Northern Cam
Northern Cam Ltd is a leading UK manufacturer of parts, specialising in high-quality precision turned and milled components. They work with a range of materials to ensure they can service the needs of their various customers and sell their products to industries across the world, including automotive, agriculture, construction and marine industries.
Joining WYBPS
Northern Cam began working with Exemplas towards the end of 2023, through the West Yorkshire Business Productivity Service, one of our programmes in West Yorkshire, funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The business had an interest in identifying the causes for production downtime and the aim of becoming more productive. When we began working with them, we were impressed with the data capturing systems they already had in place and the understanding of the importance of utilising this data to make decisions. We worked with the business to create a Productivity Improvement Plan, using our comprehensive diagnostic tool created in collaboration with Leeds Beckett University.
We worked with Northern Cam to pull together the grant application for West Yorkshire Combined Authority so that once the Productivity Improvement Plan was completed, the grant became available – within 6 weeks.
The grant awarded was to the sum of £30,000 towards investment in new machinery. This capital grant was provided as Northern Cam demonstrated the new equipment would improve the company’s growth. This grant funding went towards a new C&C machine to provide high levels of automation and 24/7 operations, increasing production capability threefold.
When we met with the business, multiple measures of improvement were flagged up by our productivity diagnostic. We then discussed with the company and agreed on three targeted areas within the Productivity Improvement Plan, focusing on what the commercial priority was for the business. The achieved improvements have been explored below.
Labour productivity
Baseline level: £4.66
Target level set: £5.54
Actual achieved: £5.60
As human labour is often the most expensive cost to a business, it’s often a focus for businesses to ensure there are top levels of productivity reflective of the cost. We measured Northern Cam’s Labour Productivity by calculating labour costs, including the costs for overtime, against sales within the same time frame. The investment in their new equipment has meant that their cost for labour is far more effective.
Run time
Baseline level: 68.8% (average)
Target level set: 82.4% (average)
Actual achieved: 82.4% (average)
Runtime is part of the measure of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), assessing the total amount of time machinery operating within the business is running. For example, if an equipment operating employee works 8-hour shifts, with a 1-hour break, then a 7-hour average shift runtime. World-class performance for the equipment runtime for its availability is 90%.
In the case of Northern Cam, we set the target of achieving close to world-class performance, which, with their new equipment installed, they were able to achieve.
Downtime
Baseline level: 1.78 hours (average)
Target level set: 1.5 hours (average)
Actual achieved: 1.5 hours (average)
Downtime is the time a business’ machinery is not running – the opposite of the runtime. Downtime within production is a key measure for Overall Equipment Efficiency, which keeps tabs on time machinery is not running. During operating hours, Northern Cam will have engineers available to identify any errors that may occur over multiple machines. Downtime incorporates time for system cooling, errors, and employee breaks. Minimising downtime within these kinds of businesses ensures they can produce high volumes and remain competitive.
We set a target for Northern Cam to reduce their downtime to 1.5 hours on average, which they were able to achieve with the help of their new machinery.
The results
Following our support, the business has invested in automated processes to support their labour skills shortages. Because the old machine had naturally reduced its productivity, the new machine has shown greater runtime and less downtime.
“The investment allowed us to operate at greater capacity as the new machine can be operated unmanned for 24 hours, increasing our productivity threefold. The Productivity Improvement Plans have allowed us to track our improved performance and look at the root cause of our downtime” – Pav Bhabra, Northern Cam Ltd
Key insights from Jonathan McMullon
“Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) is the most important productivity measure when looking at businesses mass producing parts with machinery – the three indicators that are measured within this are the most important to the company. By purchasing a new C&C machine they were able to reach targets set because they were more efficient and more productive. It has a greater runtime and lower downtime. Everything now runs much faster than the old machinery, and Northern Cam is geared up for growth.” – Jonathan McMullon, Productivity Manager