Fast growth demands high productivity through skills as well as processes and automation Sanderson, Head of Operations, Prima Dental

Our productivity challenge at the moment is keeping up with growth. A nice problem to haven of course. As we add more machinery, keeping the process stable and flowing while recruiting and training the right people keeps us busy.

We have invested in a new training facility for recruits away from the busy factory floor. This ensures that our training is robust and gives new team members a professional introduction to our company.

From a process perspective we have invested in our planning and scheduling systems to ensure that as volumes grow we have the tools, as well as the skills, to reduce bottlenecks, maintain process stability and increase output.

The supply chain function is often underestimated with regard to its importance for productivity. At Prima Dental we are investing heavily in this area.

We are also investing in asset management, including some process automation. Introducing preventative maintenance improved availability by 60 per cent against last year. While spending on technology (£6 million on new equipment last year) we are also developing improvement projects to increase machine productivity and reliability.

The most cost-effective opportunity for productivity growth is in our teams. When team members are trained in continuous improvement techniques and are part