Andoras Limited is a manufacturer of bespoke kitchen doors and accessories, supplying trade customers throughout the UK & Ireland under the ‘Aisling Artisan Furniture’ brand.

The core process is to manufacture, apply painted finishes, package and dispatch these products via a series of both automated and manual operations.

Company Name

Andoras Limited

Address

1-4 Lisfannon Industrial Est, Fahan, Buncrana, Co. Donegal, Ireland

Website
https://aislingfurniture.com

Consultant
Spitfire

Quote – 

“The  Lean Transform Programme has already delivered a number of key benefits for the company. These include much more structured management and team meetings, clear KPI’s built into a balanced scorecard for performance measurement and a working strategic plan. At shop floor level we now have transparent monitoring of safety, quality, cost, delivery and people issues on a daily basis. Our raw material warehouse was the first area to undergo ‘5S’ implementation, this has resulted in a well organised and easy to use facility. A ‘model’ production cell has also been set up with improved layout and workflow, standard operating procedures and 5S implementation – this has given a 20% increase in productivity and the same principle will be used across all processes.”

Lean Project Objectives

Andoras have a mid to long term plan to increase the efficiency of the business and are investing heavily in new plant, equipment and staff to achieve their ambitions. The objective will be achieved by bringing about a ‘Lean’ thinking approach to all processes so that efficiency is optimised, and waste minimised at every stage from order processing to despatch

Work Programme

Training took place with key employees (e.g. Team Leaders, Supervisors, Managers and other staff with roles where their actions have a direct influence on the productivity of the factory)

The type of training varied from one department to another but was chosen to give the desired overall outcome.

The training demonstrated the benefits of Lean Manufacturing with the Team Leaders and Supervisors trained in ‘Effective Visual Management’, 5s (Workplace organisation) & Standardisation including assessment and audit process.

Key Changes
  • Strategy and profitable growth opportunities.
  • Organisation structure of roles and Responsibilities.
  • Dedicated lean resource.
  • Development of Model Cell.
Results

Warehousing:

  • Dedicated warehouse operator providing strict controls of consumables and timber movement.
  • Dedicated storage areas on floor, (foot printing) allowing quick sourcing of material.
  • Reduction in errors of picking up incorrect material
  • Picking material for next day production, incorporating line feed activities in main plant
  • Improvements in safety
  • Team Ownership – Keeping the merchandise clean
  • 5s Audit Process

Manufacturing Cell (Model Cell):

  • Reduction in operator movement (motion) by relocating drawer box cell to a new location.
  • Relocation of equipment to the drawer box cell reducing transportation of material and double handling.
  • Introduction of shadow boards in the cell allowing quick access to tooling.
  • Improvement to product flow with clear foot printing of WIP and storage areas.
  • 20 % Increase in productivity following Lean Productivity improvements
  • 5s Audit Process