Initiatives, cost reductions lead to win

A mission to increase productivity and reduce costs has seen building material business Laminex take out an award from Fletcher Building Global Excellence Awards.

Laminex won the Best Site Improvement Award for displaying excellence in innovation, customer service, performance excellence and leadership over the last 12 months.

The Dardanup-based business develops a combination of building products from construction through to residential and has 210 permanent employees on site.

Laminex plant manager Shane Schwarze said the success came from a three-year Site Improvement Plan to build long term viability and competitiveness of the operation.

“It is a fine achievement for us because we set a task to improve so as a business we can remain viable, ” he said.

“In the first year of our plan we have improved asset performance and continued to focus on increasing productivity and safety.

“We have set ourselves a target of a 25 per cent reduction in cost per unit and so far we have achieved 14 per cent in our first year.”

Stage two of the Dardanup Site Improvement Plan is now well underway with further progress already being achieved, including the introduction of manufacturing excellence training for all employees to further enhance engagement and development.

Mr Schwarze said the achievements go beyond cost reduction and increased productivity.

“In the last 20 months we have recorded no safety incidents which is also great, ” he said.

“We are now training all our staff in manufacturing best practise to help improve the site.

“We are investing in improvement and our people –our motto is to make the site fit the future.”