Process Improvement Workshop 

Sharps Bedrooms have been working in partnership with ukfirst by undertaking the renowned 15 day process improvement workshop to develop an internal improvement program.  As a result, dramatic improvements in quality, cost and delivery were achieved saving the company an estimated £56,000 within the first year.

Objectives
- To improve the first time fit performance by 5%
- To reduce the key areas that generate customer complaints
- To achieve financial savings in internal operations
- To develop a best practise and continuous improvement culture

Approach
To meet the company’s expectations, Ukfirst Master Engineer David Storer performed a pre- diagnostic of the data available and worked with 11 members of the Sharps bedrooms team, who together held over 100 years experience in manufacturing.

The initial analysis of the root cause found that the greatest financial savings were related to the quality issues of first time fit. This is known as the measure of the correct number of undamaged parts arriving ready for installation at a customer’s property.

Tools and techniques
A three stage process of pie chart, occurrence breakdown and Pareto were used in the analysis. This level of analysis allows complex problems to be broken down into individual actions, monitored and controlled by a simple action plan. Therefore the following solutions were implemented;

• The introduction of heat monitoring strips improved the repeatability of film lamination to MDF.
• Damage to products in transit was dramatically reduced through the improvement of stillage fittings.
• Improvements were made to the drilling operation.

Results
• The level of first time fit was improved by 6.4%.

• A drilling operation improvement led to a saving of £20,000

• A total saving of £56,000 was made in internal costs

• The level of first time fit was improved by 6.4%, exceeding the original target

The improvement team at Sharps Bedrooms have continued to meet and apply the techniques provided by ukfirst in order to achieve even greater savings and improve the company’s performance.

Client feedback

"All those involved in the ukfirst initiative have gained a great deal from the experience. We have sustained improvements made during the project which will allow us to get better faster than our competitors who will by default be getting worse."
Gary Hunt, Manufacturing Control Manager
Sharps Bedrooms

Engineer Feedback

"It has been a refreshing experience to work with a team that maintained their focus and enthusiasm."
David Storer, Master Engineer