Top tier manufacturers in different sectors were honoured for business efficiency gains by maintenance, repair and overhaul specialists Brammer yesterday.
Brammer, the maintenance, repair and overhaul company, acknowledged big gains in business efficiency by five companies at their annual customer event and awards at the RBS Williams Conference Centre in Oxfordshire on Thursday.
Five categories were awarded: Energy and Environmental Improvement (Cadbury); Reduced Maintenance (Tarmac), Increased Production Uptime (Crown Packaging); Business Process Improvement (Georgia-Pacific) and Supplier of the Year (SKF). Companies to make the shortlist across all categories included Allied Bakeries, Alcoa Fjaroaal, Amtico, Aunt Bessie’s, Cadbury Sheffield, Rolls-Royce, Scottish & Newcastle, Unilever and Brammer supplier Festo.
Before the awards, guests attended seminars on three subjects: Maintenance, discussing the advantages of condition monitoring and root cause analysis, delivered by Prof Len Gelman of Cranfield University; Supply chain efficiencies presented by Prof Daniel Corsten of the IE Business School in Madrid, on delivering working capital improvements through the supply chain; and Energy management to reduce costs and carbon emissions – why energy efficiency should be at top of a company’s cost cutting agenda, presented by Keith Horgan of the Carbon Trust.
The award ceremony was hosted by the Rt Hon Michael Portillo, former Defence Secretary and Conservative MP for Enfield, who raised the roof with an entertaining introduction to the awards, where he chose the importance of reputation as a theme ,with a sprinkling of self-deprecation. A flurry of jokes and anecdotes surprised many in the audience and provided a good-humoured prelude to the awards presentation.
Lee Hopley, head of economic policy at EEF, the manufacturer’s organisation, opened the ceremony with a concise assessment of the business environment for manufacturers, and a message to government about the need to engage more closely with manufacturing and the dangers of tinkering with taxation and regulation.
The annual Brammer customer event and awards’ dual purpose is to recognise operational efficiencies the company has helped provide to its customers, and service levels from its suppliers, and to raise money for the company’s adopted charity, Make a Wish. Brammer has raised £100,000 since April 2007 for the charity, which fulfils wishes for seriously ill children and young people. The Thursday event raised a further £1,000 for Make a Wish and the charity’s director of fundraising Karen England presented the raffle and acknowledged the superb level of fund-raising during Brammer’s relatively brief association with Make a Wish. Portillo stumped up a further £100 for the wine case prize won by a Brammer employee who re-donated it.
Ian Fraser, chief executive of Brammer plc, said the company has helped its UK customers make over £50m in cost savings to date through its range of products and services that include reducing total acquisition cost of plant, reducing working capital and the improvement of production efficiency.