Boosting workflow: Planning matters

Meggitt is a global engineering group specialising in extreme environment components and smart sub-systems for aerospace, defence and energy applications. It employs around 12,000 people at manufacturing facilities around the world. Operational excellence is a key focus and Meggitt aims to continually improve customer care and efficiency across every part of its business. 

The company had previously used a manual card-based system in some areas of the business and wanted to digitise the process, displaying information throughout the factory. The T Cards Online system was introduced in the MRO (Maintenance Repair and Overhaul) facility  to manage the administration and processing of customer enquiries and orders. This is a key interface between Meggitt and its customers and a function handled by a dedicated team accountable for initial customer perception of company performance, with a goal to exceed customer expectations at all times.

The T Cards Online system displays the status of jobs and allows multiple users in different locations to log-on and access the same information. Every action is logged, ensuring accountability for each stage of a task, enabling instant access to the reasons for any job falling behind schedule. Meggitt customer service co-ordinator, Kathy Kelly, commented: “Having the status of all the repair orders displayed in the office and on the shop floor has been a real bonus.  

"It’s easy to update and edit. As co-ordinator and company face to our clients, getting information quicker on the whereabouts of units has made a big difference to the service we provide”. 

Following the success of T Card Online within the MRO department, it has been implemented  in Goods Inwards where it helps to ensure that items are allocated with speed and efficiency. Brett Withington, quality manager realised that the system could be adapted easily to manage and communicate status to key personnel. After consulting with T Cards Online about these requirements, a bespoke system was designed and rolled out within days. 

Withington explains: “As a first class engineering business we pride ourselves on quality. This is maintained through quality systems and audits. With many inputs, keeping everyone informed of status is vital. T Cards Online helps us ensure audits are completed on time and to manage any actions required more efficiently.”

Operational excellence manager, Simon Dixon, took the system further. He wanted to utilise it to keep track of the stages of new and reviewed contracts. Whilst this was a relatively simple development and quickly rolled out, it has provided key information across various departments and bridged gaps. 

All interested parties now have access to the information they need, although limited to their specific responsibilities. Dixon has since initiated the system to incorporate Customer Returns, Control of Sub-Contractors and the Quality Clinic. The visual nature of the system has helped with the speedy processing and rectification of returns, whilst the Sub-Contractor board ensures that all the work allocated is managed and tracked with efficiency and clarity.  

Simon confirmed: “The big advantage of the T Cards system is that it has made our process far more visible and accountable. Our old process was paper driven and documents tended to get lost and mislaid, so there was a lot of chasing around looking for documents. Now we can see them via the T Cards dashboard instantly.”

Meggitt’s experience in using the T Cards Online system is another example of the benefits of a simple yet highly effective online management tool which helps companies large and small to streamline management processes and improve productivity.