Facilitators Celebrates NEPA Contract

24 November 2006

Aberdeen-based performance improvement consultancy, Facilitators UK, is celebrating a successful renewal of its contract with the North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA), to provide training and consultancy services to manufacturing companies in the north east of England.

The company will retain its place on a panel of eight firms which NEPA can call upon to deliver its £1.2m workforce development programme at manufacturing businesses across the north east.
One of the key roles of the NEPA programme is to deliver training and development services to selected manufacturing companies to help them boost productivity and competitiveness.

The renewed contract will allow Facilitators UK to continue to provide practical interventions and training to all levels of personnel throughout nominated companies, from management teams to the shop floor. Facilitators UK delivers improvements using a Lean Six Sigma methodology which removes waste from the process and allows manufacturing companies to improve delivery performance, reduce cost and improve quality.

Facilitators UK has already delivered real improvements in the productivity performance and competency of 35 companies involved in the NEPA programme.

David Clemes, NEPA Specialist, said: "Facilitators UK has added value to the NEPA programme with its extensive knowledge of business improvement tools and techniques. They have also demonstrated the competencies of guiding companies through the many challenges of change."

Facilitators UK's project manager Mike Howard said: "Although well established north of the border, this is our first contract in the north east of England and we are delighted to be able to help manufacturing companies in their efforts to boost productivity. We have a very positive relationship with NEPA and we look forward to continuing a high quality, cost effective service in this region."

"We hope to build on this success and establish our presence further in Newcastle and the wider north east."

NEPA
Since its inception three years ago, the NEPA programme has achieved a total of £19m in productivity savings for more than 250 regional companies. The NEPA programme consists of four distinct elements all aimed at raising company productivity – Dissemination of Best Practice, Digital Factory, Engineering Fellows and Workforce Development.

In the past three years, NEPA's Dissemination of Best Practice project - which involves engineering experts entering companies to provide a business health check - has created 113 jobs, safeguarded a further 1,601 posts and assisted 224 businesses.

Further Information

Please contact Mike Howard for further details.

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