Almost 10 years have elapsed since I acquired WH Kemp. Whilst it goes without saying I should leave it to others to judge my tenure of the Company thus far, I would like to think my particular style of business ownership has been, and indeed will continue to be, synonymous with fairness, transparency and honesty.

Talking of honesty, it is purported George Orwell once said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  Whether the great novelist and essayist really did say this is a matter of conjecture. Nonetheless – and at the risk of sounding as self-righteous as a modern-day politician – it’s a phrase that strikes a chord with me. Perhaps never more so than in today’s troubling world.

Orwell died in 1950. If indeed it was him who felt sufficiently provoked – incensed even – by the behaviour of early 20^th century society, to brand it with the somewhat damning epithet of ‘universal deceit’, what would he have made of today’s societal ecosystem of – and let’s be honest – contrivance, political spin, fake news, slick public relations, online disinformation and what clearly is a growing inability on the part of many to apologise for even the smallest of misdemeanours?

Which brings me to the point of this posting: I want to hold up my hands. Confess. Plead guilty. Make an honest declaration. Emulate an Orwellian ‘revolutionary act’ even!

Those of you fully cognizant with WH Kemp, including customers and suppliers, and/or regular visitors to our website, will already be aware of our sector-leading manufacturing quality and delivery performance stats. Our reputation for achieving consistently high (98%+) RFT and (99.9%+) OTIF scores has long been the envy of the Cable Assembly, Control Panel & Box Build and Potting industries. And in turn, probably a key factor why WH Kemp has achieved its 100% customer retention record, as well as counting amongst its customer base, global engineering giants and some of the UK’s leading Advanced Manufacturers.

However, as I say I do need to come clean: During the recent ‘dark age’ – as defined by Covid-19 with the tumult of national lockdowns it triggered – WH Kemp’s performance achievements dropped occasionally below our usual high 98%+ OTIF norms. Now, you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say I am not attempting to spin this admission, but, and despite the world chaos of a two-year pandemic, at least our OTIF levels did not dip below 91% in any month.

How was this possible? After all it was a period universally recognised to have been the most challenging and alarming for decades? Answer: Our People. Our Processes. Our Procedures. Our Investment.

I’m proud to say WH Kemp did not miss a single day of production during the pandemic ‘dark age.’ By implementing strict Covid-19 safety procedures, including a reconfiguration of workstations and production machinery – one of the advantages of having a modern, adaptable 25,000 sq. ft. factory space – our brilliant team felt sufficiently safe to continue working on site. I cannot thank WH Kemp’s people enough for the loyalty, dedication, indeed bravery, that they showed, in order not to let down our customers.

Investment also played its part. At the outset of the Covid crisis, the temptation could have been to cut costs, hunker down, decide to ride out the storm. Instead, and anticipating future supply chain shortages, my colleagues and I elected to purchase additional machinery and build-up – double in fact – our stocks of raw materials – a reflection of WH Kemp’s financial stability. Our ever-vigilant attention to financial planning processes enabled us to future-proof difficult trading conditions. By absorbing costs internally and continuing to invest, we were able to support and facilitate our customers’ manufacturing schedules and targets, and ensure they enjoyed price consistency.

Given the context of my comments above, my second confession herein can only be described as ironic: Soon after the Government’s relaxation of Covid restrictions earlier this year, unfortunately the WH Kemp workforce was hit by a Covid spike. Thankfully, those affected did recover quickly and are well. There were times during this past spring when we were operating with a third less staff. Inevitably production was affected, and for the first time in decades our delivery performance scores dropped below our own demanding KPIs; in fact, below our pandemic average of 95%.

I have already apologised personally to those customers affected over those three months, but in keeping with my personal style of ownership, I am placing that admission here on record. Whether George Orwell would have called this ‘a revolutionary act’ I don’t know, but it is just one example of WH Kemp’s unswerving commitment to transparency.

This article is originally from People. Processes. Procedures. Investment., created by John Wyatt.

WH Kemp has an ongoing focus on continuous improvement and frequently invites lean manufacturing experts to work alongside us to observe, explore, train and generate ideas on where we can make improvements to our business, with the objective to create greater value for our customers and ensuring we provide our people with secure and satisfying employment.

Currently WH Kemp are working with consultants from the Manufacturing Advisory Service exploring areas where we can make further improvements in our order to delivery process. The WH Kemp leadership team recognise that such projects, where we seek to explore and implement process improvements, is aided by having a great company culture. We can only meet and secure our desired improvements within a business environment where our employees can openly discuss how they feel, share their thoughts on areas to improve and feel comfortable trying out new ideas.

Our team are justifiably proud of our wiring harness and cable assembly quality, delivery and customer retention record.

Our people expect our leadership team to act on the things that they see can be improved – they come to work to do a great job and take pride in what they achieve.

Yet, our staff appreciate that our ways of working need to be constantly reviewed and refined. They recognise that the leadership team care about the business and want to do everything to keep our customers happy. In turn they have secure jobs and can share in WH Kemp’s success. We believe our people have a much more positive experience of work when they can see clearly the part they play in our business.

Indeed, we expect all our team members to contribute to WH Kemp’s success. Our employees are engaged in what they do and perform to a high standard. As a result, WH Kemp is seen as an excellent place to work. Our wiring harness team are long serving, absenteeism is low and friends, family and any temporary staff invariably ask to join our team. We are an employer of choice in our locality. When our wiring harnesses, cable assemblies and control panels reach our customers, they’re happy too – everyone wins.

In other words, WH Kemp is seen as a good employer due to our prioritisation of continuous improvement and that we engage with all our staff to make things better.

For our customers, they can be assured that they are working with a sustainable manufacturer of wiring harnesses, cable assemblies and control panels. Indeed, the longevity and sustainability of many companies in the cable harness sector is of growing concern. Issues stemming from shortages of skilled staff in addition to financial instability are becoming increasingly prevalent within the sector.

Continuous improvement is embedded within WH Kemp’s culture, alongside lean thinking, problem solving, coaching and a focus on people engagement. This culture has evolved over many years, making WH Kemp an ideal choice of supplier of cable harnesses and control panels. WH Kemp, founded in 1967, is the UKs longest serving wiring harness supplier and we have every intention to continue serving our customers for many more years to come.

This article is originally from WH Kemp: A culture of continuous improvement, created by John Wyatt.

Investment in only the best equipment (and people) is integral to our ‘Continual Improvement Programme’.
That’s why Q1 2019 heralds the arrival of a new, state-of-the-art, fully automatic Wire Processing machine.

Our ‘Continual Improvement’ Focus

WH Kemp is sending its technicians across Europe to investigate the very latest Cable Assembly Machinery.
We’ve also reviewed and improved our Information Technology systems and Cable Printing Machinery, all of which is reassurance that in WH Kemp customers have selected a truly forward-thinking partner.

Visit Our Westbury Facilities

We actively encourage potential new customers to visit our Wiltshire base. We are easily accessible by road and rail. We would be delighted to take you on a socially-distanced tour of the site and introduce you to our friendly team who will gladly explain all aspects of our processes. Please call us on 01373 823322.

This article is originally from Continual Investment Equals Continual Improvement, created by John Wyatt.