Paper composed under the North West England Regional Innovation & Technology Action Plan RITAP formulation process in February 1998.

S F Bush

The concepts involved are illustrated by the work of the North of England Polymer Processing Consortium (NEPPCO) but are believed to be applicable to the process industries more generally.   The brochure (A) describes the aims and working methods.

This consortium was set up by UMIST Polymer Engineering (UPE) with a number of industrialists in 1990 and today consists of around 70 member companies covering all aspects of the polymer industry: manufacture, additives, compounding, tool and die making, rapid prototyping, product design, processing of all types, and marketing.  Total turnover is around £250M, from around 4000 employees.  The Consortium’s objective is to improve the business and business capability of its members.

The fundamental principle followed since NEPPCO’S inception in 1990 is that technical knowledge of whatever kind is only useful as part of the overall business process, which will generally include marketing, investment, production and raw materials.  A description of the NEPPCO enterprise was given by invitation at the Welsh Development Agency Trans Tech Exhibition and Conference in Cardiff, in January 1994, to the 13^th International Polymer Processing Conference in the USA last June (paper attached (B)) and to the Parliamentary Manufacturing Industry Group last November in the House of Lords.

Broadly speaking there are two classes of business activity on which scientific and/or engineering knowledge has a bearing:

1. Introduction and development of new products and processes
2. Improvements to existing processes and products

While there is overlap between the two activities, we may expect (1) to occur from time to time (say every few years), while (2) is (or should be) an on-going every day activity.  The first activity employs the Integrated Design & Manufacture (IDM) methodology developed in UMIST while the second activity employs the Systems Technology (ST) methodology pioneered in ICI, and since adapted by UPE to the SME world.

1. New products and/or processes

NEPPCO has now generated an offspring – the Plastics Design and Manufacturing Unit (PDMU), the functioning of which is described in the brochure (C).  This Unit was set up in 1996 with ERDF support, as the first stage of a Process Manufacturing Centre for SMEs.  The total business process under which the PDMU functions is shown in the figure entitled “The Innovation Process” attached as (D).  This is fundamentally the business process commonly found in the large industrial corporations.

Experience has shown that with some exceptions there are three main problems for SMEs in the innovation process.  Referring to figure (D) the Development phase is often beyond their financial means; secondly they lack the relevant research and marketing expertise, and thirdly, they have little or no experience of managing the three phases as one business process.

The purpose of PDMU is to assemble these three ingredients from among the members of NEPPCO or any other companies/people needed to carry out a particular project.

2. Improving Processes and Products

Given an adequate rate of new product generation, there are five things which need to be continually improved in order to remain competitive.  These are:

1. Raw material efficiency
2. Energy and other utilities usage
3. Product quality
4. Capital efficiency
5. Labour usage

While all companies do this to a greater or lesser extent, the particular challenge is to deploy engineering and scientific knowledge to help this process forward in a systematic cost effective way.

For this purpose UMIST has developed what may be termed the “science of process development” (SPD).  This is outlined in the attached article (E).  Essentially a methodology has been developed which allows plant experience and scientific knowledge to be systematically combined  so that over time quantitative relationships are built up.  Collectively the techniques involved are referred to as Systems Technology.   (ST) allows relevant data to be gathered in a systematic way without disturbing production, and then used to effect improvements in any or all of 1-5 above.

The principles of Systems Technology (ST) as applied to Process Manufacture are summarised on the attached sheet (F).  While most of the quoted applications were to major production facilities, most recently, as mentioned in the article, ST has been successfully used to solve a factory moulding problem on a much smaller scale than the examples given on the sheet.  What has now been formulated is a Process Improvement and Competitivity Unit (PICU) for extending this approach to SMEs in the process industries in the NW more generally, if agreed.   This would constitute the second stage of the Process Manufacture Centre for SMEs and is a natural complement to Stage 1 of the PDMU.

Items attached:

1. Brochure of the North of England Polymer Processing Consortium  (NEPPCO) 1994.
2. Developing New Polymer Products and Processes with small companies: The NEPPCO Enterprise.
3. Brochure of the Plastics Design and Manufacturing Unit (PDMU) 1996
4. Figure : The Innovation Process
5. Working on the Process: the Science of Process Development and Systems Technology Applied to Process Development
6. Summary of Principles of Systems Technology