitter has lost their employment as a result of TPM. How did Ibstock get its people to embrace the concepts within TPM?

“We’ve worked very closely with the teams as we’ve moved to higher technical levels and this is when our maintenance employees have really excelled.” It’s a case where the basic concept of TPM is working: that the operator looks after routine basic maintenance and the skilled fitters come in to do more in-depth scheduled work, PPM, and advanced project work, and hopefully eliminate unforeseen breakdowns completely.

“We’re improving our machine performance beyond the book designed level, in some instances. We’re getting good ideas from all our employees – they’re the ones who know where the improvement opportunities are,” said Lambert. The continuous improvement strategy and training go hand-in-hand with investment. Brickmaking is a five-step process: grinding and preparing the clay; forming; drying; firing; and packing.

“The key link in the process is the kiln. It works 24/7 and needs a constant supply of product to fire. The problems we’ve had have been predominately in forming and packing. Several factories have needed additional shifts to enable them to meet demand,” he said. “Through TPM, we’ve been able to reduce downtime and top-up shifts have been eliminated.” Investment in capital equipment and automation – in robot packaging, in particular – have also helped. The whole strategy has delivered efficiency, quality, environmental, health and safety and energy reduction gains. The company holds ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 accreditation – it’s the only UK brickmaker to have 14001 at all its facilities. It’s inevitable that, with 24 sites involved, the pace of progress and individual achievements will vary.

Throughout the company a constant focus on the continuous improvement programme and its influence on innovation, quality, customer service, people and culture are the building blocks Ibstock Brick relies on for its continued competitiveness and progress.

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