our key services
Our core areas of service are:
- Delivery of sustainable short term manufacturing improvement programmes
- Efficiently aligning employee resource to customer demand (Working Time solutions)
- Leadership and Organisational development
- Creating the environment to capture employee commitment
- Definition of the optimal agile manufacturing system
- Coaching Project Management of change programmes
- Coaching of teams in continuous improvement
Our key services are very much interlinked and all aim to help management teams deliver their competitive challenges at an ever increasing pace.
delivery of sustainable short term improvement
Our breadth of experience in manufacturing and supply chain can help define and implement these robust solutions. Areas of expertise are:
- Delivery of output and quality improvement and waste reduction by:
- Establishing key measures
- Clear analysis of the problem
- Delivery of structured action oriented plans
- Unlocking capacity (debottlenecking)
- Workflow and workplace organisation
- Working time solutions (Shift patterns aligned to business needs and customer profiles)
- Waste reduction programmes (Materials, finished product or manpower)
- Development of reliability maintenance organisations and systems
- Improved planning systems and methodologies
- Team organisation
- Project Management
aligning employee resource to customer demand
(working time solutions)
The increased pace of information exchange, changing customer and consumer demand and reduced stock holding, lead time and code age potentially place additional costs on organisations and require greater agility.
In many industries traditional employment practices have become outdated. Modern flexible annualised hours systems have become an important part of the balanced contract between employee and business. They allow hours to be worked when the customer requires rather than pre-determined many months in advance by fixed systems or by use of overtime.
rubicon change are expert at designing robust new work pattern systems which are flexible to meet varying customer demand, controlling cost to the business. Our expertise ranges from work in short shelf life chilled environments to continuous 7 day 24 hour operations.
We have successfully structured and negotiated new deals with major unions such as T&GWU, USDAW and AEEU (Amicus).
leadership and organisational development
In order to develop an outstanding manufacturing operation one must understand and define both what its purpose is and what it needs to looks like. This then provides you a framework around which to build the organisation and the teams to fulfil this purpose and vision.
We will help the management team develop their purpose and vision and thereafter development of the organisational teams.
capturing employee commitment
Delivery of sustained improved performance will not happen without the commitment and involvement of those involved. But unlocking this potential is a challenge where many have failed but some have had outstanding success.
What makes the difference? It is not about "The Culture" it is about the environment created by the management team. Ultimately this environment must develop to fulfil the employee needs, which will evolve through the evolution of your manufacturing change.
Our expertise is in helping clients create the environment which allows employees to flourish by fulfilling their needs.
optimised agile manufacturing systems
Many manufacturing systems have evolved based upon now outdated criteria. Do these constrain your performance improvement, whether this be in terms of customer service, efficiencies, waste and cost.
Our process is to analyse the whole manufacturing system and the customer demand it is required to service. We will seek to identify, sometimes innovative, improvements aimed at optimising added value and reducing wasteful activities which may extend from issues created by high staff turnover to material loss.
Increasingly, with ever more challenging demands, we find that the manufacturing system must be made as adaptable as possible. An important part of our expertise in this area is the ability to align shift patterns to customer needs by the use of annualised hours.
project management of change programmes
Making change programmes successful requires close project management. This project management is not only about managing a series of events to a conclusion but about ensuring that the change is securely embedded in the organisation and old ways of working are removed.
We are skilled at devising simple tools and methodologies to embed change into every day life. Making it easy to do and difficult to avoid is key.
coaching of teams in continuous improvement methodologies
The core continuous improvement methodologies such as 5S, TPM, Kan Ban systems and root cause analysis are widely understood. Creating a sustained success from their use is not guaranteed however.
To be successful the environment has to be right and the use of such tools must be part of an overall programme.
This set of tools must be employed within a framework of planned activities. Managers implementing and reviewing their progress must understand how their actions and resource planning influence the outcome.
These continuous improvement methodologies must be embedded in the ways of working of all managers and must be extended to embrace all areas of manufacturing management such as Health, safety and environment and quality.