A programme helping organisations across Wales deliver productivity improvements and reduce waste in conjunction with Toyota has seen a number of major companies report savings of £1 million each.
The Toyota Lean Clusters Programme offers world class assistance to businesses in Wales that want to make sustainable improvements in competitiveness.
It works to embed the principles of Toyota’s production philosophy, regarded as a benchmark for manufacturing efficiency best practice world-wide, to optimise business operations.
As a direct result of participation in the programme, Tata, Airflo and others have all recently reported savings of £1 million each, while Blackwood business Seda increased its production of cups by 200,000 a day.
Another company to have benefited is Port Talbot manufacturer British Rototherm Group. It has reported a 77% reduction in machinery breakdowns, a 50% reduction in defects, and a 300% increase in capacity.
Oliver Conger, Managing Director at Rototherm, said:
No other investment we have made has achieved a better return for us in terms of efficiency than the Toyota Lean Clusters Programme. The way they structure the programme customizes it to your business and uses your specific processes to improve and develop. Most importantly, it develops and grows your people.
A partnership between the Welsh Government and the Toyota Lean Management Centre in Deeside, the Toyota Lean Clusters Programme has supported more than 150 organisations in Wales since 2018.
Nick Pearn, Section Manager at the Toyota Lean Management Centre (TLMC), said:
It has been fantastic to see the support available to companies in Wales grow. Even more inspiring is that so many organisations have chosen to undertake training and committed to undertaking their own projects. The results have exceeded our expectations, and we look forward to building on this success by continuing the programme for the next three years.
The Toyota Lean Clusters Programme has now received a further £800,000 in funding from Welsh Government, to extend the initiative to 2029.
Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, said:
Improving productivity is one of the key challenges facing us as we strive to deliver future prosperity built on a greener economy.
This crucial programme helps organisations to improve performance and growth by sharing Toyota’s world class production principles as best practice.
The next phase will build on previous successes and is expected to support 72 organisations achieve productivity increases of 20% on average.