Looking to reducing lost time to almost zero in just four weeks, or improve productivity by 23%?
These are just some of the improvements already implemented by Jack Barber, Production Manager at West Midlands-based Heat Treatment 2000.
Jack was one of the first delegates to complete our Manufacturing Efficiency Skills Bootcamp, which is delivered in partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority.
HT2000 offers heat treatment of fasteners, forgings, pressing and aluminium castings in automotive, construction, medical and energy industries. Running at 400 tons a week on ferrous metals and 100-150 tons on non-ferrous metals means efficiency is a key part of business effectiveness. As a supervisor of the day-to-day operations of the plant, Jack had started to investigate LEAN and Six Sigma to see if he could help take the business to the next level of efficiency. Our Bootcamp helped him to take those crucial next steps and to understand how to effectively apply these principles to maximise value.
Why did you choose to attend the Bootcamp?
I wanted to expand my knowledge on continuous improvement and I’m really keen to make positive improvements at my company. For me, it was all about understanding how to put LEAN principles into a real-life working environment.
How have you found the balance between study and your role in the business?
I knew investing this time was beneficial to me and the company, so I wanted to make sure I got the most out of it. Our trainer, Andrew, was very understanding if I was running a day or two behind with all of the commitments I have in my home and professional life. I found it really helpful to squeeze in an hour in the morning before the office gets busy.
How do the skills you’ve learnt fit into your day-to-day role?
As a production manager, I strive to make our processes as effective and efficient as possible. The slightest improvement can have a major effect on any business, whether it be morale, improvement in output, or even customer service. We’ve seen major benefits in our processes since implementing some of the techniques so far, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how I can put even more of the LEAN principles into practice.
What were your favourite parts of the course?
Meeting the other delegates and the trainers in person. When we spent the week together, we were able to understand different points of view and discuss how each of us would approach the same task. The trainers had real life experience in using the LEAN principles, which helped me understand how to implement it and the challenges or obstacles I could face. I’d been researching LEAN in my own time before the course, but I found being on the actual course with the hands-on approach was far more beneficial.
Have you noticed any benefits so far?
At HT2000, we’ve noticed huge benefits to my learning on the Bootcamp, one being the way we record lost time, which has enabled us to put changes in place to go from 13% to 0.2% in four weeks on one line! This was done by putting the LEAN principles into practice and working with the management team to help overcome the issues we faced. I also managed to improve productivity in one area by 23% in three weeks.
Did this course fit into any progression plans within your career (if you have any)?
Yes, it has most definitely given me knowledge on how to lead projects with confidence, and I see this as progressing into the next stage of management and leadership.
What did you think about your trainer?
The trainers were fantastic. They were knowledgeable, friendly and very understanding. I felt comfortable enough to bring up anything I was unsure about and able to bounce ideas off them whilst on the course and even out of the course hours.
What did you think about your time at MTC Training?
MTC Training has really put some thought and detail into the Bootcamp. I could tell they’ve taken the principles and made it relevant and suitable for any business in any sector to understand and utilise for their own benefit. It was also really helpful that there wasn’t an overload of information and it wasn’t over complicated, so it was very easy to understand and take in.
Would you recommend this Bootcamp?
Yes, I would definitely recommend the Bootcamp. It’s worth investing the time, especially if you are in a supervisor or manager role and want to keep making positive changes in your working environment. It can be quite daunting going back into a classroom environment, but this has pushed me to look to do more courses with the MTC to continue my upskilling journey.
Learning how to lead – training courses to help you master management
Picture this. You’ve climbed the career ladder on the strength of your technical skills and finally landed a leadership role. Now comes the moment of truth – do you have the tools, knowledge and experience to make it as a manager?
It’s a classic catch-22 for ambitious engineers: the practical achievements that paved your way to promotion are replaced with unfamiliar business-focused responsibilities – from financial planning to project co-ordination and personnel issues. So how do you make the leap from technical guru to guardian of your team’s success?
A tailored mix of management training courses can smooth the transition. You’ll get to grips with proven leadership techniques, essential personal attributes and the basics of key business functions, including marketing, sales, HR and finance. So you can make decisions in a corporate context, while making your mark as a manager.
Sharpen your management skills
Management is the ultimate balancing act. On top of your own professional progress, your work now fuels team efficiency, strategic direction and company results. MTC Training courses develop the mindset, leadership skills and commercial awareness to deal with the day-to-day demands of your job – and the high-level thinking to advance your career.
Build core competences with our suite of online management training courses:
Drive your team’s performance
Productive management means more than chalking up team tasks and targets. Your people now look to you for long-term development opportunities – and the direction, motivation and mentoring to make them happen. Your approach has a direct impact on their success (and your own), so it’s worth going the extra mile to get it right.
Help them fulfil their potential with online leadership training courses:
Understand your business
Whatever your area of engineering or manufacturing expertise, your projects form part of a bigger business picture. Get to know the key roles, responsibilities and processes within your organisation – including finance, marketing, recruitment and sales – and how they shape customer satisfaction and your own team’s trajectory.
Collaborate on a company level with management and leadership training courses:
Sign up and save – buy five courses for £175 and get three free
MTC Training’s online courses give existing and aspiring managers the capabilities to elevate productivity and efficiency across their entire business. Lasting between 30-60 minutes, our engaging leadership and management training modules provide clear, expert content in flexible formats to suit your schedule and learning style.
Right now, sign up for five courses for just £175 and get three modules free.
Questions about your ideal training options? Chat through your learning journey with our experienced consultants on training@the-mtc.org or 02476 701774.
De-mystify digitalisation for your SME with our new certficate
We have launched a suite of online courses to help manufacturing SMEs join the digital revolution sweeping through industry.
The three-part certificate – Practical Steps to Digitalising Your Manufacturing Business Certificate – is aimed at helping UK manufacturers embrace the latest digital technologies to improve their businesses.
The CPD-accredited course was designed by our digital manufacturing and SME experts and will introduce you to new strategies to build your business, exploiting the wide range of digital manufacturing technologies already available or coming on stream.
You will learn about digital strategy development, understanding technology, data engineering, enabling connectivity, automation and robotics and digital product design and development. The course is designed for senior decision-makers and engineers in manufacturing and engineering SMEs who are looking to add digital capability to your businesses.
The series of three self-guided online courses deliver best-practice principles, concepts and guidance, supported by real-life SME case studies and expert insights. The first course explores the benefits of digitalisation, the second helps you understand and unlock the value of data, and the third concentrates on the development of a digitalisation action plan.
Tim Andrews, senior adviser, digital transformation, at the MTC: “Digitalising manufacturing is a massive opportunity to transform our industry into one of the most productive and competitive in the world. There is a pressing need for UK industry to improve productivity, raise productivity, increase exports and create more jobs. Many SMEs recognise the value of digitalisation but are yet to take their first steps towards embracing it. More than half of UK manufacturers with an annual turnover under £10 million haven’t started implementing digitalisation despite actively considering it according to research by Make UK.”
Many manufacturing SMEs recognise that digitalisation could transform their business for tomorrow, but can’t move past the challenges of today. This interactive three-part certificate course delivers relevant, practical, sector-specific insights to fuel the first steps towards data-driven operations.”
See if your business could benefit from this new course by reading more – Practical Steps to Digitalising Your Manufacturing Business Certificate
Looking to advance your additive manufacturing skills?
The answer is Online & Live
The COVID-19 pandemic may have put the brakes on face-to-face training, but you can still make serious strides with your advanced manufacturing skills – with individual support from the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing’s world-class engineers.
MTC Training’s Online & Live courses deliver fully interactive, trainer-led education across a live web-based platform – so you get coaching from the nation’s top AM experts and instant collaboration opportunities with like-minded learners. The Online & Live programme sharpens your AM design, implementation and processing knowledge in an innovative, accessible format that promises:
Whether you’re a business leader exploring the potential of additive manufacturing or an ambitious engineer taking your ability to the next level, Online & Live courses provide cutting-edge education without compromise. Check out our course menu below and sign up before 1st April 2021 to
Advanced Introduction to Additive Manufacturing
Would additive manufacturing work within your operation? This one-day virtual classroom course, – aimed at managers, leaders and decision makers, – helps you picture the possibilities with an extensive overview of AM’s associated principles, protocols, materials and design approaches. Get live tuition from an industry trailblazer, a comprehensive comparison of all AM processes and their characteristics, and the know-how to determine when – and if – AM techniques could deliver time, cost and creative benefits for your business.
Design for Metal Powder Bed Fusion
This two-day interactive online course is your first step to AM design freedom. The course will give you the understanding of when to use AM, through down-selection criteria and post processing, in line with established Powder Bed Fusion DfM (Design for Manufacture) considerations. With point-by-point guidance from qualified AM technicians, design engineers will rediscover the development journey in relation to additive manufacturing suitability, material and process selection.
Implementing Powder Management
Bring to life a far-reaching powder management framework for your entire business. Created for graduates and experienced engineers looking to boost their organisation’s metal powder management procedures, this one-day Online & Live course helps you elevate health and safety standards, shape strategy and improve powder-related documentation, protocols and traceability systems. MTC Training’s materials quality engineering team steers you through the full powder management lifecycle – from developing processes to devising a detailed action plan, ready for implementation.
Laser Processing
Get to grips with laser processing technologies and their current capabilities, limitations and applications. Within a small group of graduates and engineering technicians, you’ll unlock the finer details of metrology and metallurgy, laser safety and materials processing, pinpointing at least one practice to put to work in your own organisation. As part of this one-day online course, you’ll learn from examples of process failures, the effects of analysis to process configurations – from the leading expertise of MTC’s skilled engineers.
Ready to learn more or want to register? Take a closer look at your Online & Live course options – including our 20% discount offer until 30th September 2021 – or chat to the MTC Training team on 024 7670 1774 or training@the-mtc.org.
The answer is Online & Live