Dudley-based Servosteel — a company with a multi-million-pound turnover and a 30-year history — is the UK’s largest independent steel toll processor. With 92 staff and the capacity to process up to 500,000 tonnes of steel annually, it has become known in the industry as the “one-stop steel shop.”
Servosteel knew that production bottlenecks were being created on its slitting lines, affecting its ability to achieve its target output, measured in tonnes per hour. Pressure of work prevented a deeper investigation of the issue.
“Finding out how these bottlenecks were forming was something that could have been done in-house, yet we simply didn't have the time to do it ourselves,” admits Darryl.
What was needed was outside help that could dig into the slitting line data to identify why these issues were occurring and how they could be overcome.
Servosteel had been introduced to WMG some years before at a Made in the Midlands networking event and approached the organisation’s dedicated SME Group to find out how it would tackle the problem.