Charging Ahead: Continuous Improvement in manufacturing engineering

Get ready for an exciting 2024 at UEA’s manufacturing engineering division! We’re not just stepping up our game, our team is focused on honing our skills to not only recognize but also amplify and meticulously document strategies that will dramatically reduce changeover and cycle times, enhance safety, and reduce waste.

It’s a thrilling to see our team members instinctively championing continuous improvement, often without even realizing the incredible impact they’re making. We’re on a mission to harness this momentum and deepen our collective understanding that ‘going lean’ is about so much more than cutting inventory or clearing out workstations—it’s about empowering our jobs with the appropriate tools and fixtures.

This year kicked off as our team dived into intensive continuous improvement training and set out on eye-opening tours of other facilities. Inspired by these insights, we’re thrilled to roll out continuous improvement boards to track our progress and launch weekly improvement walkthroughs with a mix of our production, engineering, and supply chain people. Plus, we’re inviting the whole UEA family to pitch in with improvement suggestions, fostering a culture where everyone, from management to the shop floor, is passionately aligned and speaking the language of progress.

The journey from planning to action is where the magic happens, and UEA is all-in. We’re investing a substantial amount of time to educate our entire team on the essence of continuous improvement and its unique role at UEA. By mixing up our training groups, we’re building bridges across departments, sparking collaboration, and laying a solid foundation to foster a culture of ongoing enhancement.

UEA is relentlessly driven to deliver nothing but the best in designs and products, and continuous improvement is our secret sauce. We’re beyond excited to continue this journey, pushing the boundaries to deliver custom-tailored products that will wow our customers. Here’s to a year of breakthroughs and boundless possibilities!