Howarth Windows & Doors

Source: Construction Digital

Date :23/10/2007 14:14:34

Lean and fit

General Manager Alan Shearer explains how new machinery is contributing to a lean and fit production process at Howarth Windows and Doors

Written by Alison Withers & Produced by Ben Weaver

Howarth Windows and Doors Ltd is part of Howarth Timber Group, whose history spans more than 165 years. The group is the UK’s largest privately owned timber company and began in the 1840s, trading as Hudson & Co. Since then, it has expanded from one man to a company of more than 1000 employees offering a range of services from timber and building supplies, to self-build housing design and kits. Howarth Windows and Doors Ltd was set up in 1985 in New Holland, Lincolnshire. This is the company’s manufacturing unit for high performance softwood windows and door sets - specifically for new build and only in timber.

The unit is a founder-member of the British Woodworking Federation’s Timber Window Accreditation Scheme run in conjunction with the British Kitemark Scheme as benchmarks for high quality products.

Alan Shearer, 47, the factory’s general manager, was brought into his newly-created post in April 2005 to allow Nick Howarth, a former BWF president, and Managing Director of Howarth Timber Group to spend more time working with other Group companies. Shearer is an engineer by trade and did an apprenticeship, followed by a degree in production engineering, before embarking on a career that has taken him all over the North of England, including Sunderland, Manchester, Newcastle, York, Leeds and Lincolnshire, and through a variety of manufacturing industries, from plastic components to white goods to silos and gas meters. But, as he says: “At the end of the day you are managing people and materials whatever the trade.”

Howarth as a group has a strong environmental policy accredited by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). Both are internationally recognized certification schemes providing an unbroken, traceable pathway from forest to consumer to ensure timber originates from well-managed, sustainable forests. The certification scheme is regularly audited. The scheme encourages sound forest management worldwide in line with the UN Forest Principles adopted in 1992. It also encourages and helps suppliers of wood products to use the appropriate environmental policies and standards.

The New Holland factory only uses Redwood Nordic Pine for windows from well-managed sources in Scandinavia, the Baltic and Russia and, says Shearer, these days there’s no difficulty in ensuring accurate certification right from source as many suppliers own their own forests which it is in their interests to manage effectively.

Technology investment

In the last 18 months, Howarth has invested around £250,000 in installing new CNC machinery. This has helped speed-up production by reducing lead times and allowing a faster throughput. The company, Shearer says, has a “world class” manufacturing system on the shop floor using Kaizen lean and fit techniques to make sure operators only have what they need on their work benches for the task in hand.

“It’s designed to reduce waste from the operator processes. All our products are made to order and customer orders are assembled from pre-made components.” There is no finished goods storage but components are readily available and replenished on a cycle of roughly every six weeks when the people on the shop floor, who control this Kanben system, identify a particular component has reached a minimum level.

The New Holland factory uses the best available methods to achieve low wastage.

After raw timber has been processed, the manufactured components are inspected to ensure that only the usable ones are put through for treatment and others are repaired before being treated. Nothing is wasted, he says. “Working with timber means there are offcuts and material waste. Those bits can be put into a boiler to heat the factory.” The factory is on a site where another company has a sawmill, and the two have combined forces to feed all their sawdust into a common hopper for bagging and sale as animal bedding.

The manufacturing process also uses a computerized monitoring system to keep the amounts of preservatives used to an absolute minimum. Wood has to be treated against fungal and insect attack and since the system was introduced in 2004 the amount of solvent used has been reduced by 30 percent and the company has been able to switch from a solvent-based to a water-based carrier.

Technology is a feature of the office and supply chain too. A couple of years back, the company introduced a new computer system which can do everything from generating all the information for quotes and inquiries, through manufacturing, delivery and invoice. The system has been put together especially for the window industry.

Training and development

A big issue for a company operating from a tiny place like New Holland in N Lincolnshire is retaining staff, especially with companies from the offshore oil and gas industries in nearby Grimsby offering very high pay levels that a land-based manufacturing company simply couldn’t hope to compete with.

Retaining people is key and workforce turnover had been as high as 20 percent until the company introduced an NVQ system for both shop floor and office staff, which is administered by Hull College. It offers the shop floor workers an NVQ in business improvement techniques so that they can appreciate the wider aspects of running a company. The results of the NVQ have been significant with staff turnover being reduced by 50 percent. The current NVQ programme is a further extension of the company’s ongoing people development which resulted in achieving Investors in People accreditation in 2005.

Employees at any level can also make suggestions for, and then have a hand in, solving any issues in work methods and production as Kaizen systems promote continuous improvement. It’s been an ongoing process at the factory for five years now. Again, he says, it “helps to give employees a sense of investment in the company’s success”.

There are a couple of new products in development. Shearer is reluctant to reveal many details because both are still in development, beyond saying that one is an aluminum-clad window aimed for the office block market. The second is a new design of timber window aimed at reducing energy loss through windows to help builders achieve new requirements of zero energy loss on new building.

While office and supply chain systems are not likely to change given the introduction of the new IT system, the company does have two in-house technicians whose role is to develop the system further and improve reporting to both office and shop floor.

Sustainable Development

A very recent development has been the formation of the Wood Window Alliance, launched in late September this year and managed by the British Wood Federation. Howarth Windows and Doors were actively involved in setting up this organization along with about 20 other small and medium sized manufacturers. It is a professional association set up primarily to market and brand timber windows as a more sustainable (and repairable) alternative to PVC. “After all you can repair and repaint timber, you have to replace PVC,” says Shearer. To be in the alliance manufacturers must show their windows have been accredited by a third party and use certified timber as well as supplying product guarantees so in the longer term it could also be a means of championing quality standards.