Endurance invests £200k into lean manufacturing

Endurance Doors has officially opened a remodelled and significantly upgraded assembly hall at its Brigg production site.

To mark the occasion, a commemorative ribbon was cut by Stephen Nadin, CEO of the Endurance group, and Dawn Huntrod, regional director (North) from Made UK – the not-for-profit organisation which champions UK manufacturing and engineering.

Tom Stephens, operations manager at the Endurance group, said “The launch of our new assembly hall marks a significant milestone in Endurance’s relentless pursuit of production excellence.

“It has been developed following an investment of over £200,000 and as part of our ongoing journey towards truly lean manufacturing, where our entire operation is geared around minimising waste, maximising productivity and delivering the greatest value for our customers.”

Drawing on inspiration and experience from the automotive industry where lean manufacturing is the sector norm, Endurance’s new assembly hall employs a single piece flow system as opposed to the more commonplace batch production method.

This approach is designed to optimise production speed and volumes whilst simultaneously ensuring better quality control.

New Endurance doors now pass along a line of carefully planned workstations with conveyors, tilting tables and other specialist technology being employed to reduce physical handling.

This reduced handling minimises the risk of damage to the door and the amount of exertion required by production operatives, enhancing their welfare and protecting them from potential injuries.

Each workstation is also dedicated to a specific part of the door production process and sees operatives working to a defined set of standard operating procedures. This helps to ensure consistently high standards of quality and workmanship as well as minimal scope for human error.

Production accuracy and efficiency are further enhanced by a new MES (Manufacturing Execution System). Making full use of digitalisation, this system uses barcoding to allocate the correct components to a specific door. It also provides operatives with easy to follow guidance, including instruction videos, on best practice component fitting.

In addition, a new and dedicated packing cell has been developed. This supplies both the workstations in the assembly hall with components and collates and packs ancillaries, such as handles, cylinders and escutcheons, which are supplied separately with the door for fitting by the installer.

This packing cell uses QR code scanning to identify what items are needed on each order and to ensure the correct parts are picked and packed with ‘exceptional’ accuracy and reliability.

Tom concluded: “There are four core principles to lean manufacturing, which range from striving for continuous improvement through to understanding the customer and their perception of value. These maxims are becoming increasingly embedded within the fabric of Endurance Doors and the wider Endurance group.

“As a business we have already accomplished much and adopting lean manufacturing will help us to take those achievements to new levels.

“Our new assembly line will be a catalyst in that. It will enable us to offer doors on shorter lead times and with even greater quality assurances, meaning fewer issues and potential callbacks for our installer partners as well as increased homeowner satisfaction.

“We are understandably proud of the investment into our new assembly hall.

“So much so in fact, that we welcome customers to visit us and to experience the many benefits it can offer for themselves.”