Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
SEPTEMBER 2020 | 3
News
DOING MORE WITH LESS –
THE LEGACY OF LOCKDOWN
By Martin Nettleton, Managing Director, Euroglaze
Like most PVC-U fabricators, we returned to
work post-lockdown with a reduced workforce.
Cautious about how demand would recover
and constrained by the new social distancing
requirements, we initially brought only 50% of
our production team back from furlough. Within a
few weeks though, that 50% was manufacturing
80% of our usual output; and we’re definitely
not the only manufacturer to experience that.
Euroglaze was already
a highly efficient business,
built on the principles of
lean manufacturing, and
we were confident that we
were probably amongst the
market leaders in terms
of output per fabricator.
However, what we learnt
in those weeks during and
immediately after lockdown,
when we had to
reorganise our factory and
strip back every process to
minimise contact, was that
we were all actually capable
of even more.
The kneejerk response
might have been to gradually
build the team back up
to the optimal level and restore
our previous position.
However, with demand
booming and even more
opportunities possibly
coming as a result of the
government’s green grant
announcements, our plan
at Euroglaze is actually to
introduce a second shift for
the remaining 50% of our
team and potentially increase
our output to 160%
of pre-lockdown levels.
It’s obviously not that
simple a calculation, but
we will certainly be able
to deliver the increases in
volume which we will need
to keep pace with our customers,
without sacrificing
the efficiencies we have
already achieved; and if
that is one of the legacies
of lockdown, then it’s a
remarkable one.
Post lockdown of course,
business is no less competitive
than it ever was,
and it will be the businesses
which are the most
efficient which I think will
emerge from this crisis as
the winners. As we’ve seen
from some of the high-profile
casualties during this
period, it is no good being
competitive on price if that
comes at the expense of
your overall profitability
and leaves you with nothing
left to invest in customer
service.
As I see it, the only way
to stay both competitive
and profitable is to focus
relentlessly on your own
efficiency. Only then can
you really add value to
your customers’ businesses
and demonstrate that
they don’t have to choose
either service or price. Pick
the right supplier and it is
perfectly possible to have
both.
As well as production,
the lockdown has given Euroglaze
the opportunity to
look for other ways to do
more with less. I’m a great
believer in the concept of
marginal gains and we’ve
focused particularly on customer
service and how we
interact with customers.
I know that our customer
service team are one of
our biggest assets and have
great relationships with
our customers, but equally
I know that phoning us to
ask what time a delivery is
due or whether we have a
specific item in stock is a
waste of time and money
for our customers.
‘
We’re incentivising Euroglaze
customers to use our Windows
on the Web online ordering
tool because we know it saves
time for them and for us
’
That’s why we’re extending
the use of our bespoke
DS system which gives us
full traceability of every
item in the factory and lets
our customers access much
of that data as well.
We already have Eurostock
which alerts a
customer to an item which
is out of stock when they
place an order online or on
the phone, allowing them
to choose an alternative or
reschedule their workflows,
and we also have an alert
which means incomplete
orders can’t be loaded or
unloaded from our vans.
But now we’re targeting
the kind of order tracking
that we’ve all got used to
with our online shopping
during lockdown, enabling
customers to see exactly
where their order is from
start to finish and know the
point up to which they can
potentially make changes.
We’re incentivising Euroglaze
customers to use our
Windows on the Web online
ordering tool because
we know it saves time for
them and for us and we’re
already working on a new
delivery app.
Lockdown presented us
all with a unique opportunity
to re-examine our
businesses and work out
ways to be even better. We
will probably never have
that chance again.
www.euroglaze.co.uk