Manufacturer bounces back after floods
A SPECIALIST manufacturer of equipment for the agricultural industry is on track to achieve a turnover of £8m after streamlining its operations and bouncing back from last year’s severe flooding in South Yorkshire.
Sheffield-based Chapmans is 21% more productive and on course to achieve a record turnover after receiving help from the Manufacturing Advisory Service – Yorkshire & Humber (MAS).
The company is a long established manufacturer of wear resistant pressings and fabrications for agricultural machinery.
The industry is highly competitive and the agriculture market – which makes up 80% of its customer base – has undergone dramatic change in recent years.
To gain competitive edge, the company has now begun to apply its expertise into developing products for a wider range of industries including grass care, mining, road-laying and recycling.
Managing director David Byers said; “We recognised the need to evolve quickly if we were going to retain our position as market leaders. MAS specialist Paul Brown has played a vital role in helping us address these issues, resulting in a 58% improvement in stock turns; as well as modernising our approach so we could embed ‘Lean’ into the culture of the business.”
The floods of June 2007 halted production at the site for almost two months.
MAS delivered a series of grant subsidised training workshops to Chapmans’ shop floor staff, teaching them the core principles of lean manufacturing to help underpin the improvements taking place around them.
A lean ‘champion’ is now working full time to steer changes.
Mr Byers added: “Getting our people behind the transformation has been critical in keeping momentum going. Despite the set-back of the flood, Chapmans is achieving record turnover month on month and is winning new export customers who demand accurate on-time deliveries with penalty clauses if they deliver late. The confidence to do this has only come about by harnessing the support of their workforce to make realistic and sustainable improvements that have essentially reinvented the business.”
MAS is a BERR initiative funded by Yorkshire Forward and managed by YFM Business Development, a subsidiary of YFM Group, providing advice and support to manufacturing businesses to improve productivity and efficiency.
