FROM KEVIN SPENCER WEIR POWER & INDUSTRIAL DIVISIONAL MANAGING DIRECTOR
Excellence across the value chain
Six months into the role of divisional managing director of Weir Power & Industrial, the strategy set out in 2011 to double the division’s size is on track, with a strengthening position in power generation and oil & gas. As volumes increase in these key markets, we must continue to meet our delivery commitments in terms of time, quality and cost. The way in which we foster continued world-class delivery performance – which is fundamental to sustained growth – is by embracing operational excellence.
Operational excellence is part of Weir’s DNA right across the Group. Since joining Weir Minerals in 2005, I have had a particular enthusiasm for deploying it to drive growth – fi rstly as managing director of the Todmorden foundry and manufacturing plant in the UK and then as European regional managing director.
To drive operational excellence at Weir, all our facilities around the globe are planned and operate to the Weir Production System – a set of principles that embed a lean philosophy of eliminating waste and creating value in everything we do. Our operational performance works to clearly defi ned measures, from the individual work cell right through to divisional level. As we welcome new companies into the Weir family – the latest being Mathena – they too embed the principles of the Weir Production System to ensure effi cient performance as business grows.
Operational excellence, however, is not restricted to the shop fl oor; it extends all the way through the value chain, including sales, engineering, supply chain and our support functions. Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) integrates order planning via regular sales and operations meetings, allowing a seamless transition of the contract through each function. This results in a reduction in customer non-compliance and improved on-time delivery. Aligning our production capabilities through capacity planning is vital to sustained growth: current and potential bottlenecks are identifi ed and the additional footprint, equipment and
man hours required to deliver on our sales projections are determined. Improved supply chain management focuses on deeper engagement with the supply chain so that their capacities can be more closely aligned to our business needs and their delivery and quality risks identifi ed and remedied. Enabling and nurturing a culture of cross- functional communication, teamwork and empowerment to identify and make improvements is crucial in meeting the shared goal of delivering to customers safely, effi ciently, on time and to the quality expected.
Since many of our customers are large global organisations like ours with formal systems in place, being able to demonstrate that the Weir Production System is embedded in our day-to-day business gives customers confi dence in our company and in the products and services we sell.
At Power & Industrial, continually improving our safety, quality, cost and delivery performance to achieve world- class standards is one of the ways we can stay ahead of our competitors. And by increasing our competitiveness through operational excellence, we do so without sacrifi cing the bottom line.
Kevin Spencer
Divisional Managing Director, Weir Power & Industral
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