DEVELOPING OUR SKILLS Nifco UK has been approved for a grant from Department of Business Innovation and Skills’ Employee Ownership Fund More on Page 4
Message from Mike introducing new technologies. It is vitally important that we collaborate globally with support from our Japanese and UK Research and Development centres to make this a successful venture. The second stream is the globalisation of our VW business with the strategic lead from Europe. My position as European Operations Officer means I am working as the facilitator and strategic goal setter for this project.
Addressing the Skills Gap I was fortunate to be a Key Note speaker at the Insider: Made in the North East Awards at the beginning of October. As I mentioned in the Summer 2014 edition of InFocus our BIGGEST CHALLENGE here at Nifco UK and in the UK industry as a whole is our predicted skills gap if we don’t accelerate our training and development in line with our exceptional sales growth. At this awards ceremony I delivered a nerve-racking speech on what our region needs to do to develop skills in the North East and what Nifco UK is committed to do now and in the future to develop our workforce. I would like to share some of the speech with you below. “We have made a commitment to bring through the next generation of leaders, engineers, designers, finance, IT specialists into our business. It is our aim in the future for every department to have an apprentice working with them. As a former apprentice myself, this is something I am really passionate about. Apprenticeships provide vocational, hands on routes into the workplace. We have taken on a number of successful apprenticeships and have made a commitment to increase our intake on a yearly basis. Having young people with bright, eager minds coming in to the business really is making a difference.” Alongside apprenticeships we are offering existing Nifco members opportunities to develop themselves, take for example,
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Sarah Turnbull who started Nifco 14 years ago as an administrator, she has worked her way up to being a Sales Account Manager for our biggest customer Nissan as well as achieving a First Class Honours Degree from Teesside University in Business Management – a fantastic example of what we are aiming to achieve here. Sarah’s story demonstrates that as well as our apprentices, we are supporting existing members of staff. The message we want to deliver to everyone is if you are a member of Nifco who wants to progress and get on in the business then you have to get involved and engage. Skills development is a partnership between Nifco and yourself and there is an expectation that extra effort will be required to progress. We want to move forward together.
Visit to Japan Last month I travelled to Japan to discuss the next global mid-term plan for Nifco. There are three main streams we are concentrating on. The first one is Ford Powertrain global expansion, driven by Nifco UK that has a potential worth of $1billion globally with our current and aspirational Powertrain products. Mid term, this business will be worth $276 million globally and can only be achieved with the support of; Research and Development, investing in larger machines and
The third stream is growth outside our current customers. BMW is a target for Nifco globally. We recently acquired a business in Germany called KTW. KTW already supply BMW and with the punch of a global Nifco we feel we are positioned to become a strategic partner to BMW. We have just gained approval to build a brand new Nifco facility in the USA dedicated to supplying BMW. The BMW opportunity is worth $38 million alone in the USA. The Nifco group globally and in Europe produce a wide range of products, Nifco KTS in Germany produce Kinematic or moving products that the UK currently don’t manufacture. We are developing strategies to implement technologies and products from other plants that we currently do not have in the UK. The UK car market currently stands at 1.5million vehicles and will be growing to 2.2million over the next few years meaning there is a lot of opportunity for Nifco UK. Our parent company in Japan are very happy with Nifco UK and through organic growth we are exceeding our year on year growth targets. In 2-3 years we will require a third factory which is just unbelievable and offers exciting, new opportunities for everyone. We are growing because we have invested in skills and people as well as a significant investment in equipment. We have also introduced Research and Development and Marketing into the business and are confident these departments will help in achieving our significant growth.
Thank you for your ongoing support, Mike Matthews. magazine
Content 04 Tackling the skills Gap 05 You’re Hired! Apprenticeships 06 Focus on Operations 08 Visits to Nifco 09 Health and Safety 10 Focus on IT 11 Research & Development Jaguar Land Rover Tech Day 12 Nifco scores a hole in one 14 Peak performance 15 Celebrating Success. Autumn 2014
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Tackling the skills gap
EOF Grant We have been extremely fortunate to receive a grant offer from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills to invest in the future of our employees. We have been awarded almost £150,000 to invest in our workforce from BIS’s Employer Ownership Fund (EOF).
Nifco UK has committed to match this funding meaning we have an overall budget of almost £300,000 to invest in training. Funding will be used to provide members of staff with programmes of extra training in areas such as maintenance, quality and improvement activities. The programmes will take three years to rollout across the business. Mike Matthews stated, “we are committed to helping our staff develop and improve their skills, something that we believe is absolutely fundamental to spur on the growth of the business. Nifco employs talented people, but we believe that ensuring their skills remain at the cutting edge is essential if we are to continue to innovate and create products that meet the demands of the customer. This grant allows us to push our development strategy further”. We cannot grow the business without the support of all of our colleagues and continue to appreciate the efforts from all teams. With our projected future sales we need to support the growth of our business as it grows £50million to £100million by 2020. The EOF grant allows us to offer all members of staff who are interested an opportunity to develop themselves through training. Nifco UK’s preference is to develop our existing staff than taking on external recruits. We will be revisiting this story in a future edition of InFocus with information how you can put yourself forward for training and development.
Left: Ewan Sorby (Finance Apprentice).
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YOU’RE HIRED! Apprentices at Nifco. Apprentices impress senior management with their Intelligent Machine Concept. Anna Donaldson and Alex Park were set a task by Andy Thwaites (Production Engineer) to produce an Intelligent Machine Concept that would check parts for short shots, flash, that would cut gates, have space for a 6 axis robot and be able to communicate with the robot in the cell. Their task also had a tight budget of £4,500 and had to be able to fit into a dedicated area. Anna and Alex worked together to research, design, develop and trial concepts to present to management which system would be best. Working with suppliers and their peers, they established that the cheapest system would not be the best and presented a case for investing further to ensure a robust system. They also managed to loan a six-axis robot to understand how to program and presented their concept to management. This was a great achievement for Anna and Alex with positive feedback from the senior management team. We are thrilled to have apprentices like Anna and Alex on board to support the future of our business.
Anna Donaldson and Alex Park with their IMC concept
Nifco is committed to our Apprenticeship Scheme. Apprenticeships are important to businesses to develop the right skills sets and to support our business in the future. Mike Matthews, Managing Director of Nifco UK started as an apprentice at the age of 16 with South West Durham Training. Mike said, “The skills I learned as an apprentice allowed me to gain much more than the technical and practical knowledge I needed to kick start my career”. Andy Dunn, Engineering General Manager and Andy McDowall, Sales General Manager also started their working lives in similar apprenticeship schemes and have progressed their successful careers at Nifco UK. Andy Dunn now sits on the board at South West Durham Training, going back to his roots where he started at the age of 16. We currently have three intakes of apprentices at Nifco UK working in all areas of the business. Ewan Sorby, Finance Apprentice said “I started working at Nifco at the age of 16; it’s a great place to work! It has provided me with qualifications and experience I need to succeed in life.”
Autumn 2014
Our Apprentices are; First Year: Phillip Waldock (Maintenance), Richard Marsden (Polymer), Joshua Thorpe (Polymer), Brad Burniston (Polymer), Joshua Hodgson (Design), Alex Park (Polymer), Elliot L’Anson (Polymer), Anna Donaldson (Production Engineer), Jonanthon Bee (Polymer), Francesca Clark (Logistics), Lucy Proctor (Finance), Amaan Ayoub (IT). Second Year: Ewan Sorby (Finance), Ben Arthy (Purchasing), Jamie Taylor (Maintenance), Scott Simpson (Maintenance), Callum Clearly (Toolmaker), Joshua Thompson (Toolmaker), Robbie Thwaites (Polymer), James Harrington (Polymer). Third Year: Tom Beagrie (Toolroom), Tom Waldock (Maintenance), Josh Appleyard (Toolroom).
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Focus on Operations
Nigel Jackson (Quality Manager) and members of the Quality Team L-R Jamie Grey, Dave Lawson, Andy Noble Dave Hodgson, Nigel Jackson, Adam Stephenson, Darren Brown and Garry Smith. David Inchiliffe not present.
Refocusing on Quality. Delivering a product on time, within budget to the right Quality, is an expectation for any business. If we get these three elements right we will continue to succeed and please our customers. We have been making steady progress with Quality from a disastrous start to the year but suffered a substantial increase in concern incidents in September. We have got to improve as a business and refocus our efforts on quality. Nigel Jackson (Quality Manager) says, “It is a well known Cliché that Quality is everyone’s business, but it genuinely is. It’s not just the Quality section that are responsible for this vital element of our business, we all are, the only difference being, that the QA section has the word ‘Quality’ in our job titles and it’s our responsibility to authorise and oversee this function. Every individual within Nifco UK has a responsibility to conduct their jobs to the correct standard to enable the next person in line (the customer) to conduct theirs, and so on. We often see the Customer as the organisations that buy our products, this is not just the case, the customer is anyone who receives the output of your work, be it a document producedby our sales team (engineering could be the customer), raw material issued to Manufacturing (Cell leader is the customer) finished product from moulding to stores (Store man is the customer) etc.
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The point I am making is that we all have a vital part to play in the Quality performance of Nifco UK . Any failure to supply our ‘customer’ with anything thing other than what is specified puts us at risk of reduced efficiency and ultimately poor quality performance. 2014 has been a particularly challenging year from a Quality performance perspective, with monthly concern incidents reaching unprecedented levels. This has severely affected our relationships with our valued customers and will continue to do so until we can address the root causes of these incidents. As mentioned earlier, we are all responsible for Quality, you can all contribute to resolving any issues that are reported. Insist on being involved in investigations into reported concerns, or more importantly any you feel are at risk to Quality, as these are tomorrows concerns. Please feel free to pull to one side any of my Quality team to discuss any issues related to Quality. Please volunteer your knowledge, as you are the people who know your processes best. We have achieved enviable Quality performance in the recent past. We have some particularly complex product launches starting December and throughout next year. We need to stabilise our current performance by this time. We need to regain that performance and reputation as a matter of urgency. We will easily achieve this if we all work together.” magazine
Stock Accuracy Project
Major project for Nifco UK X760 (Jaguar XE) was revealed earlier this year.
Our new look labelling system with product photograph
Stock Accuracy Project As this is one of the biggest projects Nifco UK has ever undertaken we feel it is important to keep everyone up to date as to what is happening. We are currently on track with our Stock Accuracy Project and have introduced the new label design which has clear information and a photograph of the product - this is expected to reduce mislabelling. Kirsty Biswas (Data Input and Operator) is working hard to ensure all labels have clear product photos on them; we are currently 70% complete. By the end of 2014, we will have made improvements to our stockrooms. We are condensing the current system to a streamline two stockroom system and introducing free locations for all storage. This activity is planned to be implemented over the Christmas shutdown period. We are also putting in new equipment for measuring box quantities at the end of our injection mould machines; Nissan has been reporting discrepancies and are currently conducting checks on all parts supplied by Nifco. We have been running checks internally and have found boxes over and under quantity. We have worked out that on average per week; we are sending up to £10,000 of stock for free to Nissan. This is due to inaccurate scales, poor methods of weighing boxes, insufficient number of scales available to use and method of counting layers.
Autumn 2014
Factory 1’s stockroom before the new streamline system We are confident that introducing new equipment inclusive of precise measuring scales will improve box quantity accuracy ensuring stock accuracy and continuing to keep our customers happy.
What’s Happening? We are gearing up for the launch of X760 (The new Jaguar XE) in December for Lear Coventry . This project consists of 31 tools with complexity of parts being delivered compounded by each moulding required in 6 different colours! Lear will be building their parts in sequence, therefore any quality concerns or mislabelling will mean Nifco could be responsible for stopping their line! Everyone needs to ensure that this project launch is successful in terms of Quality and Delivery, as it may impact on our ability to attract future business with Lear.
25T Machines We have recently introduced 2 new 25T injection moulding machines into Factory 2. These small machines have been bought to support the localisation of our fastener product. All factory moves are now complete. The management team would like to thank you for your support and co-operation through this period.
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Oiling the Wheels of Industry The Automotive Investment Organisation hosted a regional meeting at Nifco UK. Mike Matthews, Managing Director realised that the North East was not being recognised for its thriving success and growth in industry, particularly in the Automotive industry. Mike set out to organise a meeting to understand how we can promote the North East as a great place to do business. Key industry leaders attended Nifco UK in August including Kevin Fitzpatrick (Vice President of Nissan UK) and Lawrence Davies (CEO of the Automotive Investment Organisation and Ex Director of Purchasing for GM) to discuss hosting an event to showcase the skills, capabilities and innovations in the North East.
Nifco’s Kaizen room set out to host top industry meeting.
The visit included a site tour, the feedback given was our factory is one of the best and cleanest they have seen. Nifco is continuing to impress our customers and our industry with our progression and feedback is showing we are steering in the right direction.
Lawrence Davies presenting the current situation of the Automotive industry in the UK.
Teesside University – Leading Growth Teesside University’s Business School is running a programme that is working with 15 small business to improve their leadership skills and boost the local economy through economic growth and job creation. Part of this programme is based around observational learning and exposing these leaders to World Class companies in Teesside. Teesside University approached Nifco UK to host an event to support their programme. Teesside University see Nifco UK as a company ‘At the top of our game with strong leadership, solid processes and structures’. Mike Matthews, Managing Director presented to these companies and spoke about our plans for the future. The visit also included a site tour.
Mike Matthews with Professor Graham Henderson from Teesside University.
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The delegates were extremely impressed with Nifco. Teesside University thanked Nifco UK for the time we spent with them. Nifco UK feels it is important to benchmark against other growing companies in the region. magazine
Safety Matters Safe Working Hours. Well done again! Still our excellent health and safety performance rolls on and on. We have now exceeded 3.3 million
safe working hours!
We must not be complacent however; we are still averaging 3 minor accidents every month which means that a serious accident could still happen. Health and Safety is everyones’ responsibility.
Claire Williams and Malcolm Mayes in front of the PoP Card display in Factory 2
“Make our Company Safer” The Safety Bubble Programme The safety bubble course is a fun 1-day course that makes you think about Health and Safety very differently. The course has now been fully implemented in Factory 2. With the introduction of the Problem or Positive (PoP) card system which encourages everyone to write their queries, concerns or feedback and post into a confidential box and team audits underway, we are hopeful to target a reduction of 3 minor accidents per month. Current standings from the first round of Team audits are: Team 1 – 118 pts Team 2 – 109 pts Team 3 – 107 pts Team 4 – 117 pts Factory 1 Safety Bubble roll out sessions have begun with further sessions planned for November. The Safety Coach sessions have also been very successful and more sessions are planned for November and December. Remember, the Safety Bubble mission statement is; “To Make Our Company Safer”
Autumn 2014
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Focus on IT
We are strengthening our team. The IT Team has been strengthened since the last edition of InFocus, explains John Tinkler, IT Manager. Jan Swindles has joined us as an Analyst Programmer, with over 20 years experience working with and programming System21. John first met Jan in the early part of their careers when they were both System21 Programmers in the same company, before their careers took them in different directions. Jan will be working alongside Matty Robins (also Analyst Programmer) to modify and enhance System21, paying particular attention to the recently launched Stock Accuracy project. Amaan Ayoub has also joined the team as an IT Apprentice, working alongside Steve Swindles (IT Engineer) supporting the network infrastructure. Incidentally, Jan and Steve’s surname is not a coincidence, they are husband and wife (married in 2002), and have worked together before, at Hashimoto. Amaan is studying at Middlesbrough College for a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Professional Competence for IT and Telecoms Professionals.
“We are strengthening our team” L-R Steve Swindles, Amaan Ayoub, John Tinkler, Matty Robins and Jan Swindles
As mentioned in the last edition, Microsoft Exchange has now been successfully upgraded to the latest version 2013, and the latest version of Microsoft Office (also 2013) has been ordered. This will be installed on every PC in the coming weeks.
New signing in system We are introducing a brand new electronic sign in system for all visitors to Nifco UK. The system is expected to go live by the end of October. The system will ensure all visitors have read our Health and Safety policy as well as highlighting if a visitor hasn’t signed out again. Visitors can be prebooked on to system and a notification sent.
Image showing where the new sign in system will be located
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Nifco UK’s Factory 1 Entrance. magazine
Powering the future of Engine Technology
Members from Nifco UK recently visited our R&D centre in Japan. The purpose of the visit was to understand the new, innovative products they are developing and to build relationships to collaborate more closely in the future. The R&D centre was a very impressive building that showcases the full potential of our global company. With fantastic testing facilities and small injection mould tools for trials, as well as an engine teardown area. Nifco has recently established an R&D team in the UK and with support from our Japanese colleagues in Japan we are intending on developing Powertrain products that our customers want for the future of engine development. Nifco UK will be housing a state of the art engine dynamometer by the end of 2014 to test our components on a wide range of engines – one of only a few dynamometers in the UK.
Paul Chapman (R&D Manager) with Satoru Nobu (Sales Manager), Ian Littler (Senior Designer) and Mr Osawa and Mr Kobayashi (Nifco R&D Centre)
Nifco showcases products to Jaguar Land Rover At the beginning of September members of the sales and engineering team travelled to Coventry to set up a Technical Supplier day in Jaguar Land Rover. Our sales team work very hard to establish relationships with our customers, but our customers do not always get to find out about Nifco’s full capabilities. A supplier technical day allows us to promote all of our products and talk to our customers on an informal basis. Jaguar Land Rover are really interested in lightweighting technologies and products for use in their vehicles. This is perfect for Nifco UK and our expertise of converting metal products to plastic. The two days were a success with lots of leads generated and follow up meetings conducted by our sales team. Jaguar Land Rover are an important strategic partner to Nifco to support us in our growth of the business and future technologies. Nigel Tebbs and Shaun Smith (Sales Account Managers) at the Jaguar Land Rover Technical Supplier Day.
Autumn 2014
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Golf Round Up
Some of the Nifco golfers with Alan Shearer
Shearer scores the best goal of his career! The Nifco Golf Championship took place on Saturday 6th September at Close House, Northumberland. Sponsored by Nifco and DuPont. 46 Nifco members took part enjoying 18 holes of golf with pie, peas and a beer afterwards. The day was a great success with Gary Clark - Left (Financial Controller) winning the championship competition with an impressive 41 points – Bandit! Some of the Nifco team also got to meet England Footballing legend Alan Shearer, who popped down to the First Tee to say Hello. A huge Thank you must be given to Nifco and DuPont for their support of the event, funding the day for all Nifco employees participating. We would also like to say Thank you to the following for their donations towards the great prizes on offer during the Nifco Golf Championship: • DP Fasteners • Ramsay Rubber • Close House • Omega Plastics • LJA Miers • Lanxess • 3G Tooling If you are interested in joining the Nifco Golf Competitions next year please contact John Morgan (morganj@nifcoeu.com) or Corum Hirst (hirstc@nifcoeu.com)
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Nifco Ryder Cup On Saturday the 11th October, 12 members of the Warehouse and Production area took on 12 members of office staff for our very own Nifco Ryder Cup. It was held at Boldon Golf Club where Nifco sponsors the 7th hole.
from the office team. Official reporting however, has confirmed that it was actually Purchasing who let the Production and Warehouse team win the tournament.
Production and Warehouse won the championship, narrowly beating the office staff by 2 points! Apparently it could have swung either way until an incident on the 16th halted play
The two teams were dressed in Orange and Black sponsored by Nifco, everyone said they thoroughly enjoyed the day and the weather was glorious. John Legg (Logistics specialist) said “The atmosphere was unbelievable” and Jim Usher (Purchasing) said “I was so nervous, I didn’t stop shaking until the third hole”. Glen Fenby, shamed captain of the Office Staff said “It was a brilliant day and this event definitely needs to be supported again next year – where my team will win!”
The winning team – Nifco Warehouse and Production Staff
Nifco office staff Vs. Nifco Warehouse and Production staff.
With Glen Fenby as captain for the office team and John Legg as captain for the shop floor team, the two teams went head to head competing for the prestigious title of ‘The Nifco Ryder Cup Champions’.
Jim on Charity Drive. Jim Bell (Maintenance Manager) recently attended a Charity Golf Day at Rockliffe Hall in support of Broadacres. Broadacres are raising funds to provide support to children with cancer and their families. There were 18 local companies represented at the day including Nifco. Unfortunately, Jim wasn’t so fortunate with the weather which meant he played in torrential rain for 4 holes making it a very challenging day. Jim said ‘It was a brilliant day; we raised over £4,000 for charity which was fantastic’.
Disgraced Captain of the Office Team - Glen Fenby
Autumn 2014
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Peak Performance
On Sunday 14th September, 30 members and friends of Nifco took part in a social trek up England’s third highest mountain in the Lake District. Helvellyn is a very challenging mountain at 950m high with two exposed ridges either side. The group took on the gruelling striding edge to climb to the top of the mountain for a spot of lunch going on to scramble down swirral edge and back down into Patterdale village for a well deserved beer. Sarah Turnbull (Nissan Account Manager) said “I really enjoyed the walk and it has spurred me on to go walking more”. Bozena Kacmarzyk (Trainer) at Nifco said “It was a brilliant day and I can’t wait for the next one” and Amy Dunn (Sales Administrator) commented “I have conquered my fears!”. Paul Hogg from Paul Hogg Outdoor Services who guided the walk said it was an excellent day, he congratulated the Nifco team for climbing the mountain. Paul commented he thoroughly enjoyed working with Nifco and was thrilled that everyone attempted the mountain. In 2012, 38 members of Nifco staff climbed Scafell Pike, Britain’s highest mountain for charity. We are currently planning a series of walks for 2015 with one major charity event for Nifco staff. Any suggestions for social walks are welcome. From top: Some of the team taking on striding edge / The team scrambing down swirral edge / Richard Clements (Production Engineering Manager) / Photograph showing the scale of the ridge on Helvellyn.
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Celebrating Success Geoff paddles for charity Geoff Pape (Process Development Engineer) paddled the Coast to Coast Caledonian Way to raise funds for the Royal Air Force Association. The Caledonian way is a challenging 60 mile canoe ride from one coast of Scotland to the other. The challenge is usually undertaken in 5 days but Geoff and his team completed the challenge in 3.5 days, wild camping every night. Geoff has been fund raising for the Royal Air Force Association for 7 years completing fundraisers such as the Three Peaks Challenge. All money raised supports the service men and women in the RAF. You can still donate to this worthy cause at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/teamjamieblaggmemorialnorthernrafa
Geoff Pape and his fellow paddlers during the charity challenge
Amy and Stephen complete the Great North Run Amy Dunn, Sales Controller and Stephen Driffield, Design Engineer completed the BUPA Great North Run for charity.
Amy Dunn (Sales controller) on the day of the Great North Run
The Great North run is the world’s greatest half marathon with over 56,000 participants. Amy completed the 13 mile run in 2 hours 43 minutes and Stephen in 2hours 17 minutes raising over £1100 combined for their chosen charities, The Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and The British Heart Foundation. Amy said “I really enjoyed the run and will definitely be doing it again next year, it was worth the pain to raise the money for my chosen charity”. Stephen said “I will have to train more next year but thrilled with the amount of money I have managed to raise for a worthy cause”. They both said it was a really good event and are spurring others on to do it next year. If anyone is interested in sponsoring Amy or Stephen the information to do so is below; www.justgiving.com/AmyDunn4 www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Driffield
Stephen Driffield (Design Engineer) complting the 13 mile run.
Nifco End of Year Party! Saturday 29th November. The entertainment is booked, the menus have been set and the The Directors of Nifco UK Limited would like to invite you to a party night to be held at Sporting Lodge Middlesbrough formally known as The Old Poste House, on Saturday 29th November 2014. Tickets will cost £7 for colleagues, partners are also welcome to attend for whom a £12 charge will be payable (non-refundable).
If you would like to attend please speak to HR for a Booking Form before Friday 31st October. Autumn 2014
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