Having worked at a local engineering company for over a decade, experienced operations manager Mark Rooker joined Chesterfield-based machining subcontractor Mollart Cox in 2019. This was a pivotal time for the company, as it was looking to diversify its services and move into new markets.
- Topic:
- Manufacturing
“Every company has the information within them to make efficiency changes. 20 years of data from our business was logged in Access FactoryMaster MRP. Evaluating it in a meaningful way is key.”
- Topic:
- Manufacturing
Leeds-based Kirkstall Precision Engineering has transformed itself from a small family-run business to a leading supplier for global household names in medical, veterinary, aerospace, motorsport, food, energy and textiles.
In 2018 the company launched a five-year strategy to facilitate its transformation, which began with investing in a new MRP system. An intensive period of due diligence, led by Operations Director Iqbal Bahia’s team, generated a shortlist of three candidate solutions. Two were determined to be too large, unwieldy and expensive for it, as an SME, albeit an ambitious and fast-growing company.
- Topic:
- Manufacturing
Pharmaceutical companies using Access Orchestrate as their day-to-day production scheduling and capacity tool are also exploiting its functionality to address key strategic issues.
In this case study, we visit a plant belonging to one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, where Orchestrate has been employed in two major initiatives. The first, to boost productivity, significantly increasing capacity for the years ahead while using existing facilities. The second initiative is using Access Orchestrate’s modelling capabilities in a multi-million project to rationalise production, moving a plant from one continent to another to create a ‘greenfield’ site.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
“The right people see the right things at the right time”
Industry: Biopharmaceuticals
Solution: Access Orchestrate scheduling software
Goals: The production team needed a planning and scheduling system delivering:
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
Supplying precision parts to global aerospace and energy companies is a brutal business. Recently, a customer of Advanced Manufacturing (Sheffield) Ltd, which provides components to Rolls-Royce for line-side assembly, told its suppliers it needed 100% on-time in-full delivery (OTIF) to reach “gold” level. Long term contracts and security are the prize for gold level. Many companies today have had to learn to operate in the 94% to 97% OTIF range but, for many, 100% remains hypothetical.
Today, average OTIF at AML is unrecognisable to that when it started life nine years ago, as a spin-out of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing.
"We have to aspire to be world-class operationally and that is where Access Group has helped."
Gareth Morgan, Managing Director
To read more download our FREE 'Digitalisation demystified for world-class SMEs' whitepaper
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
Pasta Concepts is a supplier of frozen pasta products to food retailers across the UK, part of The Culinary Food Group, Ireland and the continent. Following its Access ERP implementation, the company has achieved greater traceability, improved resource planning and reduced its manual processes which combined, have decreased overheads by 10%.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
Paddock Gear & Engineering Ltd are precision manufacturers of gears for the power transmission industry. Continual reinvestment in machinery means that the company has the capability to machine gears up to 1.2 metres in diameter. The company has experienced a 40% growth in turnover in just two years.
Paddock Gear & Engineering introduce Access MRP to control every stage of their production and standards of quality.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
Background
TMB Patterns is a leading thermoforming and precision toolmaker for the food packaging industry, based in Bridgwater, Somerset. Established in 1977, its 70-strong workforce includes designers, programmers, machinists and admin staff.
Proud of its quality standards, and the strength of its customer relationships, TMB Patterns’ tools are compatible with a range of industry-standard machines, including Illig, Kiefel and GN Equipment.
It has ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 accreditations, as well as a state-of-the-art robotic manufacturing cell. Always looking ahead, TMB Patterns is part of the Fit for Nuclear (F4N) programme, the UK Apprenticeship Scheme and National Skills Academy Nuclear (NSAN).
Depending on the customers’ requirements, the firm can deliver individual components, sub-assemblies or complete projects with competitive lead times. Alongside design and manufacturing, it offers a project management service, with quality inspection, logistics and on-site commissioning.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
Daily production scheduling can be fraught in any manufacturing environment. The inter-relationship between processes and resource conflicts in many pharmaceutical operations makes the task especially demanding. In this case study, we learn how one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies is using Access Orchestrate Planning and Scheduling software every day in a production facility producing vaccines and self-injected prescription medicines.
- Topic:
- Supply Chain
