About Protaform
Protaform is a traditional manufacturing firm, fabricating bespoke metal components such as springs, press work and multiform items. Based in Redditch, the company also assembles components using both their own fabricated items or those provided by the customer. Protaform supplies a range of sectors, including defence, construction, horticulture, stationery supplies, agriculture, electrical/white goods and automotive, with the majority of its customers based in the UK.
The challenge that the KTP is addressing
The company’s strategic plan is to improve productivity and increase capacity, to support growth in existing and new markets and address demand arising from supply chains reshoring back to the UK post Covid.
The company has no space to physically expand, so growth needs to come from its existing factory footprint. Although the company has invested in new equipment to enable this, many of the machines used on the shop floor have been in operation for many years. These machines manufacture products to a high quality, but lack any form of digitisation. This means there is no data available on their throughput, making it difficult for Protaform to assess how best to improve their efficiency. Protaform has a strong and stable workforce who are central to its success and the company wishes to digitise its processes in order to help them to work smarter – not harder – to increase productivity.
Why a KTP was the ideal route
The challenge is multi-faceted – using the latest technological innovations to provide data from existing machinery and a ‘soft systems’ element to integrate digital processes within the workforce. This combination would be hard to find in a traditional consultancy, but can be successfully combined within a KTP. In particular, Aston University’s Operations and Information Management (OIM) Department has broad-ranging expertise in operations strategy, supply chain management, technology management, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, service and manufacturing practice, and simulation and operational research techniques.
A vital step was to find the right candidate as KTP Associate with the engineering knowledge to customise and fit the hardware and software to the machines, and the communication skills to ensure the workforce view the project as a positive development.
The research team
Lead academic on the KTP is Professor Ben Clegg, who has a background in engineering and was previously Head of Operations and Information Management at Aston Business School. An award-winning innovator, Professor Clegg has worked extensively with organisations helping them to increase their productivity through smarter use of people, processes and technology. He has developed a novel methodology, Process Oriented Holonic (PrOH) Modelling, which he has used successfully in previous KTPs. PrOH Modelling is used to define systemic problems within organisations and support knowledge-based decision-making and implementation to tackle those problems.
Professor Clegg will be joined by two colleagues in the Operations and Information Management Department at Aston Business School.
Dr Donato Masi is a senior lecturer in Operations Management with a background in both mechanical engineering and engineering management. His research focuses on how digitisation and the Industry 4.0 approach can enhance the sustainability of operations and supply chains.
Dr Amar Al-Bazi is a senior lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Simulation, with expertise in simulation and optimisation, statistics and operational research. His research area includes applying digital technologies to solve real-life problems including inventory control, scheduling and productivity improvement.
The team at Aston University will work closely with KTP Associate, Miss Anuradha Kamble, who will be based primarily at Protaform. Her background is in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Working on the KTP from the company side will be Group Finance Director, Paul Taylor, and Production Manager, Mark Lovett, with support from the rest of the management team.
What the research will involve
The KTP will use systems thinking to deliver a digital transformation, allowing Protaform to take advantage of the benefits of both Industry 4.0 – which includes innovations powered by automation, big data analytics and smart systems – and Industry 5.0, which places the wellbeing of the workforce at the centre of the production process.
The project will enable Protaform to implement effective production planning and control end to end processes, using digitalisation and Industry 5.0 tools to deliver efficiency improvements and sustainable growth. This will be done through:
- Automated and semi-automated data collection through smart sensors and micro-controllers, enabling Protaform to accurately assess production capacity and progress so the company can service more orders efficiently and benefit from economies of scale.
- Real-time, data-driven dashboards, accessible worldwide, to allow for real time visibility of production flows to eliminate bottlenecks, improve resource efficiency (organisation of labour and materials) and optimise factory layout.
- A data-driven inventory to optimise warehouse management, replenishment policies and inventory control, reducing costs and improving cash liquidity for reinvestment into growth opportunities.
- Automated admin systems, including order processing and works instruction creating additional capacity and process efficiencies.
- Optimised human-machine interactions to capitalise on the skills and experience of Protaform’s workforce to transform business and management processes.
This aspect of the research will be undertaken by Professor Clegg, using his innovative PrOH Modelling Methodology to assess the socio-technical systems within the company, which are the means by which people, technology and data all work together. This will enable the team to identify the key success factors within the system, and, where required, change the system behaviour to create a better set of performance outcomes.
The potential benefits of the research
Protaform are looking to bring profitability to the business and improvements in efficiency and capacity. The company also wants to support its workforce, helping them to be trained in and benefit from the latest technologies.
The company view the KTP as an opportunity to stand out from their competitors by increasing productivity, maximising efficiency and thereby maintaining a competitive pricing structure. With many companies wanting to move their supply chains back to the UK, in response to disruptions in global supply chains in recent years, Protaform believe that with these improvements, they will be in a unique position to benefit from the opportunity this presents.
The KTP also aids Protaform’s progress towards net zero and supports their customers’ efforts in this area: shorter supply chains result in lower emissions; improving manufacturing efficiency reduces waste and improves energy usage of machinery and equipment.
The team hope that the KTP could contribute to the growth of the manufacturing sector within the UK by providing a blueprint for other manufacturing companies looking to improve productivity and efficiency through digitisation.
What the partners say
Professor Ben Clegg, from the Operations and Information Management Department at Aston Business School, said:
“Implementing a new piece of technology or digitising a machine is doomed to fail, unless you rethink strategy, processes and address people’s attitudes towards change. A factory is a complex system, and it’s the interaction between different parts of the system – the people, the machines, the data, the regulatory frameworks – that provide opportunities for success. This is why, for a project of this kind, you have to take a whole systems approach.”
Paul Taylor, Group Finance Director at Protaform, said:
“Ben and the team at Aston University have been great to work with and very proactive. They’ve taken time to explain some of the academic concepts to us in terms we can understand. But they’ve also taken the time to understand our needs properly, rather than making assumptions about what we do and where we want to go. That’s been very reassuring and makes a strong foundation for a productive partnership.
Miss Anuradha Kamble, KTP Associate, said:
“The team from both the company and the University have been really supportive, giving me guidance as needed but also the freedom to make decisions and use my expertise. When I first visited the company, I could see straight away that I could help them to make their machines smarter, and I’m enjoying making that happen.”
Mark Lovett, Production Manager at Protaform, said:
“Capturing the data from the shop floor has the potential to transform the business. Without that data, we really don’t know our current position and so we don’t know which road to take. We need to know where our bottlenecks are, so we can try to eliminate those and make our processes more streamlined and more profitable.”