Collis Engineering Ltd
Collis Engineering working on railway lines
“We now have a better understanding of the lean philosophy.” David Phoenix, Operations Director, Collis Engineering Ltd
The Manufacturing Challenge
Collis Engineering Ltd is located in Alfreton and was founded in 1970 as a steel fabricator serving the mining industry. In the early 1970s it diversified into rail, acquiring a railway signal manufacturer in 1989 and has since further diversified by creating a railway civil engineering business. Their staff has vast experience of the railway industry in the UK and their specialist knowledge means that even the most complex of problems can be overcome.
Collis Engineering decided to take advantage of the free training courses offered by MAS to SME manufacturers. Operations Director, David Phoenix, who led the involvement of the company, explains: “Our motivation for sending employees on the training courses was to attempt to bring industry best practice as taught by industry experts into our SME.”
MAS Action
MAS Training Practitioner, Keith Burton, explains the range of courses on offer to Collis Engineering: “MAS has offered eligible manufacturers the opportunity to send employees on training courses based around Lean principles. MAS runs workshops in Workplace Organisation, QCD, Lean Awareness, Process Mapping, Sales and Vision & Strategy. All of the courses are designed to give real benefit to the company and there is no limit to the amount of employees that can attend.”
The decision was made by David and the team at Collis Engineering to send 30 personnel on a variety of the available workshops. These training events were held locally and in-house.
Result
David highlights the benefits of the funded workshops: “We now have a better understanding of the lean philosophy which we have been able to incorporate into our business. As an SME with limited resources we found the MAS workshops to be a highly effective way to enable us to learn and subsequently implement industry best practice. As the workshops were all free to attend the only real cost to the business was the time of the people involved. The small cost incurred attending the workshops was quickly repaid in terms of significant benefit to our business.”
