Feature
Manufacturing
The changing face of manufacturing
By Tom Whitehouse (pictured), marketing team leader, Dalen Limited
we are no different, encountering a variety of challenges from a design and manufacturing perspective. With so much uncertainty in the current Covid-19 climate, we are trying, to the best of our ability to navigate our ‘return to normal’ while adhering to Government guidelines. If you have not heard of us
T
before, Dalen is a market leading British Technical Furniture design and manufacturing business based in Birmingham. Dalen is made up of four brands, TOP-TEC, Dalen Design Concepts, Dalen Healthcare and Amington, providing solutions for education, commerce, healthcare, and industrial sectors respectively. From how we conduct our meetings and encouraging
collaboration between factory and non-factory staff, to maintaining production efficiency, we are having to rethink how we go about traditional practices while allowing for social distancing. To achieve this, we have had to take measures such as limiting meeting room
his pandemic has been tricky for all members of the Chamber, and here at Dalen
capacity, adding barriers to existing workspaces, changing the configuration and placement of desks, all whilst trying to maintain the office feel and environment and not effecting employee morale or productivity.
Social distancing within manufacturing First and foremost, our priority is employee safety and wellbeing, with everyone in the office and factory advised to wear PPE and maintain social distancing. Our biggest hurdle was maintaining our production manufacturing efficiency while allowing for this. By maximising the space
available in the factory, we have been able to incorporate two-metre gaps between workstations in our production line without affecting our output. This has helped maintain efficiency, while ensuring that all our employees remain safe. The only downside to these changes is that it has limited close collaboration between production departments, but we will continue to change and adapt these measures as more Government guidelines are released.
Maintaining collaboration between design and manufacturing A key part of our business is our in- house design and manufacturing processes, offering customers a configured solution for all their requirements. One vital ingredient to making this a success is the constant collaboration between our design and production staff. Now that this is being limited by
social distancing measures, we are having to develop new ways to achieve this level of collaboration and engagement. Upper management and department heads within production, who oversee bending, welding, and assembly, all now have reliable access to video conferencing software allowing them to discuss projects and product requirements with the design department remotely and safely. When more detailed and in-
depth product demonstrations are required, we now have assigned spaces in the factory for members
62 CHAMBERLINK December 2020/January 2021
of design and the relevant manufacturing departments to discuss at a safe distance.
Virtual product demonstrations/staying in touch with our customers We are proud to support our incredible NHS by supplying and manufacturing healthcare carts to numerous hospitals around the country. However, when meeting new customers, most trusts and businesses are keeping site visits to a minimum, but thankfully we are still able to offer virtual product demonstrations to showcase our range of innovative healthcare carts. This process has involved
transforming our onsite showroom into a live virtual product demonstrations space. It has been great to continue demonstrating products even in these difficult circumstances. The setup involves a large screen
on a trolley with an integrated PC to run the video conferencing software, partnered with a separate handheld 4K camera and professional hand held lighting, resulting in a complete all in one ‘plug-in-and-go’ setup ideal for online product demonstrations. These types of meetings are
becoming ever more important in the ‘new normal’ and have been essential in keeping contact with our corporate, healthcare and education customers. Everyone is beginning to get tired of video conferencing, so offering something slightly different with a more practical aspect has helped us engage customers more.
So, how do we move forward? Since returning to work, we have designed and fitted Covid Sneeze Screens to our meeting spaces so that we are able, in so far as is possible, to keep the collaborative benefits whilst retaining safe spaces. At the same time, we are always
seeking to understand what the next challenge will be so that we can be prepared with solutions designed and ready to go. Agility in business seems to be the watchword of the Covid world.
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