Portsmouth: Funding extended for LEAN training with Fedden USP
Gosport-based Lean business specialists Fedden USP, working in partnership with MIT Skills, has been awarded an extension to the European Social Funding it receives to deliver LEAN business training to companies.
The extension – to the end of August 2016 – is for training towards the nationally-recognised Certificate in Business Improvement Techniques (LEAN) NVRQ Level 2 qualification.
As Neil Fedden, MD and principal consultant, said: “Being awarded this funding is really good news and we have enough to deliver training to 20 companies or 200 people.
“This means that we can continue to deliver real and sustainable business benefits to companies in terms of improved process efficiencies, reduced lead times and improved problem-solving capabilities. It’s not unusual for a business to see potential savings of £50,000 from the training we deliver.”
The course consists of a five-day workshop (normally one day per month) supported by 10 visits of individual mentoring over a 12 month period. In parallel with this, delegates run an improvement project within their own business and are awarded the NVRQ qualification based on their ability to deliver a tangible improvement to operational performance.
In terms of costs, the training can be provided heavily subsidised to the employer, providing they have at least 10 participants and subject to funding qualification.
The training pays dividends for the companies who call on the services of Fedden USP, as Oxfordshire-based Siemens Magnet Technology found out. The company has been working with Fedden USP over the past four years and in September 2015 won the overall Factory of the Year 2015 prize at the Best Factory Awards in London. It also scooped the People & Skills Development Award as well as Best Engineering Plant Award and the company firmly believes that LEAN working gave it the edge over its competitors on the night!
Head of manufacturing John Laister commented: “For many years we have been living the LEAN philosophy within manufacturing and have benefited significantly from both a financial and cultural perspective. It is now time to unleash the power of LEAN and continuous improvement techniques in the office environments and, to achieve this goal, we engaged with Fedden to train and develop our ‘emerging talent’ group.
"Once trained these key individuals, with further support from Fedden, will act as change agents to deploy and embed Lean techniques throughout the office environments across the business. This will ultimately create a consistent Lean culture across all functions at Siemens Magnet Technology and hopefully become ‘business as usual’ for everyone”.
For information email Neil Fedden at [email protected] or visit www.fedden-usp.co.uk
