Employees at Quickslide have undertaken Lean Green Belt Training offered by West Yorkshire Manufacturing Services. This latest training is just part of a continued commitment by the leading windows and doors supplier to offer all staff across all levels of the business and operations personalised professional development opportunities that enrich and upskill not just each individual but also the business as a whole. And it provides measurable improvements that Quickslide’s customers directly benefit from too.
Production manager Lyndon Rattigan was one of the attendees to the five-day Lean Green Belt Training program, which was undertaken over a 6-week period. The course focused on ways to analyse and tackle specific role-based productivity challenges to achieve quantifiable results.
“Over the past 18 months we’ve seen big changes at Quickslide, with a huge investment in automation and the launch of new products such as the slim midrail sash window and Quick-Glide door,” said Lyndon. “So, our Lean Green Training centred on how best to ensure the smooth and effective introduction of new products and processes, while maintaining and even improving our standards of high quality and low wastage.”
During training, employees were introduced to new ways of thinking and working, learning about the principles of lean productivity and how to apply them through practical exercises.
“We came away with practical tools that we’ve already put into day-to-day use throughout our production,” said Lyndon. “We’ve introduced communication boards throughout the workshop, so we can document challenges and work together to identify solutions and deliver improvements. We now have observation stations to both spot and share good practice and identify areas of improvement, to increase output across the board. And new call points at each work station means no time is wasted by employees leaving to look for supervisors, which has improved our productivity rate.”
“These are regular small gains that day in, day out, add up to measurable improvements with real financial value. Because continuous improvement is at the heart of everything we do at Quickslide.”
