NHS Support: Spitfire’s response to COVID-19 on trio of projects
Spitfire Consultancy responded to the call to arms made by the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic by bringing its expertise to a series of projects designed to help the nation produce more ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and food for NHS hospitals.
Spitfire specialise in transforming performance through people. Its industry experts work collaboratively with clients to unlock potential, achieve exceptional results and create a positive lasting impact on more than the bottom line. As COVID-19 spiralled, Spitfire Consultancy was able to apply this knowledge to a trio of key projects to support the NHS and increase production of vital supplies.
Kevin Jones, Partner at Spitfire Consultancy said,
“We have been actively involved in three key areas of the co-ordinated COVID-19 response. We were asked to use our expertise in ramping up production and improving efficiency, with increased quality and cost reductions to support the Ventilator Challenge UK, NHS face visor production, and increased food production to NHS hospitals.”
Ventilators for the NHS
The Ventilator Challenge UK was launched to procure 15,000 additional ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients in hospitals around the country. Spitfire was tasked with aiding the development of a ‘pop up’ production line to increase quality of product and line efficiency. Spitfire worked with area engineers, supervisors and team leaders to identify bottlenecks and implement solutions which would quickly improve product flow and increase the daily output. It also implanted a very detailed Standardised Work process to ensure a consistency of build for the volunteer workforce unfamiliar with medical ventilators.
Spitfire is proud to have played a contributing role in the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium:
"This consortium brings together some of the most innovative companies in the world. Every day, their highly skilled staff collaborate to create solutions that help millions of people, and this project is no different. They are working together with incredible determination and energy to scale up production of much-needed ventilators and combat a virus that is affecting people in many countries."
Discover how some of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium members and suppliers contributed to the challenge: Microsoft UK
NHS Face Visor Production
The Spitfire consulting team applied its optimisation know-how to amplify efficiency, increase output and enhance quality for a face visor manufacturer which had received an order for 20 million NHS grade face visors. With time a factor, Spitfire supported the development of a new factory layout to optimize efficiency across every stage of the manufacturing lifecycle. It additionally developed new shop floor operating practices to assure quality standards, cost efficiencies and quick delivery of the face visors while also developing staff members. The production was increased by 33% – from 1.2m to 1.8m face visors per week.
The face visor manufacturer commented,
“Spitfire Consultancy has supported us through a very challenging and dynamic period in our battle against Covid-19. In a very short timeframe, we have consolidated our production facilities to a new site, recruited, trained and promoted new team leaders, and installed new equipment. We have exceeded our production output targets to meet NHS demands, and now have processes and standards to help move us forwards.”
UK Food Production Challenge
While working to optimise ventilator and visor production, Spitfire was also able to lend its support to a leading food manufacturer, to ease strain on the NHS supply chain and increase capacity. With a 30% increase in demand for food, Spitfire undertook a project management role to spearhead the delivery of ‘quick win’ capacity improvement actions. Through a 6-week period of both on-site and remote support, Spitfire delivered 31 key improvement actions and implemented Short Interval Control and other Visual Controls to support real time production decision making allowing the food manufacturer to increase its supply and meet NHS demand.