News: Garnett Dickinson's war on waste

Rotherham-based print group, Garnett Dickinson, are waging a successful war on waste with help from the Manufacturing Advisory Service Yorkshire & Humber (MAS Y&H).

With expert assistance, the intervention has involved all of the Garnett Dickinson Print employees in the business improvement process and has led to many tangible improvements including waste being reduced annually by £368,000 and machine downtime by £1600 a week.

Sales are on target to rise by 14% and productivity and efficiency are on track to improve by £300,000 in the current trading year along with added value rising by £368,000.

Garnett Dickinson was originally a newspaper company (it still owns the Rotherham Advertiser) and now manufactures a range of magazines and personalised printing services for a range of clients.

Four years ago, as part of a £20m investment, the privately owned company which has a turnover of £22m and employs 43 people, relocated from Pontefract to a state-of-the-art factory at Brookfields Park, Manvers.

MAS consultant, Dave Roberts visited Garnett Dickinson to carry out a manufacturing review which highlighted the need to develop a business and manufacturing strategy and get everyone in the business to "buy in" and really get involved in the changes.

As a result, Dave Roberts held a series of strategic workshops with directors and trained key employees and members of the management team to develop their knowledge of "lean" improvement techniques.

Project manager, Christine Davies said: "Working with Dave on our "War on Waste" campaign made me realise that to make lasting and sustainable changes, people involvement was essential.

"However, the savings and improvements have gone far beyond just the initial remit of cutting waste and has led to a whole culture change taking place in the business."

The group were highly commended at the BPIF Print Week Excellence Awards 2009 for improved company performance through the adoption of lean techniques.

Dave Roberts is also mentoring Garnett Dickinson Print's divisional director, Andrew Barker. "We have three other MAS projects currently in the pipeline including 5S (workplace organization methodology)," said Andrew.

"Being able to access funding through MAS to move these projects forward is very important during these challenging economic times. The 5S project, in particular, will enable us to have the capability to effectively handle big volume direct mail such as the distribution of five million leaflets for larger clients."

Garnett Dickinson website
MAS Y&H website

Images: garnett-dickinson.co.uk