Citation
(2006), "Scottish saviour", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 55 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2006.07955hab.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Scottish saviour
NCR – makers of ATMs – believed Rosti Technical plastics plant at Larkhall in Scotland was producing components that were too expensive and that it could have them made in China at a fraction of the cost. Jobs were on the line and another bit of Scottish manufacturing looked as if it was about to bite the dust.
But Rosti’s management had other ideas. They had heard about Stuart Ross, a veteran of the Japanese working practices of kaizen (“continuous improvement”) and lean manufacturing. Ross had been working at multinationals including Hewlett Packard, Digital and Polaroid where he had become a convert to the principle of stripping out waste and improving the way companies operated.
He received a call, got to work and within weeks had come up with a means to improve productivity by a massive 70 per cent. While Rosti’s other plants in England and Wales suffered cutbacks, the work that NCR wanted to switch to China stayed in Scotland.
Ross, 60, is emerging as something of a saviour to Scottish manufacturing, an expert in improving company processes and the way people work to the point where he is now advising even the biggest corporations and grabbing the attention of the government as the search for cost-efficient working moves up the agenda.