Made in the Midlands member Greene Tweed, designer and manufacturer of components for harsh environments, held a factory tour event exclusively for Made members on Thursday 9th May 2024. Along with sharing best practices in health and safety, recruitment, manufacturing, sustainability and automation, the Nottingham based company offered businesses the chance to work with them.
Greene Tweed, is a global manufacturing leader with more than 150 years of experience in high-performance sealing solutions, electrical connectors, structural parts and engineered components. In recent years, the company has embarked on a challenging yet rewarding journey of continuous improvement, enhancing productivity and environmental sustainability, and maintaining their status as an employer of choice. Projects to achieve this have included a £3M investment to modernise their Mouldshop and various aspects of automation embedded to their shopfloor. This ongoing success has ensured that the Nottingham plant is leading in efficiency and capability.
Over 50 Members of Made in the Midlands and Made in Yorkshire - manufacturing leaders at their respective firms, attended the event at Greene Tweed (GT) to learn more about the company, its best practices and tour their excellent facility on 9th May 2024.
Health & Safety best practice
Health and Safety is paramount for any business, however especially in manufacturing with so many hazards for injury on the factory floor. This has been a key focus at Greene Tweed from upgrading gloves for their operators, for better safety and thinner material for ensured usability, to ‘caution’ lights in their shop floor toilets to warn employees of forklifts passing by.
Sustainability best practice
Other developments at the business include achieving the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certification. In June 2024, the company is set to install solar panels at their facility to better manage energy consumption. The investment will include the capability of analysing the data where energy is concerned to continue improving where they can save energy and cost - effectively.
Recruitment best practice
The GT team candidly shared their challenges with recruitment, specifically in losing staff to other local businesses and unsuccessfully finding skilled CNC operators. Thinking strategically in order to mitigate risk, the company has begun to develop skills internally. The trainee programme is proving successful, with many turning out to be outstanding employees. Kicking off in March 2023, the training programme now has 7 trainee machinists.
Automation best practice
Helping GT to simplify processes and reduce hazards, the company has invested heavily in cobot and robot capability. Cobot arms are helping operators work across a total of 3 machines by running one machine completely by itself - loading material into the machine and taking out the finished product. MIR robots are moving material and product around the facility - saving time for staff. In terms of future automation, GT plans to introduce machinery that can clean, inspect, cut to length and bag products all in one device.
Procurement opportunities
Finishing off a variety of shared best practices, the GT team expressed their interests in working with UK businesses to restore steel bearing carriers back to the UK. With plans to grow the business over the next 6 years, Tony Baldassarra, Enterprise Value Stream Manager at GT, said: “There is longevity for business in partnerships.”
Find out more at Greene Tweed and contact them if you can help with their procurement needs by heading to their microsite.
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