Back Shoring UK Manufacturing
Back shoring UK manufacturing has come to our attention again. This time in the form of the Paper Cup Company who are based in Clitheroe, Lancashire.
They have recently decided to bring production back from China. This move will create 9 jobs initially. So this fits the trend we expect to see for smaller, niche factories across the UK and Europe. The industrial behemoths of the 1950's & 60's where several thousands were employed on one site are well behind us.
Why did they move production back?
Under take back shoring of UK manufacturing that is. We'll leave that to Mark Woodward, who started the business from his home in Clitheroe, in 2005 to explain. He said customers were demanding a fast and reliable service, which was not possible when the cups were being made thousands of miles away.
He also stated that the new manufacturing unit in Clitheroe would enable short lead times for customers and ensure control through each stage of the cup manufacturing process.
Mark appears to believe that that locating production capabilities closer to the market can enable;
- Cost Effective Small Batch Size Manufacturing
- Shorter, Faster Lead times.
- Improved quality through process control.
It sounds like the Paper Cup Company have, whether consciously or not, applied Lean Manufacturing principles to their decision making. In fact you could even make a case for them having used some of the ideas of Lean Accounting but then it could just be they applied good cash flow common sense.
Cheers to the Paper Cup Company for growing the UK production base.
Click China to Clitheroe, UK Manufacturing comes home, to read the original story.
P.S. if you want to find stories on improvement, reshoring, or back shoring UK manufacturing try searching for #ukmfg or #madeinbritain on twitter - or follow us @theleanmanager.