NAA event review: Business Excellence Networking Meeting, Auto Marine Cables, Wednesday 10 July 2013
Attendees at the NAA meeting at Auto Marine Cables were provided with a behind the scenes insight into the world of cables by the company’s Managing Director, Peter Hammond.
The visit included an introduction to the company, its products and processes, with a focus on lean manufacturing and efficiency improvements.
Peter Hammond explained how the company was founded in 1964 as a retail shop selling car parts and how it had grown over the last 49 years to a manufacturer of high quality cables and a distributor of electrical components and accessories throughout the automotive and marine sectors.
The company has a £10m turnover and it manufactures 1.5 million metres of cable per week.
Peter’s presentation focused on the company’s improvement process, saying that it should be called “never-ending” rather than “continuous” improvement.
In 2012, 46 continuous improvement projects were completed, on-time, in-full deliveries went from 93.67% to 97.89%, the number of lines on back orders dropped from 4290 to 1087 (a 75% reduction), and there was a cost reduction of £47,000 for temporary labour from agencies.
This year the company is working with the NAA on a Business Excellence marketing project. This project has only recently started, and some initial outcomes were presented.
However a similar marketing project delivered by Automotive Comms has now been completed with Performance Springs, which involved the design of a new brand and new marketing materials such as website, brochures and display stands. Paul Clarke gave a presentation about how Performance Springs had transformed its image through professional marketing; you can see the company’s new website for yourself at: http://www.performancesprings.co.uk/
