South: EEF provides free benchmarking tool for manufacturers

EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, has launched a free “Lean” benchmarking tool which manufacturers can use to see how their business measures up. The move is part of its drive to boost the sector’s productivity and efficiency and to get firms fighting-fit for 4IR (the fourth industrial revolution).

The simple-to-use tool runs through a series of indepth questions which will help companies to identify and prioritise future business improvements. It allows firms to brush up on their existing efforts, benchmark themselves against other sectors and industries and see for themselves how the world-class Lean manufacturing technique, already used extensively by industry heavyweights, could help transform their business by deploying an embedded improvement strategy that works.

To encourage even more manufacturers to undertake this benchmarking exercise, EEF’s Lean experts will be on hand at the Cranfield National Manufacturing Debate on May 25 to talk people through the test and help them to complete it.   

Martin Strutt, consultancy director at EEF, said: “Lean transforms businesses through a process of continuous improvement. It is already playing a critical role in boosting efficiency and sustainable growth in our sector and this will only increase as companies gear up for 4IR.”