Priest Engineering

— filed under: MAS South West, Improving Quality and Delivery, MAS National, Manufacturing Processes, Lean Thinking, 5S or Six Sigma, Operational Improvement

— Monday May 11, 2009 13:25 PM

Poole-based Priest Engineering was founded in 1972 and specialises in fine limit sheet metal fabrication using the latest CNC machinery. Its clients include aerospace, defence, OEMs, ATE suppliers, PCB equipment manufacturers, machine tool suppliers and process equipment companies.

Mark Priest with MAS specialist Nigel Jones

Employees: 20
Sector: Engineering
Location: Dorset

The company has been sponsored by BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce to sign up to Supply Chains for the 21st Century (SC21)—a nationwide initiative aimed at improving the competitiveness of the aerospace and defence supply chain. As a SC21 signatory company, it has begun implementing a continuous improvement programme with MAS chosen to support them.

“I have been so impressed the way my team have worked together. They have achieved a massive improvement in on time deliveries and a superb improvement in productivity. This has led to a loss making runner product now making consistent profit month in month out. The customer for this range of products is now ordering other products from us as a result of this. What a success!
I now want to roll out this focus to other areas of the business. I know that my Team have had to put in a big effort to start with, but the results have been so evident that they are now even more enthusiastic to build on the success they have achieved.”
Mark Priest, managing director, Priest Engineering

How MAS helped

Priest Engineering worked on site with MAS-SW to develop a continuous improvement programme aligning to the requirements of the SC21 programme. MAS-SW focused on introducing the team to lean manufacturing methods, using the tools to eliminate manufacturing inefficiencies, and therefore increase productivity.

Priest-image

Initially, focus was placed on the sheet metal shop and ‘runner’ products (those products regularly manufactured to ongoing orders). MAS-SW introduced the team to 5S workplace organisation techniques, along with standardised manufacturing processes, to map the journey the runner product takes from enquiry to dispatch. This information was used to address waste and duplication and decide required action to help the reduction of both.

Result

As a result of the work done and support delivered by MAS-SW, Priest Engineering has seen on-time delivery increase to 93 per cent, experienced productivity gains of 23 per cent, and improved its SC21 Manufacturing Excellence diagnostic score. It has also seen a loss-making runner product make consistent profit. As a consequence, the customer for this range of products is now ordering other products.

“Through using a working example the team could see how the principles of lean manufacturing applied to a specific part of the business. Now that the initial improvement programme has been completed, they are applying these lessons to other parts of the organisation.”
Nigel Jones, MAS-SW specialist Dorset

Priest-image02

Key Achievements

Delivery improvement of 93 per cent
Productivity gains of £45k
The runner product chosen was transformed from making a loss to making a profit
Additional opportunities due to increased delivery performance
Progress towards an SC21 award
Manufacturing Excellence diagnostic score

pdf-01 Priest Case study (Download PDF 406Kb)

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