Company Improvements Program

Over the last few years it has been noticed that there is need to improve both as a company on the people front and in improvements to the efficiency of the processes used. With this in mind, JRD set out a plan to make these improvements using IF (Industry Forum) and SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders), techniques.
By adopting these techniques and using them in our processes we have made significant savings to many of our in-house processes.
The biggest single impact from this venture has been to improve injection mould change times from the original 2hrs to the current change time of 28 minutes. This in turn has improved stock turns and reduced arrears to almost nothing.

It is a continuous process. Processes are continually monitored for “down time” and subsequent results are analysed to see if an improvement can be made to stop that issue happening again. These “OEE” or Overall Equipment Efficiency figures allow us to see where our wastes are. They also give us a benchmark to compare our operation with other similar companies to ourselves. Once an area has been identified, a task team is set up to analyse and remove the “Waste” times in that process. By making changes to the method, we are then able to reduce the time taken to complete the task, thus making it more efficient.
Our eventual intention is to adopt these methods to all aspects of the business from engineering to finance and admin. This is crucial, since it enables us to maintain the flexibility needed to match customers demands.

We have been able to reduce our arrears to zero, improve stock turns, improve quality and reduce waste.

We continue to look for other ways of improving efficiency. 2004 marks the beginning of a major investment programme to enable us to remain competitive in an increasingly difficult market. This has resulted in us purchasing a new automated inspection machine to enable high throughput of parts using the latest digital camera technology. This together with replacement of some of our older presses with new computer controlled ones, will help with our quest to remain a key player in the market place

Environmental Issues : Winner of "BETI" Business Environmental Training Initiative 2008 [Click here to view Picture]

For some time now, we have looked at ways to reduce the impact of our manufacturing process have on the environment. Subsequently, we decided this year to embark on attaining our Environmental Standard ISO14001. This standard will be attained via the phased BS 8555 STEMS process. We have just passed Phase 3 [Click Here to view certificate] and have started working on Phase 4. This has already had a significant impact on our business :-

Waste :

Rubber : Our largest area of waste is rubber. Instead of going to landfill, it goes for processing to make arena crumb.
Cardboard : This is now sent for bailing and recycling.
Paper : Waste paper is now collected and sent for recycling.
General Waste : What is left is very minimal and can be dealt with effectively through normal waste channels.

Overall, we feel that our savings made in house will help in reducing the impact on the environment. This will help keep our environment as healthy as possible for many years to come. To view our environmental policy [Click Here].