Be-Lean

“B-Lean” is a programme run by Belfast City Council designed to help small manufacturing firms improve their competitiveness by reducing unnecessary costs. The findings of the latest programme were presented at a seminar in February in the City Hall.

The seminar also featured a forum to discuss the way forward and an exhibition highlighting current initiatives aiding the manufacturing sector and private sector companies.

“Through interactive training and hands-on support B-Lean helped the participating companies to achieve measurable results in terms of increased productivity, quality improvement and reduced customer lead times”, said Councillor Chris McGimpsey, chair of the council’s economic development sub-committee.

Each company received hands-on help to implement projects as well as recommendations to achieve measurable results on issues such as stock reduction,increased productivity, quality improvement and customer lead time.

One enthusiastic participant in the programme was Colin Waite, manufacturing engineer with HeartSine, based at the Belfast Harbour Estate. HeartSine has developed a portable defibrillator, for which a patent is pending.

“As a result of taking part in B-Lean we have seen our turnover increase by more than £1m and our productivity by 15 per cent”, Mr Waite said.

“We were also able to reduce the amount of stock held in storage by 70 per cent, and slash our customer response time from three days to just half a day.”

Across the city, a south Belfast manufacturer saw more modest, but still important, improvements for its business.

“Because of the B-Lean programme, we have increased annual turnover by almost £70,000, seen a 10 per cent increase in productivity and a 10 per cent reduction in the amount of floor space we need for storage”, said Tom Walls, of Laser Prototypes.