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The Challenge

Lab901 has expanded rapidly in recent years to become a highly successful SME within Life Sciences. While this level of growth is very welcome, to satisfy ever-expanding levels of demand there was a clear need to develop, and implement, best practice manufacturing techniques within the company.

The Company

Based at Bilston Glen near Loanhead, Lab901 designs and develops innovative automated analysis systems for the life sciences sector. Founded in 2001, the company is well regarded for its ScreenTape system which loads, separates, images and analyses samples to perform DNA, RNA or Protein analysis in automated gel electrophoresis.

How SMAS Helped

SMAS did a free manufacturing diagnostic review, and afterwards Lab901 signed up for a 20-day project, with the overall goal of increasing awareness and implementing both Lean and Six Sigma manufacturing philosophies within the company.

First and foremost, SMAS delivered customised awareness workshop events with the engineering and production teams. The benefits of Lean and Six Sigma practices were explained, and initial improvement ideas and process issues discussed.

Two dedicated cross-functional teams of employees were created. Their objective was to undertake an in-depth review of their processes via a "brown paper" mapping exercise.

Upon completion of this process, outputs from the exercise were collated and developed into clear project charters.

In addition, training regarding the 5S management methodology was provided to selected individuals from the production and engineering teams. This led to the creation of action plans and afterwards the implementation of fresh ideas in important areas of the organisation.

Key Outcomes

While various improvement initiatives were already underway in the company, the mapping exercise and creation of project charters, introduced by SMAS, helped to establish a more structured approach to continuous improvement activities within Lab901.

A number of key improvement opportunity areas were identified, including:

  • stock management
  • process improvement
  • quality procedures

Subsequently, the areas of focus outlined in the project charters were found to match expectations, with significantly improved productivity and reduced quality problems. This, in line with the company's requirements, led to a reduction in overall unit costs.

In addition, the commitment of enthusiastic teams, and the company-wide introduction of 5S methodologies, led to a step change within Lab901. Improvements were recorded in areas across the business, including:

  • housekeeping
  • ways of working
  • methodology
  • space utilisation

Lab901's production manager John Valentine explained: "SMAS helped us run introductory awareness sessions for Lean and Six Sigma. These gave our teams exposure to 5S and continuous improvement tools, which are now showing rewards of increased Productivity and Product Yield."

Evaluating the project overall, he added: "Our SMAS practitioner presented us with a more structured approach to setting and tracking improvement activity, which is an integral part of our improvement process."