Clearview National December 2017 - Issue 193 | Page 68

GLASS&SEALEDUNITS
How to be
first-class
Writing ahead of the
G17 Awards, Global
Glass Managing Director
Derren Gittins explains
why the IGU manufacturer
stands out in this year’s
coveted Glass Company
of the Year category.
» » THE MARKET IS BEING PAINTED AS
a gloomy place by many in the industry with
sales down by as much as 20% due to market
conditions and economic uncertainty. Vying
for Glass Supplier of the Year against this
backdrop, you have to go into the
competition with confidence and
the figures to prove you’re doing
what no other glass supplier is
doing right now – continuing
to grow while your competitors
are in decline, with a forward-
thinking, stand-out approach to
customer service.
As I ambitiously write this ahead of
the G Awards, I know this year’s competition
is as tough as ever; I’ve never seen such
a diverse list of finalists, from fire glass
experts to us – the largest UK owned IGU
manufacturer. Whether we have taken the
trophy home or not when this goes to print,
we are proud to be the only truly nationwide
IGU supplier on the list, with plants in the
North, Midlands and South.
We have seen a staggering increase in
our weekly output in the last six months
from 28,000 to 40,000 – well on our way
to our capacity of 50,000 IGUs per week.
This is thanks to our expert members
of staff, including more than 60 new
operators, administration staff, engineers and
salespeople.
It’s also thanks to our loyal customer base,
and the £10m investment we’ve made in
growing Global Glass over the past six years.
We have grown the business to a £40m
turnover – around 25% of Synseal Group’s
annual revenue. We’ve also welcomed a
68 » DEC 2017 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
number of the UK’s largest
IGU customers this year,
each impressed by our track
record, ambitions and supply
chain consistency.
While we have the ambition and
drive to make Global Glass a household
name, we recognise that our customers’ needs
come first. We are not just suppliers, we
provide a service to our 360+ customers, and
when IGU manufacturers fight to the penny
for the lowest prices, it’s quality of service
which sets us apart from our competitors.
With seven fully-automated sealed unit
lines at four strategically-located plants, we
can respond to regional and national demands
while providing customers with a tailored
service that many suppliers can’t match. We
also provide a bespoke labelling system for
our largest customers, giving them control
over their supply chain and helping them to
create a strong and reliable brand identity
incorporating our quality glass products.
We’ve also made huge strides in cutting out
waste – both in materials and in time. We
cut glass to specification, keeping waste to a
minimum, and we’ve invested in an improved
barcoding system with iconographic labels,
making it quicker for customers to group their
items into particular jobs.
These small but significant advances stem
from a challenging training programme run
by our continuous improvement team, which
teaches the LEAN manufacturing methods
well-established in the automotive industry,
so they can confidently carry out root cause
analysis to identify problem causes and solve
these effectively. In our Wigan plant, where
we inherited a reputation of poor quality, we
have reduced escaping defects down to just 0.6
% and it has been the best performing of our
glass plants this last quarter – a true testament
to the commitment of our Wigan-based
staff.
Our attitude is to be a first-class
manufacturer, combining the ambitions to be
first choice for our customers, the employer
of choice for glass professionals, with profits
which are reinvested to drive future growth.
Any one of the five companies competing
for Glass Company of the Year will be
a worthy winner. For us, being a Glass
Company of the Year finalist is just one step
in the right direction towards achieving
our goal of becoming a world class
manufacturer.