Size no bar to excellence for G&O Springs
A SMALL Midlands aerospace manufacturer is smashing records following a partnership with the Birmingham-based Industry Forum.
G&O Springs of Redditch has hit perfect 100 per cent performance targets on quality and on-time delivery for the first time in its 30 year history. The targets were achieved across 170 orders, in an industry in which 70 per cent delivery schedule achievement is the average.
The company, which employs 24 people, has also halved its lead times and achieved top supplier position with three of its major customers – Goodrich Aerospace, Engine Control Systems and Pattonair.G&O produces a range of springs for the aerospace industry. Each spring is hand-finished to achieve the precise tolerances required by its customers.
G&O Spring’s success follows interventions by the Industry Forum which have encouraged a culture of continuous business improvement to be embedded in the company from top to bottom. As a result of its dramatic performance G&O has become the first company sponsored by the West Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service to win a recognition award under the defence and aerospace industry’s SC21 supply chain improvement programme. The programme, under the auspices of the Society of British Aerospace Companies, gave G&O their coveted Bronze Award.
G&O Springs’ managing director Steve Boyd said the company already had lean production tools and techniques in place, but had been using them on a piecemeal basis rather than strategically.
“We realised that the strategic, top-to-bottom deployment of an improvement culture was vital, and this has dramatically changed our business for the better and helped us get through what has been a difficult time for the industry,” he said.
He added, “Lead times have been cut in some instances by 20 days. The process has motivated all of our staff, and the result is a better performing operation in a good position to win new orders.”
The Industry Forum works in a wide range of industry sectors and is a strategic partner to the SBAC – now called the ADS after merging with defence and security trade associations – for their SC21 programme and an approved training partner.
Karl Smith, the Industry Forum’s head of aerospace and defence programmes, said many companies and consultancies applied improvement tools and techniques in an ad-hoc way and that was a recipe for failure.
“Improvements have to be sustainable, and that means there must be commitment from the boardroom to the shop floor, and a framework for strategic business improvement. Few companies have actually managed to embed this long term sustainable improvement culture into their businesses, so G&O deserve the highest congratulations for their achievements,” he said.
