Who the company are

We are a proud Irish company with a talented,  multinational staff. We have the pleasure of  working with leading Irish and international  brands across aviation, motor, emergency services, food, pharmaceutical, retail, games &  technology industries.

What the company do

Esmark Finch began as a printing and packaging  supplier, providing on demand print and  packaging solutions.  Since then we’ve grown exponentially, using  our knowledge and expanding our services into  other industries including aviation graphics and  vehicle conversion,  we have a state of the art workshop for vehicle  conversion, security and electrics, while  upgrading our print production site into a fully  rounded service including a design and creation  studio.

Company Name
Esmark Finch Ltd

Address

Tecpro Building,

Clonshaugh Business &  Technology Park,

Dublin D17 XD90

Website

www.Esmarkfinch.ie 

Consultant

McGuinness Killen Partnership Ltd

LeanStart Project Objectives

Our lean project objectives were:

  • To Identify the wastes in our print  production workflow and procedures  and eliminate nonvalue added  activities from the process.
  • To optimise our workflow with the aim  of reducing motion and waiting times  for operatives, while also improving  lead times and customer experience  and reducing overtime.
  • To reduce defects and reworks.
  • To conduct an environmental audit and  to continuously monitor our outgoing  general waste and recycling, our energy  consumption, while also sourcing more  sustainable substrates.
Key Challenges

Key challenges for Esmark Finch were:

  • Fractured communications between internal  departments made information flow very slow  and difficult.
  • As an on demand Print and packaging company  we generally work to a 1 to 5 day lead time on  orders, It was extremely difficult to implement  changes and gather data while working to our  committed lead times.
Key Changes
  • We carried out a full assessment of the  production floor and committed to make the  changes needed to allow jobs flow through the  system more efficiently.
  • Improved communications between internal departments at a daily morning production  meeting and improved works instructions to  eliminate confusion.
  • Reuse and recycle waste sheets internally for setting up other machines.
  • Introduced a targeted approach to reduce energy consumption by switching off lights and  machines while not in use.
Results
  • Paper waste collected down 3.2 tonnes in Q3 when compared with Q2 figures.
  • Improved communications.
  • Defects down 7%
  • Considerably less reworks >5%
  • Production workflow optimization has increased throughput and reduced lead times –improvement of +10%
  • A 6% reduction in energy consumption
  • A 5% reduction in inventory from Q2 to Q3 2018
  • Overtime is down 25% on 2018 figures
Quote

Leanstart has allowed us to positively develop  our team and begin the process of eliminating  wastes and maximising our margin, It has been  a very beneficial project for all members and we look forward to progressing to the next  stage.