It is no secret that sharing best practices is an excellent way to advance the performance and productivity of a company. Sharing best practices can help companies fill knowledge gaps, improve efficiency, encourage leadership – and, when successfully implemented, deliver significant competitive advantage and increase market share.
Successful implementation of best practice happens when there is a strategic commitment, senior management and workforce engagement, effective communication, and appropriate skills amongst employees.
Companies with best practice generally perform better than others. If this can be said of individual companies, it can apply to whole regions and clusters too.
In addition to improved productivity and competitiveness, the adoption of best practice offers many benefits from instigating a learning environment and identifying knowledge gaps, through boosting creativity and innovation, to saving time and cutting costs.
One of the greatest attributes of our Cluster is the collaborative approach it has embraced for sharing best practice to improve regional competitiveness and secure the future of chemical processing in the North East.
Companies, often in competition with one another, are working together to share learning that will support the growth of their neighbouring businesses. This is a tribute to the established and trusted community that exists amongst companies in the North East.
Current best practices will evolve. Lean production is the norm in global manufacturing, as are total quality management, six sigma and ISO accreditations. Future best practice will be associated with fast response to market demand, environmental or political change, the application of new technologies, managing extended supply chains and data analytics.
The adoption of best practice is more established in foreign owned and multinational businesses with UK sites. The North East is home to many global manufacturers offering a greater chance of learning, adoption and opportunity for the region’s SMEs.
Over the past six months we have seen many great examples of best practice collaboration within the Cluster.
The 4th Industrial Revolution represents an extraordinary growth and productivity opportunity for manufacturing in general, however, by its very nature brings with it increased risk.
To address the challenges, and understand the latest best practice techniques of the region’s global players at the fore of digitalisation and cyber security, we brought industry representatives together to explore the pros and cons of the connected world we live in. Furthermore, this event provided a platform for our members to explore the regulation and demonstrate local supply chain solutions.
In May 2019 we turned our focus to planning and managing turnarounds, capital and revenue projects in the complex and demanding process plant environment.
If turnarounds are not properly planned, managed and controlled, companies run the risk of safety issues, serious budget overruns, costly schedule delays and negative impacts on customers.
During this new event for 2019, we explored project and turnaround best practice, demonstrated how to develop a strategy that mitigates the risks, investigated the management process and highlighted local capabilities and solutions.
May also saw us lead a best practice site visit with the NEPIC “Manufacturer of the Year” FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies.
Guests representing Arcinova, Piramal, MSD, Sterling Pharma Solutions and GSK toured the world class microbial biologics manufacturing facility in Billingham before hearing about some of the engineering and regulatory challenges they have encountered and overcome.
GSK also delivered a presentation on a predictive HVAC commission system that had been inspired by their collaboration with the F1 company McLaren – proving that best practice sharing extends into other key sectors present in our region.
Further best practice visits will be held in the near future to harness the spirit of cooperation that exists between our manufacturing members.
2019 will also see the return of the highly successful Best Practice in Industrial Asset Management conference.
With a host of new speakers and topics showcasing cross-sector best practice, this event seeks to forward improvements in productivity, reliability and safety. We will also demonstrate the transferable lessons from across the manufacturing spectrum, that Production and Engineering Managers can apply to their own operations, as well as showcasing the broad range of asset management capabilities that are available within the region.
The NEPIC team take a strategic approach to increasing the coordination and spread of best practice across the processing sector in the North East of England. Through the formation of Special Interest Groups, we facilitate communities within the network to come together to advance critical areas.
The Best Practice and Innovation team provide focus for our work, ensuring we understand the challenges so that we can identify the opportunities and develop strategy and solutions that benefit the sector, region and business.
We face challenging but exciting times that offer the opportunity for us to draw on this region’s greatest strengths – its community spirit and passion for business and growth.
For more information about upcoming best practice events and special interest groups, visit www.nepic.co.uk or contact a member of the team.
