Glasson Dock, UK
Glasson Dock, south of Lancaster UK, is one of the Klarius manufacturing plants in Europe home to replacement exhausts and catalytic converters. Taking lean manufacturing techniques to their outer limits has led the team to re-design the production flow completely, by replicating the process employed on the larger scale manufacturing runs.
The concept was designated a ‘super cell’; a production cell that is so flexible, it allows the larger company to offer its customers same-day delivery on the entire back-catalogue of parts, some of them reaching back as far as the 1970s and 80s.
The ultimate flexibility of the cell also goes to serve the overriding KPI that is applied to the manufacturing side of the business; this is the ‘percentage of customer requests for parts that have been satisfied same-day’.
Thanks to the ‘super cell’ and lean manufacturing principles in general driving up efficiency, while driving down economic batch sizes, this KPI is at an incredible 92.7% and rising. If an unusual part or one that has unexpectedly run out of stock is required for a 5pm despatch, the ‘super cell’ can produce it (economically) with just one hour to spare.
Design and operations are certified to ISO 9001:2008