Fired up for success13 November 2014

Bosch Thermotechnology's Worcester factory is already a benchmark site within its group for efficiency, but this engineering powerhouse has sparked yet more improvement, thanks to lean production lines and some serious energy-reduction measures.

Bosch Thermotechnology in Worcester is the newly crowned Best Engineering Plant 2014. It picked up the coveted prize last month at the Best Factory Awards in London, organised by Cranfield School of Management in partnership with Works Management magazine.

Bosch is no newcomer to acclaim. 2014 is the second year running that the Midlands-based business has won the Best Engineering Plant category, and this year it also scooped the Energy and Environment Award as well as the BFA's Supply Chain Award.

So what's going on behind the factory gates to make this such a standout performer?

Outstanding delivery performance is something every manufacturer strives for, but few can match Worcester Bosch – as it's better known – which has secured supplier awards from all its major customers, as well as the Which? magazine prize for quality and delivery three years running. No mean feat, given the fiercely competitive nature of the UK boilers market, which has more than 20 manufacturers producing 1.5 million units every year.

The factory operates a lean 'pull' production strategy, making boilers only to order. Unsurprisingly, this is a seasonal business: Worcester Bosch manufactures between 16,000 and 30,000 boilers per month, peaking each November. Annualised employee hours mean that the working week can flex from 30 to 48 hours to meet demand.

The site manufactures all the steelwork for the boilers, the copper pipework and the outer casings. Other components, such as electronic controls and fans, are sourced from key suppliers. And at the heart of the boiler is the heat cell, where the energy passes from gas to water, and these are also manufactured on site.

Production peaks call for slick, flexible processes, too – and this is where the site excels. Worcester Bosch is nearing completion on Vision 2014, a project to replace its heavily automated, static lines with a new lean system. 'Any product, anywhere' is the theme: three of the new lean lines are already in operation and the last will be completed by the end of this year.

Lean production lines
Worcester was the first in the group to pilot the 'lean line' concept, which has now been rolled out to others in the division. The system not only boosts production capability, but also quality. Each line has 13 check points: product can't move to the next workstation unless it passes muster, so any problems are identified immediately. "You can't build a bad product here," note the Cranfield judges.

The lean production lines not only make better use of existing floorspace, but they have also set the standard for DFMA (design for manufacturing and assembly) within the group. "The previous lines had huge footprints and were inflexible in terms of what could be built on each," explains Jason Foxall, manufacturing operations manager. But the new layout means any product can be built on any line, with between one and 15 associates (as Bosch prefers to call its employees). Furthermore, capacity can also be ramped up or down as required by customer demand while maintaining that all-important efficiency.

The revised layout has also contributed to Worcester Bosch's excellent health and safety record. The site has clocked up 670 days without a lost-time accident, thanks to the efforts of every individual to report near misses and suggest safer ways of working. Meanwhile, the lean production lines reduce risk still further, with ergonomic workstations featuring jigs, for example, that are all height adjustable to minimise risk of injury.

The site has been running ULD (upper limb disorder) training for three years, to encourage better ways of working and swifter reporting of symptoms. Despite the introduction of ergonomic workstations, there is some unavoidable physicality to the roles on the lines, but everything possible is being done to maintain the excellent standards – including, for example, education, personal protective equipment (PPE) and job rotation.

Other changes include a move from compressed air tooling – with its vibration implications – to battery- or electric-powered tools. As well as delivering less vibration, they are quieter in operation.

A passion for improvement burns bright here: the workforce has a 'can-do' attitude and is committed to seeking better, safer ways of working. Worcester Bosch is recognised as a centre of excellence within the group for TPM (total productive maintenance). Autonomous maintenance is well established and associates are allocated the required time and tools to carry out basic maintenance and raise any issues that need to be escalated. Production is a two-shift operation, usually from 6am to 12:30am, with maintenance engineers in attendance around the clock.

For customers, a clever strategy to encourage builders' merchants to place smaller, more frequent orders is paying off, with merchants benefiting from holding less stock and the factory from smoother production planning. This has only been made possible by gaining their trust: the site profiles merchant inventory – it knows precisely how many were sold each week by every merchant and how many products were replenished – and promises next-day delivery, with OTIF (on-time, in full) performance at 99.5%, or higher.

Continuous improvement
Despite winning a clutch of customer awards, the plant refuses to put supply chain improvements on the back burner. Worcester has the supplier side neatly sewn up with kanbans, milk runs and audits: suppliers are assessed and rated, with the results available to all. In a tightly run operation more akin to automotive plants, suppliers also have one-hour delivery slots, with penalties incurred for missing either way.

Additionally, plenty will be green with envy at Worcester Bosch's energy and environmental achievements. It has smashed the group's target to reduce 2007 carbon emissions by 25% by 2020, cutting them by 27% to date. And, despite hikes in energy prices, Worcester's eye-watering annual bill for gas and electricity has been reduced by close to 25%.

Energy-efficient lighting (initially in the warehouse, but now being rolled out across the site), the aforementioned electric- and battery-powered tools instead of compressed air, new powder paint that can be baked on at lower temperatures, on-site CHP (combined heat and power) providing electricity and heat for the training building, plus (of course) high-efficiency boilers... These are just some of the long list of contributors to this impressive cost saving.

Worcester Bosch is also highly proficient when it comes to water reuse. It carries out a procedure called 'Z-testing', where the boilers are run constantly to simulate a typical lifecycle. The water from this process is now being recycled and used to heat the building or to supply hot water to site toilets and shower facilities.

Production waste is segregated and recycled, with zero going to landfill, and Worcester Bosch has an 'upcycling' department, where old boilers are returned and used to generate new parts.

Worcester Bosch is clearly a deserving winner of its clutch of Best Factory Awards. However, rather than basking in the glow of success, this is a site that displays a dogged determination to continue improving engineering efficiency, energy and carbon emission reduction, as well as product quality and reliability.

But the last word goes to the Cranfield judges: "This was a good plant when we visited last year, and it gets better and better," they said.

Laura Cork

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