PICTURE : CHRIS BOOTH
OPTIMUM SAVINGS
Optimum Skills team members ( from left ) sales support coordinator Beth Carter , apprenticeship account manager Adam Jenkins , senior operations manager Lynda Ferguson , business apprenticeship tutor Nigel Thompson and apprenticeship account manager Charley Haigh .
Business saves £ 56,000 thanks to work with Aycliffe training provider
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local business is saving £ 56,000 against the previous cost of one of its key processes , after taking part in the Optimum Skills ‘ Lean Six Sigma Principles Skills Bootcamp ’.
The programme , which offers businesses the opportunity to look at the way they operate , making time and , ultimately , cost savings , has also helped a small business to save £ 3,800 against what one of its processes was previously costing them .
Lynda Ferguson , senior operations manager at Optimum Skills , explained the course provides an in-depth look at processes within an organisation , measuring their effectiveness and eliminating things that don ’ t contribute to the end result .
“ Working through a particular process on the course enables businesses to maximise the capability of the process they are looking to make more efficient ,” she says .
Nigel Thompson , business apprenticeship tutor , adds : “ We are looking at taking out waste - anything that ’ s not value-added , such as removing unnecessary transport between tools , ingredients , or elements you need to complete a process .
“ The course has now been completed by various businesses across the North-East and it ’ s had a major positive impact on a large number of organisations .”
Optimum Skills ’ trainers can deliver the course at a business ’ own premises , so they can work directly on a process , while some businesses prefer to break away from their surroundings and be part of a cohort mixing with other organisations at an external training centre .
Charley Haigh , apprenticeship account manager , said : “ All the companies that we have worked with have saved thousands of pounds by looking at their processes .
“ Businesses have the opportunity to select a process within their workplace as a live project , so they feel the benefit of what they are doing pretty much immediately .
“ Within the North-East , we worked with a company to look at a process which was taking 2,000-man hours and cost £ 110,000 .
“ A new process they implemented straight away brought the cost down to £ 54,000 and the man hours have dropped to less than 500 .”
All this was achieved in a period of six weeks .
Another company is working on a new way to print outer box labels with more production efficiency , aiming to save more than 30 minutes per shift , and around £ 350 per shift , while Optimum have helped the business to create a more efficient way of loading wagons , saving them around 10-20 minutes per load .
Charley adds : “ It ’ s not just about the big businesses either – smaller businesses have implemented projects that we have worked on and seen savings of £ 3,800 .”
Optimum Skills offers the course one day a week over a six-week period , or three days per week for two weeks , although they can be flexible on exactly how it ’ s delivered depending on the business ’ needs .
Adam Jenkins , apprenticeship account manager , explains : “ We are quite flexible with dates – we can accommodate courses held at company premises or at one of our training hubs and make it bespoke to the individual business .
“ Some businesses like to do it at their own premises as it takes out that element of having to travel somewhere else off-site .
“ We can make the training fully bespoke to that business ’ needs .”
Charley adds : “ We also see people from different organisations coming together to bounce ideas off each other and get a different perspective from someone outside the organisation .”
Before supporting any business , the team at Optimum Skills take the time to gather information about the process they want to try to improve , carrying out a site visit before the training so they can visualise their processes in action .
Training can then be prepared and made completely bespoke before the course starts based on this knowledge .
Funding is available for the course , with employers benefiting from a “ massively reduced rate ” of £ 284 or £ 854 , depending on how many employees the company has and other criteria , which is a drop in the ocean compared to the savings companies can potentially make . Self-employed people can even get it for free .
Charley says : “ We really want this to benefit local companies and want everyone around us , especially on the business park , to be successful by taking advantage of the ways we can help them .”
For more information , visit optimumskills . co . uk / training-courses / course-routeways / skills-bootcamps-in-six-sigma-principles /
BY SARAH WALKER
The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 15