No two ways about it

no-two-ways-about-it
no-two-ways-about-it

By turning the company so that it's facing the way he's going, Moulds, Patterns & Models (MPM) director, Ben Wilson explains how he's brought about a culture change to set the team on the right way forward for future success. Mike Richardson reports.

By turning the company so that it’s facing the way he’s going, Moulds, Patterns & Models (MPM) director, Ben Wilson explains how he’s brought about a culture change to set the team on the right way forward for future success. Mike Richardson reports. The sun is shining on Moulds, Patterns & Models director, Ben Wilson. Sat in the offices of his Pudsey-based facility, he’s explaining – in very forthright terms, how the company and team will be a reflection of himself and his values. It brings to mind old crooner Frank Sinatra’s most famous song, and how he’d planned each charted course and each careful step along the byway. This man has a plan; either work to the vision and values of the team - or it’s the highway.

MPM produces a range of products, such as GRP parts and moulds, resin transfer moulding (RTM) and pattern making for an array of applications, including baths, safety showers, conservatories, cars and ambulances. MPM’s mission is a bold one: to be the Number One team of choice for the supply of composite/GRP tooling and products in the UK. As with most well-established companies, change is never easy and it doesn't always come quickly. It requires strong leadership, so cometh the hour, cometh the man, cometh the team.

“I wanted to change our company’s culture,” he begins. “In many companies you can see a ‘top-down’ approach but I didn’t want this culture, so we banned the words ‘hierarchy’, ‘workforce’ and ‘manager’. I also wanted everything we did to be manufactured with excellence in mind so that the entire customer experience in dealing with us became very transparent and smooth. It always seems to be a lack of communication that lets a customer down. I know it’s not a perfect world, but if you have your finger on the pulse and if you keep the customer informed then they know where they stand and we can respond accordingly.

“MPM’s culture change has been driven over the last five years, and for me it’s very aspirational when I look at the size of other companies and what they do. But it’s not about the size; it’s about the service and the excellence that we deliver for our team, customers and suppliers. As far as the overall customer experience is concerned it must be smooth, transparent and enjoyable.”

In terms of satisfying customer demands, Wilson claims that in his experience, ‘quality’ is rarely mentioned. If there are any issues, he says most customers tend to complain firstly about poor service which normally encapsulates poor quality.

“A complete transparency in our service creates customer trust in what we do. If we receive a customer complaint, we thank them for contacting us because if they are giving feedback, it means they don’t want to leave us. If you’re that bad, they’ll leave and simply won’t tell you. When the customer offers you feedback - thank them, because when there’s an issue it’s a chance to shine. It’s about working with the customer, so we become an extension of their team. We have a level of transparency and a full dashboard of key performance indicators (KPIs) which are shared with the team on a weekly basis. The business plan is on view for everyone to see in terms of what we are trying to achieve and every team member has key objectives that are reviewed bi-annually.”

Everyone pulls together

Wilson prefers saying things how he sees them, so I ask him how much ‘joined up’ thinking he sees taking place in the UK composites manufacturing industry at present. Are Government and its stakeholders doing enough?

“There could be more assistance for SMEs and sharing information on how to get in contact with the relevant people. When MPM set out on this path five years ago, we performed some business coaching and began working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). They were very helpful regarding how we wanted to improve the company and assisted us in getting the right calibre of people onboard.

“The Government is really trying to become more involved in manufacturing, and it’s been pleasing to see and hear more positive manufacturing news because to me it forms the bedrock of the UK economy. Manufacturing offers a great entry into the ‘life of work’, whereas many young people who have gone through university have come out forgetting why they even went there in the first place. What the Government is trying to do with schools and apprenticeship schemes is really positive.”

Last year, MPM celebrated a double achievement at the Composite UK Industry Awards when its production leader, Jonny Haley won ‘Employee of the Year’ and its patternmaker, Kaylie Mitchell, won ‘Apprentice of the Year’. The company also won ‘Employer of the Year’ in 2013. In the past four years, MPM has boosted investment in its apprenticeship scheme and improvements and appointed former NVQ assessor, Paul Williams as full-time onsite adviser to ensure the youngsters and team get the support, training and development that they need to succeed.

As Wilson said at the time, ‘the awards are really special to us as they celebrate something we value very much, our people’. He sees apprenticeships as vital to MPM’s future and hopes that Government will continue to support and encourage the scheme.

“Composites UK is becoming much more prominent and it’s definitely improving the level of noise regarding positive UK composites industry news stories. It’s great that start-up companies can contact the Organisation and seek industry health & safety and ‘best practice’ advice. Their annual award ceremonies are great, because they demonstrate there are many positive things happening in our industry, whereas there is often a tendency to focus on the negatives.”

Right tools for the job

Clearly, MPM takes a great deal of pride in its apprenticeship training programme to ensure its staff are ‘oven ready’ to undertake technical processes, such as RTM, as well as other skilled operations like manual hand lamination.

“I’m a great believer in personal development and I constantly work on improving myself,” Wilson concludes. “As I’ve improved, the team has improved, and as the team leaders have improved, the rest of the team has improved too. We’ve invested around £70,000 on personal and business development in the last five years. One of the biggest failings in UK manufacturing is promoting from within and then realising too late that they have no ‘people’ or ‘leadership’ skills. We’re fully committed to leadership programmes for individuals to overcome these potential business obstacles to ensure team, customer and stakeholder success.”

www.mpmbradford.co.uk

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