News Article
A rapidly growing North East pallet manufacturer is consolidating its market- leading status with substantial new investment in its business allied to cutting-edge lean manufacturing techniques.
Tyne and Wear Pallets has pumped investment into a new computerised manufacturing line at its base in Lamesley, near Gateshead, allowing it to ramp up production of wooden and plastic pallets from 2m to 2.7m a year, supplying some of the biggest names in UK industry.
The company – employing 70 people – counts corporate giants such as Procter & Gamble, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline among its customers – supplying them with tailor made pallets to allow them to store and move their products across the globe.
Company managing director Peter McKenzie called in experts from the North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA) to ensure the firm achieved the maximum possible output from its new computerised production line.
NEPA has helped Tyne and Wear Pallets achieve a faster turnaround time between product lines, cut waste and boost efficiency. The NEPA programme has delivered a 63% reduction in changeover times which could provide the equivalent of an extra 22 weeks production capacity each year.
“The NEPA exercise has given us the scope to make 33% more product which is absolutely tremendous news for the future of the business,” said Mr McKenzie.
“A team of NEPA Engineers came into our business in February and we are using the tools and techniques that they have brought in to improve the performance of the business.”
Employees are being trained in new skills as part of NEPA’s dissemination of best practice and workforce development schemes, ensuring the company will carry on using the cutting-edge lean manufacturing processes refined from the Japanese car industry.
One North East has also supported the growth of Tyne and Wear Pallets with the offer of a £90,000 Selective Finance for Investment grant.
Tyne and Wear Pallets has grown from humble beginnings back in 1978 when company chairman Peter McKenzie senior and his wife Margaret supplied one customer with wooden pallets from a small plot of land at Philadelphia, near Washington.
It is now a firm with an expected annual turnover this year of £10m, experiencing 30% year-on-year growth over the past five years with its own distribution fleet of lorries and contractors.
“We are the market leader in the UK for quality pallets and we want to drive that further while maintaining profitability,” said Mr McKenzie.
“The NEPA workshops, tools and techniques have given massive efficiency benefits across the whole of the business.
“The staff bought into the NEPA training immediately and the whole culture of the business has changed, benefiting the company, the employees and our customers.”
NEPA engineer Ian Tindle, who is seconded to the NEPA programme from his post as an automation engineer at Merck Sharp & Dohme in Cramlington, said: “Our focus was to take waste and inefficiencies out of the business and lock in new techniques and ways of working with the employees.
“One of the key parts of the master class that we provide is sustainability, to make sure that what we teach is maintained in the business after we leave, right the way from the shopfloor through to management.”
Since its inception three years ago, the NEPA programme has achieved a total of £19m in productivity savings for more than 250 regional companies.
Nearly £18m has been invested in the NEPA programme by One North East, the Learning and Skills Council and the European Social Fund.
The NEPA programme consists of four distinct elements all aimed at raising company productivity – Dissemination of Best Practice, Digital Factory, Engineering Fellows and Workforce Development.
Ends.
For further information please contact:
Gordon Arnott, Senior Press Officer, One North East.
Tel:(0191) 229 6309 Fax:(0191) 229 6234 Mobile: 07713 317883
e-mail: gordon.arnott@onenortheast.co.uk
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