Arrowsmith maintains SC21 success
Above: Arrowsmith Managing Director Jason Aldridge receiving the SC21 award certificate from Kevan Kane of fellow CWAF member Technoset.
It signifies the company’s ongoing commitment to the SC21 programme which has been driving significant quality and delivery improvements over the past seven years as well as to helping to fulfil the company five year plan of increasing turnover from £1.8m to over £4m.
Managing director of Arrowsmith Jason Aldridge comments “We at Arrowsmith are very pleased to have retained the SC21 Award. Arrowsmith have specialised in Aerospace manufacture since 1967 and we now supply directly to many world Aerospace companies.
"Aerospace is a hard industry to be an SME and this certification acknowledges our successful performance over 12 months to key worldwide companies.
"It is a unique award as it is agreed by all our major customers and it is for this reason that Arrowsmith believe it gives real kudos to receive this award.”
Jason was heavily involved in the company initially engaging with SC21 back in 2008 as Arrowsmith looked to adopt SC21 principles into the business at every level, with the aim of becoming a world class supplier to the aerospace industry.
Consultant, and SC21 Practitioner, Dave Bull was engaged to undertake the initial SC21 diagnostics which identified key areas of improvement and provided the input to Arrowsmith’s first CSIP (Continuous Sustainable Improvement Plan). The company was also backed by the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) and the Midlands Aerospace Alliance.
Over the next six months CSIP improvement projects were implemented with the help of MAS-WM funding and delivered by Dave Bull and fellow SC21 practitioner Jeremy Bell . Every project was aimed at improving delivery performance for customers and included VSM (value-stream mapping), Waste identification & removal, companywide 5-S projects involving NVQ for shop-floor employees, and an ongoing programme to deploy TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) throughout the organisation.
In the first year alone SC21 helped to drive a 20% increase in OTIF delivery performance, similar improvements in company KPI’s as well as identifying over £100k of cost savings.
Since then Arrowsmith has always been held up as a shining example of SC21 success. This has been reflected in ADS endorsement when Jason Aldridge was invited to present at a showcase Task Force meeting in 2013 as an example of SC21 best practice. In addition Arrowsmith has also hosted a MAS-WM event, at its Coventry site, consisting of 25 suppliers looking to become involved in SC21.
Further recognition has come in the form of Arrowsmith being voted Coventry and Warwickshire small business of the year in 2010 plus gaining their initial SC21 Bronze award status in 2013.
The company is also a prominent member of the Coventry and Warwickshire Aerospace Forum (CWAF) which is a group of local world-class manufacturing businesses working individually or collaboratively to ensure Aerospace customers need only one point of contact.
Current Continuous Improvement plans include further training on Metrics and 5S deployment, once again in consultation with Dave Bull of DB Concept Solutions Ltd who has been involved with Arrowsmith for over seven years and of whom Jason Aldridge says “The improvements Dave Bull has helped integrate are now part of the company ethos. He has assisted in our drive to become a world class engineering company and we have gained Blue Chip customers because of this. I would recommend Dave without hesitation.”
In 2015 Arrowsmith is poised to double its £4m turnover following the decision to buy, construct and revamp an 18,000 sq ft office and factory development at Bayton Road Industrial Estate, adjacent to its two existing premises.
