“Working with Made Smarter and having the new system in place has been invaluable for us. It has dramatically improved our production line process and has not only made staff happier but has made it easier for us to onboard new colleagues and products thanks to the system’s ease-of-use.”

 Claire Robinson, Managing Director, Wrekin Sheetmetal Ltd

Wrekin SheetmetalLink opens in a new window, based in Telford, manufactures and shapes a wide variety of steel parts and components for a range of sectors, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and retail.

Challenge

Although the company were thriving in some areas, there were issues with productivity and data visibility on the shopfloor. They were still printing technical drawings on paper and there were often bottlenecks as one department waited on information from another. The company were not optimised to take on new client products due to a lack of time to develop new processes. This was hindering their ability to grow.

Solution

Managing Director Claire Robinson got in touch with the Made Smarter West Midlands programme, who linked Claire with WMG Engineer, Manikanta RaviLink opens in a new window. Mani, with the help of Intern Ravikishore Karuppuswamy, undertook a value stream mapping of Wrekin Sheetmetal’s complete manufacturing process from start to finish, to assess improvement opportunities. He recommended they install a suitable dashboarding solution integrated with current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software MIE Track, using a network of tablets on every machine and in every department to monitor data. Together with WMG’s Denis PelychLink opens in a new window, Made Smarter assisted Wrekin Sheetmetal to access a match-funded grant of £20,000 towards the cost of the new system which reduced the risk associated with the investment.

Impacts

• The new system has allowed Wrekin Sheetmetal to devote more time to new product development which will open new growth areas for the business and will help them meet its targets to double turnover by next year
• With the new system in place, Wrekin Sheetmetal are expected to grow capacity by between 10-15% and create seven new jobs
• Wrekin Sheetmetal is now a paperless operation and is using data to drive decision making
• Staff are highly motivated as they now have visibility of their activity, there is reduced time wastage, and they feel bought into the whole manufacturing process. Existing roles will benefit from upskilling going forward

WMG's Manikanta Ravi said:

“Key data such as machine uptime and downtime, technical drawings, and order information is now instantly accessible to every member of the team, with information constantly updated in real time.

The new system has meant the waste identified in our value stream mapping exercise, such as the time taken for the engineering team to pass on drawings to the shop floor team, has been virtually eliminated.”

For the full case study visit:

made-smarter-case-study-wrekin-sheetmetal.pdf (madesmarter.uk)

If you are a manufacturing organisation wanting to work with WMG’s SME team visit:

WMG SME Group Engagement Form (office.com)