The specialist machinist of safety-critical components for aerospace and defence applications has over ten years’ experience working with the industry’s best business improvement activities, including six years on the NWAA Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence (ASCE) programme followed by four years on the Sharing in Growth (SiG) programme. The company began its participation in the SC21 Operational Excellence programme in April 2019, thanks to sponsorship from Leonardo.
“We’re proud to have been sponsored by Leonardo,” stated Hollygate’s managing director, Darren Richardson. “Although initially daunting, the team briefed us on what to expect from the process and the support we would receive. This was helpful to set our expectations.
“The assessment stage was well-structured and we were delighted with the SC21 practitioner team’s approach of sharing ideas and coaching during the assessment stages. We took further inspiration from targets set during the assessment that were based on the audit team’s observations, as these demonstrated the potential, they saw in areas we’d not previously considered.”
Leonardo hosted a site visit at an existing Gold award holder, Kuehne + Nagel, to show Richardson and his team first-hand what the programme could deliver. Through this engagement and further communication, a route of sharing best practice and advice has now been established.
“Follow-up visits by Chris Thomson and Martin Pitman from Leonardo’s supplier development team have also taken place and advice and experience-sharing have bolstered our SC21 journey,” added Richardson.
The achievements so far have been:
- improved workplace organisation, factory layout and flow
- reduced cost of maintenance through robust Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) activities.
Attached image ‘8Y5A8632a.jpg’ shows Leonardo AW101 Merlin Mk4/4A aircraft.