Industry Forum Winter 2011 Newsletter
Challenges facing the UK Automotive Industry Supply Chain
2011 will have seen an important series of investments in UK automotive announced by Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Vauxhall and BMW amongst others. Research & Development spend by UK automotive was 20% up in 2010 at over £1 billion suggesting a series of new models are in development. But what do these positive developments mean for the UK automotive supply chain?
New data from ONS for 2010 shows that the recession has caused a significant contraction of the UK automotive supply chain, with over 500 businesses lost in two years. This is more than 20% of the total, though the 14% fall in employment suggests that smaller companies made up the majority of the casualties. A report commissioned by SMMT and just published highlights the need to get capital into the UK’s automotive supply chain to take advantage of the opportunities created by recent OEM investment announcements. On the other hand the second round of the Regional Growth Fund awards saw supply chain projects winning support suggesting that at least some UK based supply chain firms are planning significant expansion. In 2010 the supply chain still contributed just under 40% of the total value added in UK automotive and still accounted for over half the employment in the sector.
The supply chain data specialists, Supplier Business, shine a spotlight on the relations between VMs and the supply chain in a report, published in July 2011. Their study, which measures the performance of global carmakers in managing their relationships with their supply base, shows that ratings have fallen by 7.6% on average between 2010 and 2011. This marks a return to those levels achieved in 2009, after 2 years of marked improvements when the index increased by 3% and 3.6% respectively. These are global figures rather than UK specific and the maturity of the UK supply chain may well mean that our figures are better than the global average. The strength of the UK supply chain was recently highlighted by a series of SMMT ‘Meet the Buyer’ events which took place in the Midlands, the North-West and Wales and saw over 100 UK based suppliers demonstrate their strengths.
At Industry Forum we believe that good supply chain relationships are based on certain fundamentals which are easy enough to describe but require care and discipline to put into practice. At the heart are seven powerful measures which capture the essence of Quality, Cost and Delivery. In the past decade we have proved our approach in the automotive and aerospace sectors in a number of substantial projects. Case studies on our web site www.industryforum.co.uk, illustrate this approach in depth. We also teach a number of powerful Quality Management Systems, drawn from across the world, which can help primes to build up a well-founded confidence in the supply chain. We do not see these fundamentals disappearing and indeed, as UK vehicle output grows, they will become more important than ever.
Successful Japan Best Practice Visit 2011
Industry Forum has recently conducted another successful Japan Best Practice Programme where delegates visited some of the very best manufacturing companies to be found anywhere in the world. Two companies, Sanden and Mutsuba, are past winners of the prestigous TPM World Class Award administered by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance. The programme also included a visit to one of Toyota’s car assembly plants and to Denso where the Toyota Production System is practiced to great effect.
Japanese words such as Kaizen and Kanban have found their way into daily useage in Western manufacturing companies but during this visit to Japan two topics were observed extensively where the words describing them are less familiar to non-Japanese people.
The first is Monozukuri. The literal meaning is the production process but in industrial Japan they have interpreted it to embrace the spirit of good production. This concept features heavily in the training and development of young people newly entering a company and it symbolises Japan’s way of addressing the fact that they have an aging population and a declining birth rate with little immigration. Thus the country will become ever more dependant on fewer and fewer people of working age sustaining the economy.
The second term noted during the programme was Karakuri. Workers are encouraged to continuously implement Kaizen, or continuous improvement, ideas but Karakuri Kaizen attempts to use the “free” energy within a process which otherwise may go to waste. This could include harnessing the energy from heat, light, gravity, or movement of people or equipment. An example was cited as a conveyor belt used for the assembly of products. The Karakuri idea was to expose the underside, or returning part, of the conveyor belt on which empty parts containers were placed to be returned to the start of the process.
As one delegate said at the end of the visit: “This has been one of the most thought-provoking experiences I have had whilst working in industry”.
Industry Forum will be conducting a further Japan Best Practice Programme during 2012. For more information please contact jenna.porch@industryforum.co.uk or visit the IF website at www.industryforum.co.uk
VDA 6.3 Process Audit Seminar 20th December 2011
VDA 6.3 defines a process based audit standard for evaluating and improving controls in a manufacturing organisation’s processes. Revised in 2010, the standard was comprehensively restructured to reflect the changes to ISO9001 and customer specific requirements in the automotive industry.
The standard can be used by any organisation, either for internal process audits, or for evaluating potential or existing suppliers.
SMMT will be hosting a VDA 6.3 Seminar on 20th December 2011 at the Industry Forum Learning Centre (2410 Regents Court, The Crescent, Birmingham Business Park, Birmingham, B37 7YE).
The awareness seminar will provide an overview of the structure, content and scoring evaluation systems of VDA 6.3 together with an overview of customer specific requirements in terms of VDA 6.3.
The seminar will be delivered by Paul Hardiman, one of our approved VDA trainers and a member of the IATF Training & Exam Commission for ISO/TS16949.
There will be plenty of opportunities for questions and answers throughout the session. Tea, coffee and lunch will be provided.
The seminar runs from 9.00am to 12.30pm and costs £75.00 per delegate plus VAT. To book a place please call Sophie Meeson on +44(0)121 717 6628 or email oversight@industryforum.co.uk
Business Improvement Workshop
Industry Forum is hosting a workshop on 16th February 2012 exploring the link between improvement activities and financial performance.
This workshop starts by building a simple model of how all businesses work in financial terms and then uses that model to explore the financial impact of different types of activities. The session caters for all levels of existing financial knowledge, from those who consider themselves to be financially illiterate to those with substantial previous exposure to financial issues.
For further information please email courses@industryforum.co.uk
IF Learning Centre Courses for early 2012
| Courses & Dates | ||
|---|---|---|
| 23rd – 28th January | ISO/TS16949 Lead Auditor Training for first & second party auditors | |
| 31st January – 3rd February | TPM Foundation Workshop – Practical Application of TPM Pillars | |
| 14th – 15th February | ISO/TS16949 Internal Auditor Training | |
| 16th February | Finding all of the Benefits of Business Improvement | |
| 21st – 24th February | Lean Foundation Workshop – Practical Application of Lean Tools & Tecnhiques | |
| 27th February – 2nd March | Core Tools Certification Course | |
| 28th February | Failure Mode & Effects Analysis Training | |
To enquire about any of these courses, or to view the extensive range of courses available at the Learning Centre, please visit the dedicated courses page at www.industryforum.co.uk or email courses@industryforum.co.uk
Total Productive Maintenance Forum
We are pleased to announce that we have launched a free to use TPM Forum which will discuss all aspects of TPM. It is divided into two main categories, TPM Consultancy and Implementation and TPM Assessment.
The Forums are moderated and facilitated by Industry Forum and SMMT staff who are on hand to answer any questions that you may have regarding TPM.
To register for the Forum please visit www.industryforum.co.uk/tpm-forum. Upon entering the Forum you can self register and create your own user ID and then start joining in the many discussions.
International Automotive Task Force China visit 2011
September 2011 saw the first ever bi-annual meeting of the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) in China; the meeting took place over four days which included a meeting with Chinese Government officials including a formal dinner.
China (Shanghai) was selected as the location for the meetings as currently 61% of all certificates are located in the Asia Pacific region with 34% in China; this represents the single biggest number of certificates in any one country.
The meeting focused on the performance of certified suppliers, certification bodies and oversight offices, the impact of new certification regulations in China and strategic areas of focus for oversight offices in 2012.
The UK Automotive Industry was represented at the meeting by Geoff Dale the newly appointed SMMT IATF representative and Rob Brown SMMT Oversight Manager and IATF scheme facilitator.
The two photographs show Geoff Dale and Rob Brown with Mr Sam Chen the General Manager of the IATF Administration Office in Beijing at the official dinner and a view of Pu-Dong and area of Shanghai that 20 years ago was just a marsh!
For more information on the IATF please visit the IATF website at www.iatfglobaloversight.org
Meet the Team…..
Name: Dr Chris Owen
Job Title: Chief Executive Officer
It gives me great pleasure to write this article as the new Chief Executive of SMMT Industry Forum. Whilst I’m relatively new in the role, I’m no stranger to Industry Forum. I’ve known Industry Forum for several years but as a client. Having worked alongside many other consultants, I got to discover IF and more importantly the expertise they had to offer. After working with the IF team I adopted them as my “consultant of choice” and used them extensively because I believe in the way IF operate and the value they brought to my business.
I’m a Marine Engineer by trade and graduated with a first class honours degree and then started my career in academia as a researcher in the field of internal combustion engines. After graduating with a PhD in thermodynamics I quickly moved into industry. My first role was Quality Engineer at Perkins Engines based at the Peterborough plant in the UK. My days on the shop floor were focussed on problem solving to ensure quality, cost and delivery performance.
I progressed through several quality and operational roles all based in volume manufacturing at Peterborough before transferring over to Engineering to take up technical responsibility for all of products manufactured by Perkins at the Peterborough site. I then led the performance and emissions group, developing emissions compliant diesel engines as a key part of NPI.
After a few years in Engineering I wanted to get back into Operations and I moved to France to become Managing Director of a facility manufacturing paving equipment for Caterpillar. It was at this time that Caterpillar started to develop CPS, the Caterpillar Production System. My plant was an early adopter of CPS. We took the principles, engaged our team and started delivering our strategy using CPS. We improved safety, employee engagement, quality, delivery performance and profitability over the space of a couple of years.
Following this success Caterpillar appointed me as Director Of Manufacturing EAME with the challenge of developing and deploying CPS across 38 manufacturing locations. It was in this role that I developed a true passion for business excellence. I developed a team of internal consultants to help manufacturing facilities achieve genuine sustainable improvements in people, quality, velocity and cost over a four year period.
As CPS became embedded across the organisation I moved to become Quality Director for the Industrial Power Systems Division of Caterpillar with global responsibility for product and process quality.
After 16 wonderful years with Caterpillar I decided to make a career path change and join Industry Forum as their new Chief Executive. I consider it a great honour to lead Industry Forum to become extraordinarily successful over the coming years.
TPM Seminar – 15th March 2012
Created by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a structured approach to deploy a comprehensive set of tools and techniques in order to eliminate losses across a whole organisation. TPM involves the capabilities of the whole workforce to ensure effective and sustainable improvements are implemented.
Industry Forum will be hosting a TPM Seminar on 15th March 2012 at Jaguar Land Rover Visitors Centre, Birmingham. The seminar will give an overview on the structure of the TPM model, compare TPM to Lean Manufacturing, and include case studies from companies who have implemented TPM.
Limited number of places are available at £75 + VAT per delegate inclusive of refreshments and lunch.
If you would like more information or would like to book please e-mail courses@industryforum.co.uk or call Jenna Porch on +44 (0)121 717 6614.
