Member Article

Lancashire Profit Programme provides funded support for manufacturers

The Lancashire Profit Programme, which provides funded training and specialist business improvement support to the county’s manufacturers, will be officially launched during Lancashire Manufacturing Week.

The £2.4 million initiative will be unveiled on Tuesday 3 June at Blackburn’s Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE) - during a breakfast workshop and factory tour - part of the celebratory week for Lancashire’s makers.

Julie Madigan, Chief Executive of The Manufacturing Institute, which is delivering The Lancashire Profit Programme, said: “Lancashire’s manufacturing sector makes a huge contribution to the regional and national economy. Our specialist support programme is designed to help businesses increase efficiency, improve sales and skills, unlock cashflow, boost innovation, or tackle any business issues they wish to address.”

The Profit Programme offers SME sized manufacturers a fully funded business review session at their factory. This provides an opportunity to discuss current challenges with a seasoned manufacturing expert, who will listen carefully and then help create an action plan for immediate business performance improvement. Follow up subsidised consultancy, coaching and training support is available to implement the actions.

PPE has participated in a pilot for the Profit Programme. Brett Hogarth, Operations Manager said: “If other manufacturers do nothing else, they should take up the free business review. In itself, it’s an incredibly powerful tool and enables you to tap into the practitioner’s broad expertise to give you a fresh view of your operation.”

The industrial seal and gasket manufacturer is already reaping the benefits - evidenced by improved efficiency, more effective teamwork and a sharper focus on metrics, On-time, in-full delivery has leapt from 91% to 96% in just three months, and an ability to secure highly accurate shopfloor data has led to a significant improvement in gross margin. The company will be sharing its improvement journey with fellow manufacturers on 3 June.

The Manufacturing Institute, which is the UK’s longest established charity focused on the manufacturing sector, is funding the £2.4 million Profit Programme. This is matched by support from the European Regional Development Fund.

Julie Madigan added: “We know that Lancashire manufacturers will benefit greatly from the Profit Programme because it’s based on a system we have perfected over the past 20 years, during which our seasoned business and manufacturing professionals have shared their wisdom with more than 5,000 manufacturing businesses to generate a £1.2 billion profit boost for these firms.”

Further information: www.lancashireprofitprogramme.co.uk 0161 875 2525

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Manufacturing Institute .