As we celebrate the England football team reaching the knockout stages of the world cup in Russia, we realise it’s a combination of planning, hard work and teamwork that gets results. It’s the same principle we used at our latest project for the iconic JCB, equipment suppliers for construction, agriculture, waste handling and demolition equipment. They produce over 300 types of machines, including diggers, excavators, tractors and diesel engines. JCB have 22 factories across Asia, Europe, North America and South America; with products sold in over 150 countries.

We were part of the winning team (to continue the footballing metaphor) that helped improve the factory in Staffordshire to increase the speed in their assembly system for the valve block area. We visited the plant and took details from management and staff on the factory floor to get a grasp of what issues the plant were facing and what improvements they were looking for. After the free consultation our sales manager Jonathan Ball drew up a plan to supply two new runs of gravity roller conveyor, one unit to have two tiers to take the valve blocks direct to the workbench for assembly to begin and the lower tier to take back empty lids. This saved the operator time because the product came directly to the workbench and they didn’t have a stack of empty lids to take back at the end of each shift. The second run of gravity roller conveyor took away the finished valve block once the work had been completed, meaning more productive time for staff in making this magnificent product.

The team at Action are always on hand to listen and help provide that helping hand to improve your workplace; it’s why we are the champions of material handling problem solving!