AluFold Direct has taken steps to further improve its operational efficiencies. Glass Times talks to managing director, Russell Yates, to find out more.
AluFold Direct is well known for the scale and efficiency of its manufacturing operation in Blackburn. It’s one of the main reasons why the aluminium window, door and lantern roof fabricator is able to offer such competitive lead times and consistently reliable quality.
In a move designed to increase efficiency still further, it has just relocated its Xenlite lantern roof fabrication, along with the dedicated machining centre, saw and CNC, from a secondary factory into its main facility.
Managing director, Russell Yates, said: “This has been part of our plan for two years and, now that we finally have everything under one roof, we are even closer to the optimal efficiency we are targeting. The changeover has been pretty seamless, so customers hopefully won’t have noticed the difference but, moving forward, I’m confident they’ll see ongoing improvements in communication and responsiveness as we have brought the whole manufacturing workforce together.”
As well as moving the lantern fabrication, AluFold Direct is also relocating its impressive showroom into its main factory so visitors really will get a ‘one stop shop’ experience from now on.
Russell added: “Customers who come and visit us will be able to see the products and the fabrication all in one place. Given the impressive scale of our factory and the huge investments we’ve made in automated machinery, we think that’s a powerful selling point. Trade customers are even welcome to bring their retail buyers here as well so they can see for themselves where their products are being made.”
The drive for efficiencies at AluFold is always ongoing, with new initiatives including the adoption and implementation of the 5S methodology in all its production areas. 5S, which translates approximately from the original Japanese words as Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise and Sustain, is a discipline which allows operatives to create their own highly ordered and organised work area and implement their own consistent activity flows.
Russell continued: “Since the AluFold Direct ‘project’ really began, our aim has been to be able to deliver repeatable and consistently high-quality outputs on a bigger and bigger scale. Our production workforce has been on board with us since the beginning and they have embraced the culture of quality, productivity and continual improvement which we have worked hard to instil. 5S is a useful tool to be able to share with them because it allows them to effectively ‘own’ their own contribution towards our quality and productivity and at the same time eliminate waste and duplication of effort.”
5S has been integrated alongside the existing PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) methodology at AluFold Direct, which empowers teams in all departments to work together and identify, address and solve problems as they arise.
Russell said: “We have ‘change makers’ in all our teams, who review suggestions from right across the business as to how we can improve. That can be anything from how our drivers handle glass to avoid scratches to how we maintain our bead saws for optimum quality of cuts. Once a suggestion has been approved, action groups sprint into action to implement the change.
“Even the most successful businesses can’t afford to be complacent about their performance, and these kinds of processes are vital if you are going to maintain or even improve on that. Our operation is obviously on a large scale, but the principles of owning your own work area and using PDCA to improve can be applied in any business – regardless of size.”
