Cost

MAS South West specialists can provide short-burst assessment of your needs by means of a free, one day on-site survey. During this time we will seek to recommend the tools and techniques which will provide the most benefit in achieving your business goals. Once we agree a way forward we can then offer a subsidised service to implement the changes.

Why should I choose MAS South West  over other apparently similar providers?

MAS South West has been set-up by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), to provide a high quality advisory service at an affordable cost. Our specialists all have "hands-on" experience of implementing relevant change in a variety of manufacturing business sectors. We won't just tell you what to do. Our aim is to work with you to identify the right solution and to be involved with your organisation in implementing the change as it happens.

How can MAS South West help to improve my cash-flow?

Stock and WIP reduction are central to many areas of manufacturing best practice. MAS South West specialists can introduce and assist in the implementation of lean operations where stock and WIP are minimised thus releasing cash. These techniques also have the added benefit of reducing supply leadtimes which can also accelerate the cash collection process.

I buy the lowest cost components and raw materials. What's the benefit to me in improving the supply chain?

It is supply chains that compete, not companies! If the whole supply chain works together then the opportunities for reducing lead times, eliminating waste and minimising inventory becomes greater.

Improving the supply chain can mean finding the best quality components, moving to smaller and more regular deliveries (using Kanban systems) or even introducing consignment stocks. All these improvements will provide additional cost savings to you and help improve your cash flow.

We have too much cash tied up in our business and we need to release some of it quickly. Can the MAS help us?

The MAS can conduct a free review of your operation and look for opportunities to release cash that you may have tied up in inventory (raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods). Often inventory is necessary because of long lead times, process inefficiencies, large batch sizes and/or equipment reliability problems.

The MAS will work with you to diagnose the route cause of inventory levels, provide advice and help your employees make improvements. Short-term improvements can be gained by making smaller batch sizes work, introducing Kanban systems and training your employees in manufacturing waste reduction. Medium-term improvements may require changes to your manufacturing layout and the introduction of manufacturing cells. Tools and techniques can also be introduced to solve problems with equipment effectiveness and process
inefficiencies.

What is ‘value added'?

There is no set definition of ‘value added', but essentially it is defined by customer need and what they are prepared to pay for. In looking at your processes, you will quickly be able to identify where you add value to your product with the remaining time and activities classified as non-value added. In many cases, 95 per cent of time and effort adds no value to the product at all.

How do I identify ‘non-value added' activity?

The key principles of lean manufacturing focus on seven categories which cover the ways in which manufacturing organisations waste or lose money. Waste, or non-value added activity, is classified as the use of resources over and above what is actually required to produce the product as defined by the customer. The ‘seven wastes' is not a tool in itself, but they are useful in identifying problem areas and helping you to focus attention. The ‘seven wastes' are:

• Over production and early production
• Waiting and delays
• Inventory
• Movement of people or equipment
• Transportation of materials
• Inappropriate processing
• Defects
  

How should I go about eliminating ‘non-value added' activity?

There are many tools and techniques which can be applied to tackle waste, and specialists, such as members of the MAS South West team, are available to help you identify and reduce non-value added activities. A workshop, involving the employees from across the business, to map your processes and identify areas of waste, will give you a good indication of where to start. You then need to select a process area or product line to focus on rather than looking at the whole organisation. This will ensure you do not spread resources too thinly, motivation is sustained and that the benefits of waste elimination are evident early on. We recommend running projects over 10 days, spread across two to three months in two day blocks. These projects will help the organisation to transform its relationship with waste and adopt lean thinking and continuous improvement as a matter of course.