Manufacturing

Cobham Aviation Services operates and maintains specially modified aircraft using state of the art technology to provide airborne special mission operations and training in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East.

Leadership skills development programme helps scientists instil performance orientated culture.

Zodiac Seats UK designs, certifies and assembles bespoke first class, business class, and premium economy class passenger seats for major
global carriers.

Zodiac Seats UK, has formed part of the Zodiac Aerospace Group since 2012 and has two production sites are Cwmbran and Camberley.

Metsä Wood supplies wood-based products, systems, and services to customers in the building and construction, industrial, distribution, and retail sectors.

The business achieved a turnover of EUR 940 million in 2011, employing about 2,900 people.

It is one of the largest companies in the forest products sector in Europe.

Our client, a leading manufacturer and distributor of specialist paint and coatings based in the UK, is part of a major global corporation. The site that was the focus of this assignment manufactures over 20 million litres of specialist paint per year. This is distributed to stockists and end-users through seven European Regional Distribution Centres (RDC’s), all managed from the UK site.

Most areas in manufacturing are facing dramatic changes in market forces. Those like Rolls‐Royce, who are at the leading edge of technological advancement, are facing more changes than most.

The team anticipates a return on investment of 5:1 through product quality improvements alone.

CPL Products was created as a spin-off from British Coal in the early 1990s and provides home heating solid fuel Briquettes. The plant was originally built by Petrofina in 1985 and the process had not changed significantly since 1997. The review focused on the two production plants MHT1 & MHT2 at the Immingham site with a view to increasing capacity and driving costs down.

The business was experiencing problems in fulfilling customer orders and achieving financial performance targets, despite having a significant order book.

To uphold its position, it was important to transform ways of working, redefine processes and build capability.

A programme based on Machine shop re-layout, supervisory and management training, leadership coaching and shop floor scheduling. Bourton Group worked closely with the management team over twelve months analysing processes and routines and coaching staff in the new ways of working.

Our client is a manufacturer of bespoke engineered metal products for a range of industries, based in the South West of England.

The initial aim of the project was to review the business, establishing how much of the margin reduction was due to known changes and how much was related to out of date and inappropriate general business practices, and make recommendations for improvement. A second phase was subsequently agreed in which we helped facilitate the identified improvements.

Key improvements were made by looking at the Gross Margin products. Plants were re-laid, contracts were reviewed, and quality data analysis was undertaken to allow initiatives to be put in place in order to reduce scrap across a range of products.

By the end of the first six months, significant increases to the bottom line had been achieved more than a £1.3m annualised improvement.

Bourton Group visited the production facility and through a combination of work study methods, Process Mapping, data collection and detailed analysis we quickly identified opportunities to increase outputs and increase quality.

A critical assessment focussed on retaining the business and restructuring it into a going concern to ultimately dispose of the business in a managed and orderly fashion while minimising financial, commercial, and reputational impact.

Our Client is a global leader in the manufacture of high-performance specialty materials used in high-temperature industrial, automotive, and fire protection applications. They have over 30 manufacturing facilities worldwide in 12 different countries. Bourton Group worked with their Global Improvement team, supporting several manufacturing plants within the UK and Europe, improving efficiency and reducing costs through a plant ‘diagnostics’ program.