MAS lights the way for ornamental lantern designer

14th May 2008

For one specialist craft business, Francis Russell Designs, meeting the MAS has helped them develop their design capabilities and quicken the transition from solely being a manufacturer to also creating bespoke work for end-clients.

With more than 20 years’ experience in producing ornamental metalwork for leading interior designers, architects and celebrity clients, the Salisbury-based company employs 25 craftsmen and has a turnover of £1.5m. Francis Russell was initially introduced to the MAS by a business in their supply chain that had already benefited from working with the MAS and implementing lean.

Chris Eldridge, MAS specialist, says: “To help Francis Russell evolve as a business, the leadership team enrolled on our Strategic Management Programme (SMP). This enabled them to think about how they could extend their design team and develop a customer base of their own, designing and manufacturing products for companies rather than simply supplying others. To grow the business in this way, they also needed to address inefficiencies in the workshop through the adoption of lean manufacturing techniques.”

“We focused on instilling a lean philosophy on the shop floor and creating a tidier workplace,” says Chris. “Using 5S techniques, the team members were able to see the link between a tidy, well-organised factory and the time spent searching for tools, materials and information.”

Francis Russell, managing director of Francis Russell Designs, comments on the changes: “The work we have done with the MAS has been invaluable in taking the business forward. Lean is being used to great effect - our production levels are now much more consistent and customer lead times have been improved by 20 per cent, along with a five per cent increase in gross margin. This means we have the capacity to expand.

“The strategic review of the business has helped us to identify what markets and customers we should focus on to achieve our desired level of growth. One of the immediate outputs from the SMP has been to increase the size of the design team and launch a new brochure.”

Chris Eldridge concludes: “Craft workshops are often highly complex businesses to run, so by using a combination of lean techniques and performing a strategic review of the business, Francis Russell now has a much clearer focus. We worked with them to ensure major projects were not being held up on the production bench, and using visual tracking methods, helped staff see where jobs were being caught up.”

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