News Article
A Tees Valley brake product manufacturer has consolidated its market leading reputation with the aid of cutting-edge lean manufacturing techniques.
TMD Friction Ltd could this year increase production on one of their pressing lines by up to 30% - saving them almost £500,000 a year.
The Hartlepool-based company is one of the town’s largest employers with a workforce of 300 people. The firm develops, produces and markets disc brake pads for passenger cars. The range includes state of the art products used in motor racing.
Brake components are key to driver safety, as producers of safety components TMD Friction invests heavily in the research and development of reliable easy-to-use.products.
Plant Director Mike Clark called in experts from the North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA) to ensure the firm achieved the maximum possible output from its production lines.
By training two employees as NEPA Change Agents, implementing workforce training and management development, including an innovative "Best Practice" visit to Japan, the joint NEPA/TMD team has help cut cleaning times, reduce the time to changeover machines, reduce scrap and stock levels.
Plant Director Mike Clark said: “Ten years ago TMD Friction burned to the ground when a fire ripped through our old plant, but thanks to the determination of the employees we have come back stronger than ever. Over £20m has been invested to create a world class car pad production facility”.
“Initially I was sceptical about NEPA it appeared too good to be true as nothing in life is free, but the support and more importantly the support network have been terrific. I would not hesitate to recommend NEPA.
“The staff involvement and reaction has been good I would estimate about 25% of the workforce has been involved in the NEPA process. I can see the positive effect this is having on the shop floor with communication improving and engagement increasing.
NEPA Engineer Alan Jones worked closely with TMD Friction Change Agents Michael Douglas and Andrew Rogers for a year, disseminating industry best practice through NEPA expertise.
He said: “I am delighted that TMD Friction is seeing the sort of productivity savings enjoyed by the numerous other businesses who have adopted the NEPA lean manufacturing ethos. The combination of NEPA techniques and the enthusiasm of the TMD Friction employees helped make this such a successful project.
“Not only are the machines operating more efficiently, the production line staff want to work on the cleaner machines and adopt the new maintenance techniques.”
For more information please contact: Bryn Littleton, press office, One North East on Tel: (0191) 2296713, mobile no: 07717 468918.
e-mail : bryn.littleton@onenortheast.co.uk
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