Watson-Marlow Bredel: £78k cost savings through continuous improvement

Watson-Marlow Bredel wanted to grow in improvement maturity, but GEM (Global Excellence for Manufacturing), the internal improvement programme, had been sidelined. Symbol guided the process: from CIMM assessment and Hoshin Kanri sessions to Lean training for the entire organisation.

Result: £78,000 cost savings and 200 man-hours saved, with the organisation now on its way to the highest GEM level.

Challenge

Capacity shortage following the departure of a process engineer

Approach

CIMM assessment, Hoshin Kanri and Lean training for the entire organisation

Result

£78,000 cost savings and 200 man-hours saved

About Watson-Marlow Bredel

Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (WMFTG) is the world leader in peristaltic pumps and fluid technology for the food, pharma, chemical and water industries. The group has more than forty sales offices and ten production sites worldwide. Watson-Marlow Bredel in Delden is one of those production sites. The company works with its own internal improvement programme called Global Excellence for Manufacturing, or GEM for short, which has four levels of improvement maturity. Each site is responsible for its own implementation and for achieving the desired level.

The challenge

Watson-Marlow Bredel had focused heavily on workplace safety in recent years. A justified priority, but as a result, the GEM improvement programme had been sidelined. Initiatives and KPIs from head office forced the site to put GEM back high on the agenda. Internally, there was a lack of structure and commitment to take this on independently.

The problem was not motivation but the organisation of the improvement itself: there was no clear prioritisation, no layering in projects, and managers had insufficient tools to act as sponsors for improvement projects.

Our approach

Symbol consultant Arnold Verhagen guided the process from assessment to execution. The approach was layered: first insight, then direction, then execution on the shop floor.

Specifically, what was done:

CIMM assessment conducted
Hoshin Kanri sessions organised for the MT
Lean training provided to all employees per department
Additional training provided for MT and middle management
Follow-up days scheduled

“Having no time is no longer an excuse.”

Results

Metric	Before	After	Improvement
Cost savings	Not measured	£78,000 p.a.	More resources
Man-hours saved	Not measured	200 man-hours	Less stress
GEM maturity level	Level 3	Level 3	More mature
Ownership of improvement projects	Insufficient structure	Every department active	Secured

£78,000 cost savings and 200 man-hours saved in one year
In addition, projects were realised in the areas of efficiency, safety and job satisfaction that cannot be directly expressed in pounds but are just as important.

Lessons learned

Continuous improvement does not stick without external pressure at the right time. Watson-Marlow Bredel shows that follow-up days with an external consultant act as an effective incentive: people do not want to turn up empty-handed and naturally pick things up. In this way, improvement becomes a routine rather than a project.

The second insight: managers are the key. Employees want to improve but need time and space from their managers. By training the MT and middle management separately as sponsors of improvement projects, the excuse that there is no time disappears.

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Do you recognise this in your organisation?

Improvement initiatives that fail to get off the ground. A programme that gets sidelined by the issues of the day. Managers who do not know how to create space for improvement.

Symbol helps you build and secure an improvement culture structurally. Contact us for a non-binding consultation.

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