Nasmyth Group, supplier of precision engineering services, announced the successful completion of a Six Sigma training course resulting in seven of the Group’s employees gaining Green Belt certification. Committed to driving continuous improvement through the development of its people, Nasmyth Group sees the adoption of the Six Sigma methodology as a key step forward. Following the success of this initial course, the organisation has already planned further Six Sigma courses and is actively seeking further Green Belt trainees from across the Group.
Hosted by Henton Engineering, one of the 14 specialist businesses comprising Nasmyth Group, the initial course ran over 10 months and was focused on the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve & Control) cycle, a core Six Sigma tool. At the end of the course, each candidate was required to deliver a presentation on a live project. The seven successful projects, listed below, have been estimated to represent a total cost saving of £205,000 per annum.
Customer Contract Evaluation – Russell Cosham, Improvement Engineer, IEC Engineering
Non Conformance Environmental Audit ISO14001 – Mark Warrington, Business Improvement Engineer, Henton EngineeringFinal Visual Inspection Check – Stephen Matthews, Quality Manager, Henton Engineering
Cost Reduction of Assembly Parts – Mark Atkins, Team Leader, Henton Engineering
New Product Introduction – Contract Review – Nelash Nagar, MD, Doughty Precision Engineering
New Product Introduction – Post Contract Review – Ross Gechie, Works Manager, Doughty Precision Engineering
Internal & External Grinding, Reduction of Defects – Phill Hirst, Business Improvement Engineer, Bulwell Precision Engineers (project based at Henton Engineering)
Mark Atkins, the only candidate on the course from a shopfloor position, gained an Outstanding Achievement Award for Personal Development, illustrating the point that the Six Sigma methodology has an organisation-wide relevance rather than just being a management technique.Constituting a set of principles and tools for process improvement, Six Sigma was originally developed by Motorola in 1986 in order to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. Adopted today across a wide range of industrial sectors, it is typically used to create an infrastructure of experts, graded by belt colour, across all areas of an organisation. Phill Hirst, who also gained an Outstanding Achievement Award for acting as a Coach & Mentor for the other team members, commented: “All of the participants felt both motivated and empowered by the course and equipped to perform their own daily activities in a more productive manner. We are now working on how we can continue to move the program forward to better share “Best Practice” across the Group”.
