Testimonials

The team building / lean training was a great experience for the team and has brought us together as a team by giving us a positive shared experience to talk about. As a diverse team of experience, there were many staff members that were anxious about doing activities outside of their comfort zone but the staff there really helped reduce people’s anxiety and the program felt really relaxed.

Several other NHS teams have been there to experience it themselves after the feedback from the first few teams. It has helped the different team/departments in different ways. As some teams are desk based and have a good bond as a team but they don't do much activity. These tasks on the program tested their thinking and skills beyond what they are used to. The ward based teams tend to be more active but don't have much time to relax and bond as a team in the high stress environment of the wards. Having the program away as a team working on tasks that were fun gave the teams a chance to get refreshed, re-motivated and de-stressed. The program also highlighted some skills of the staff that are transferable to the ward environment that wouldn't have come to light with the day to day running off the wards. Not only he these days helped the floor staff get a tighter bond with each other and management it allowed management to see the potential in their team.

The team were amazing, friendly and welcoming and the program wouldn’t have been the same without their input.

NHS

The Dicam team really enjoyed the Team Building / Lean program last year. We thought that the mix of activity, problem solving, team work and fun was excellent (all helped by fantastic weather). We're scratching our heads now this year to see what alternatives we can organise for the summer.

Having just built up a newly-formed small team in the Halesworth office, it was a great way to gel as a team and has subsequently provided a great benefit in terms of the shared experience and memory. We're sure that it has opened team communication channels and demonstrated leadership in ways we couldn't have achieved otherwise. The experience also helped some team members overcome fears and motivated a few of the team to become more active.

Julia, Director, Dicam Technology Limited

The course was informative in helping us work better together and communicating as a team.

Matts Motors

The output from our staff has been amazing. Empowering them to identify and apply improvements to the business has created outstanding results beyond any expectations we had at the start of the programme.
The process of teaching them concepts and practising them, in the workplace, allowed them to realise they had the ability, attitude and authority to use the core tools of Business Improvements.

Our apprehension at learning techniques, usually applied within manufacturing, were soon dispelled when the first group reorganised the layout and stocking of the regional warehouse. The outcome was easily measured by the reduced time to pick and sell the parts over the counter and the 75% reduction in missed phone calls. (each one a customer that probably went to the competitors).

The most staggering outcome was that of the 5 person team that looked at our fleet of vehicles and identified the saving of over £1.5 million during the lifetime of a van, usually 3 years. This was done by bringing much of the cost in house by supplying the parts direct to the garage that did any repairs and maintenance to bulk purchase of standard tyres to fit the vans, and the progressive purchase of replacement vehicles from a different manufacture with proven cost savings per mile.

I cannot recommend this programme enough whether in manufacturing or any other business.

Stephen Gadsby, Regional Manager (region 6), Motor Parts Direct Limited

I wanted to personally thank you for giving my staff the ability to improve the business and working practices. They have been transformed into motivated keen staff as they have made their work easier and or saved the company money.

The projects they worked on had immediate cost savings and benefits some from the simplest actions to more prolonged activities: A simple beacon flashing when a freezer door was left unlocked ensured the temperature was maintained and saved an estimated £120,000 per year on spoilt frozen food; A simple picking list check off marker saved an estimated £45,000 per year in saved duplicated deliveries for incomplete orders; A rearrangement of stock on the warehouse shelving increased our stockholding of new items and saw an increase in profits, from this alone, of £35,000 per annum.

This overall improvement in the profitability of the business over the last two years has given us the surplus to take on the ex dairy cold store, opposite, that is 3 times the size of the original building and has seen us maintain our growth.

J Shah, Adams Cash and Carry

Being a UK based manufacturer we were hit by financial issues 18 months ago and were forced to look at alternative ways of running our established processes, PDT provided us with an excellent program that not only saved us money and time but motivated our staff to be more productive. We changed several manufacturing processes as a result of the training. We measure the bottom line impact to be an immediate saving of around £24k per year in just the manufacturing plant in one site, we are now rolling this out across our other sites.

Penlon

Thoroughly enjoyed the training I received from PDT in my NVQ level 3 Mechanical Engineering course. I found this course incredibly helpful and well delivered by 2 very engaging and knowledgeable trainers. Hope I get the chance to learn again with this company.

Kevin Jaffray, Weetabix

I am pleased to have the opportunity to praise and recommend the programme delivered on our site, at Purfleet, by Professional Development and Training.

On the first day of the programme the teams were taken out into the production hall to identify waste and lost output. Their reaction was one of surprise that they were able to identify so much in such a short time in an area they worked in daily without seeing it!

The blend of classroom guided learning and workplace observations coupled with the investigations into the processes allowed for quick development of confidence in their own ability as teams to identify and recommend improvements to a range of areas before they even tackled their formal projects.
They chose 3 projects on site and very quickly, through applying these new tools, found the root cause of a repetitive fault to the Network Rail crossing at the entrance to the works. This fault has cost the company thousands of pounds in fines for faulty interlocking and potential delays to the trains using the London to Southend line.

The changes have been made and monitored with 100% success.

Their biggest project was to improve the process of unloading hazardous chemicals from road tankers without stopping the production lines or mobile plant around the site. This was achieved by creating a new storage area and rerouting pipework from the production plant to the new facility. A secure and safeguarded compound was created and the area secured so any road tanker pulled into this area, closed the gates and off loaded their load without the need for any actions than the driver wearing his chemical suit.

The savings are expected to be in the region of £12,000 per load per visit and will outweigh the cost of the new equipment inside 15 months.

The staff are now visibly motivated to identify and recommend or make improvement in all activities they encounter.

Mark White, Facilities Manager, Unilever Spreads Division