The New Year provides an excellent opportunity for Greater Manchester based manufacturers to review their manufacturing processes and make vital improvements. 

 Starting in January, experts from the GM Business Growth Hub will relaunch their fully funded, acclaimed "Lean Champion" workshop to assist manufacturers in Greater Manchester by enhancing quality and efficiency, reducing waste, and achieving tangible and ongoing improvements.  

What does it mean to be lean for manufacturers? Lean manufacturing is a production process based on an ideology of maximising productivity whilst simultaneously minimising waste within a manufacturing operation. Put simply, it means giving the customer what they value, 100 per cent of the time, at a price that shows they aren’t paying for waste. 

Organisations of any size can capitalise on the benefits. Candy’s Cupcakes, a family run cakemaker in Ashton-under-Lyne, was a Lean Champion graduate back in 2023. After implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and re-arranging the production line, they achieved a 15% growth in productivity. 

Through fun-filled, interactive, hands-on learning, the GM Business Growth Hub’s one-day “Lean Champion” workshop (plus optional onsite support with a specialist Manufacturing Advisor) provides participants with: 

• The What - A process to identify, prioritise and implement continuous improvement opportunities
• The What Else - The tools to implement and sustain lean improvements and the critical success factors to make real change
• The How - A coaching routine through which they can engage others in lean activities, share the learning, teach the tools, form the habits and routines.

Attendees will learn how to design a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), explore ways to streamline changeovers and develop an in-depth understanding of achieving flow through a manufacturing process. With an emphasis on the practical rather than the theoretical, participants with different understandings of lean manufacturing can benefit from the workshop.   

Follow-up on-site one-to-one guidance will also be offered to attendees to support progress on the projects and problems they identify in the workshop. 

“Being a lean organisation means it is an organisation focused on maximising profit by understanding and delivering what the customer values at all times,” said Anne Campion, Head of Manufacturing, GM Business Growth Hub. 

“If you and your organisation are looking to make concrete improvements in quality, cost and delivery in the coming year and to establish a company culture that values continuous improvement and problem-solving, then the Lean Champion workshop is an opportunity you simply cannot afford to miss.” 

The first one-day "Lean Champion" workshop of 2024 is scheduled to take place in Trafford Park, Manchester on Tuesday, 23rd January. The workshop will then run every month throughout the year. Manufacturers in Greater Manchester who are interested in attending the workshop can sign up for it on the website mentioned below:  

The Lean Champion | GM Business Growth Hub  

If you want to know more about the “Lean Champion” workshop, you can take a look at the blog post by Angela Robinson, Manufacturing Advisor of the GM Business Growth Hub for more details:  

4 reasons to capitalise on fully-funded Lean Champion training in 2024 | GM Business Growth Hub