An invitation to manufacturing fitness, June 5th

The Process Industries Centre for Manufacturing Excellence, PICME, holds its second annual conference at the Cranfield Management Development Centre on Tuesday June 5th 2003

Entitled 'Manufacturing Fitness - making it happen and sustaining the gains, the PICME conference will again this year open up key elements in process manufacturing improvement as developed by PICME and its key clients over the past twelve months.

PICME Champion Lord Sainsbury will once again make the keynote address.

The Government Minister played a key role in recently extending PICME support from the DTI until the year 2007 and has long been a supporter of the results produced by the Middlesbrough-based organisation.

'For companies in the process sector PICME has proved itself a highly effective instrument for helping them realise their potential for improvement through hands on practical help' says Sainsbury in the conference programme notes.

'All the companies PICME has worked with have seen a direct and measurable improvement on their bottom line' he adds.

The main part of June 5 will focus on detailed case-study examples from process sector companies who have successfully improved their operational performance: Rhodia Pharma Solutions, Wrafton Laboratories, Great Lakes, Jotun Paints, Associated Octel, Ondeo Nalco and UCB will all develop and illustrate the different aspects of the manufacturing fitness spectrum.

For those who wish, the conference package includes a free delegate dinner the previous evening.

This is to allow networking and to hear something of how other industry sectors performance including results of a recent EU-Japan exchange.

PICME chief executive Mark Lewis says that 'we realise at PICME that many companies need to be provided with a good 'taster' of what operational fitness is about and that this works best through networking with their peers.

Our June 5 conference is the best possible opportunity in that regard.' And Lewis hopes that the June 5 conference will encourage process manufacturers to take advantage of the PICME funding window.

'We are primarily appealing' he says 'to those process managers and directors who are tasked with reducing costs and shortening lead times while increasing flexibility and output.

This is bread and butter for PICME.

Moreover we are centrally funded to help companies realise those aims.

Anyone in the process sector with a remit for lean manufacturing stands to profit from joining us at Cranfield on June 5'.

Since its launch in March of last year PICME has succeeded in saving six figure sums for every client it has worked with.

These savings currently total over ?70 million in immediate and longer-term costs that have been saved.

Client-bookings are increasing and the organisation is taking on more staff, expanding its work in the UK regions while developing speciality support in niche areas such as plastics, fine and bulk chemicals.

Conference delegates will also get a first look at the PICME portal for readily locating UK and European grants that are available to support company improvement processes.

Delegates will also hear how to join the PICME Club - an informal network of PICME support organised at local level.

Middlesbrough-based PICME is funded by the DTI and is currently administered by the Chemical Industries Association (CIA).

Since launching at the DTI in March 2001 PICME has seen a steady stream of chemicals-based companies enquiring about the services and tools that help measure and benchmark various industrial processes and work activities.

In February of this year the PICME grant was renewed until April 2007.

PICME manufacturing clients come from all walks of the process sector - chemicals, polymers, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and agrochemicals.

All UK-based process manufacturers qualify and can apply to benefit from PICME diagnostic and performance measuring/benchmarking activities.

These are measures that save manufacturers money in areas such as stock management, machine utilisation, lead-times, process variabilities and supply chain efficiencies.

Places at the June 5 2003 conference have been limited to 100.

The delegate fee is GBP185 which includes a free dinner the night before.

For a full programme, booking form and further details contact Process Industries Centre for Manufacturing Excellence, PICME.

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