Education helps business and profit growth at Albis UK
Leading thermoplastic compounder and distributor Albis (UK) Ltd is celebrating after increasing capacity and growing its profitability for the second year running.
The Knutsford-based company has increased its manufacturing capacity by almost 10% and made savings in machine time of over £350,000 as a result of training with The Manufacturing Institute, the charity founded to educate, inspire and improve manufacturing companies and their employees.
After enrolling on the Accelerated Route to Lean Manufacturing course, Continuous Improvement Project Leader Mark Norbury led a team to implement business improvements which have increased the company’s capacity, streamlined operation processes and improved employee engagement within the business.
As a result, the company, which compounds and distributes technical resins and elastomers to companies within the UK and Ireland, saved over 3,000 hours in machine time.
On completion of the course, Mark went on to lead further team-based ‘in-company’ improvement projects, achieving additional benefits for the company including improving order waiting time by 25% and reducing cleaning times between orders by almost half. Alongside this, over 80 employees were able to gain NVQ Level 2 or above.
As a result of these successes, a Fellowship in Lean Manufacturing was awarded to Mark, who has since gone on to start an MSc in Manufacturing Leadership, developed by the Institute and accredited by Lancaster University.
Mark Norbury, Continuous Improvement Project Leader at Albis (UK) Ltd, said:
“Working with the Institute has been invaluable to our business. The tools and techniques we have learned have already made a significant impact in terms of savings, increased capacity and improved efficiency and this is reflected in our profits which are increasing year-on-year. We’re now integrating lean thinking across the whole business, not only in production but in areas like finance and sales.”
Julie Madigan, Chief Executive Officer at The Manufacturing Institute, said:
“The biggest asset for any company is its workforce and it’s clear to see this recognised by Albis (UK) Ltd, who have achieved significant improvements that can only continue to help grow their business into the future. Successful manufacturing companies have the tools and expertise to tackle both day-to-day challenges and deliver against strategic goals in order to continually improve. This is exactly what our programmes are designed to help businesses achieve.”
Manufacturing companies can now enrol on to The Manufacturing Institute’s 2012/13 education programme. ‘Accelerated Route to Lean’ runs one day per week for 12 weeks, with the next programme beginning on 19 April 2012, 2 October 2012 or 12 February 2013.
For further information on the programme, or any of our other courses, contact our Education and Training team on 0161 875 2525 or [email protected]
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For further information please contact:
Rachel Handford, PR & Communications Manager
0161 875 2459
07837 387208
[email protected]
The Manufacturing Institute
The Manufacturing Institute is an independent charity founded to educate, inspire and improve manufacturing companies and their employees. We deliver a wide range of high quality education, training and consultative services. During the last decade we have helped over 5,000 manufacturers to improve their productivity and delivered improvements in performance in excess of £1.1bn.
www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk
