This year is year seven of the KMF Productivity share scheme (PSS7). The scheme pays out an annual bonus to any employee spotting an opportunity for cost saving within KMF and implementing that idea.
The scheme concentrates on the seven key areas of waste, including: over production, inventory, transport, process, idle time, operator motion and bad quality, and aims to bring continuous improvement to KMF’s manufacturing operations.
Sam Dutton, KMF’s productivity scheme administrator, who is responsible for organising the initiative, says: “PPS7 has seen KMF’s greatest ever cost saving and we have had more qualified entrants than ever before. Our employees are our greatest asset and have the best understanding of our processes and how they could be improved. I am confident that our initiative will continue to grow and we will see even more innovative cost saving ideas next year.”
One successful implementation from this year’s programme is that of KMF employee Brian Marshall. Working within KMF’s metalforming department, Brian was tasked to carry out a 32-step bend for eight variations of a customer specific product, which meant set-up time for the job was significant.
To improve the efficiency of this operation, Brian developed a universal program for the part, which automatically calculates the 32 bend dimensions for each racking unit, from the first set of bend measurements. Removal of this manual dimension entry is estimated to save three hours of set-up time each time this metal product is fabricated. Brian received a special recognition award for the ‘Best Idea’ of PSS7.
Brian Marshall scooped best idea award
PPS7 is also unique, as it is the first-time KMF Precision Sheet Metal have extended this project across the group, to KMF Precision Engineering. KMF Precision Engineering joined the initiative with a taster scheme this year, obtaining £31,793.20 in savings from 30 contributors. Ashley Key, an employee of KMF Precision Engineering is one subscriber, implementing a trolley-style system to give better utilisation of oil. This has given KMF Precision Engineering both cost savings and health and safety improvements.
Since 2013, the productivity share scheme has saved KMF over £1.8 million pounds. And with the help of KMF’s Continuous Improvement team leader, Dianne Hibell, has significantly increased efficiency and productivity within KMF’s metal fabrication service.
