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Lord Mandelson visits MAS-assisted Visual Planet

During a visit to Visual Planet in July 2009 Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has praised the Cambridge based company saying that “The story of the business I have been touring today is amazing.”

Lord Mandelson was launching the Advanced Manufacturing Scheme and a £150 million nationwide package of measures aimed at helping businesses develop their manufacturing skills. The visit to Visual Planet was following the Government Funded Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) aided the development previously of the touch screen manufacturing site.

As the UK’s leading advisor in manufacturing, MAS received a further £4m in government funding as part of the Advanced Manufacturing scheme. Whilst talking with Lord Mandelson at Visual Planet’s manufacturing facility John Coubrough from MAS commented, “Our whole process is based on facilitation. We never come into a company and say ‘This is how it’s done’, or ‘This is how it isn’t done’. It’s more a case of, ‘These are the tools you can implement, and how they are applicable to your business and manufacturing processes’. For Visual Planet we pushed the employees with questions for the information, the knowledge is within the individuals. With their answers we had a foundation to work with, tweaked it, and then optimised any opportunities for improvement.”

The outcome of this project has been extremely positive and with Lord Mandelson’s promotion of driving future growth in manufacturing many other companies will benefit as well. Visual Planet Director Mike Cole reflects on the in-house contribution from John and the team. “The best bit is the real measurable results. We would strongly recommend using the MAS team if you are looking to improve your manufacturing processes. It’s not always easy to stand back and take an objective view of your own working practices when you are in the thick of it. The MAS team facilitated that activity in a very structured way and then literally provided hands on help”

Brilliant Product capable of up-scaling quite dramatically

Managing Director Vernon Spencer and Director Mike Cole presented the developments of Visual Planet’s manufacturing processes to Lord Mandelson during a tour of each key activity centre within the company. Whilst hugely impressed with the idea and the way the company has sought ways of selling the product the Business Secretary stopped to recognise the role manufacturing the product has had on the company’s development.

“One of the partners walking along the high street with his wife, spotting an idea, spotting how an innovation could produce a really unique customer service, takes the idea with his business partner, develops it, creates production, and here we have a brilliant product supplying outlets in 130 countries and is capable of up-scaling quite dramatically”

In discussion with Lord Mandelson, Mike Cole pinpoints Visual Planet’s awakening to the opportunity they were given. “In the 18 months of building a reseller base, we realised we needed to do very little travelling around the world. We found other companies who wanted to use our technology for their own display solutions. It was then that we saw the business opportunity just to focus on the manufacture and distribution of our touch technology”

Walking Examples of Government Goals

With the Advanced Manufacturing funding in mind and the enthusiasm to develop new skills Lord Mandelson stopped to speak to Production technician Adam Wallace who 9 months into his career at Visual Planet, and having owned his own car valeting company previously, was described as “A walking example of what the Government’s Skill training program wants to achieve for individuals, to go from car valeting to a manufacturing company, and up-skilling”.

Adam’s story echoes around the workshop at Visual Planet as both Mike Cole and Vernon Spencer have always wanted to advocate the development of the individuals’ skill set, and as Mike pointed out to Lord Mandelson, “everyone as far as possible does every job, therefore not being reliant on someone who’s off on holiday or off site”.

Government’s Support for Advanced Manufacturing

Having touched a Rear Projection ViP Interactive Foil touch screen as well as an LCD Through Glass touch display in the company’s Demo Room Lord Mandelson finished with interviews with reporters from various guises of the media. With a backdrop of Visual Planet’s Holographic Projection touch screen Mandelson stresses the importance of what Visual Planet and many other manufacturing companies are achieving. “We are one of the biggest manufacturing countries in the world employing more people in manufacturing than in financial services. Manufacturing is one of the country’s biggest exports and the government want to get behind that, and drive future growth.

“Here at Visual Planet we have an innovative product selling to over 130 countries worldwide. This is Britain’s future and the Government’s job is to invest in and provide support for Advanced Manufacturing amongst those and new companies who have discovered these new technologies, applied them to new ideas, created new products which are sold around the world and is going to be a principle source of our prosperity in the future.”

Visual Planet’s Key Achievements using MAS:

Reduced cycle time by 10%
Reduced failures by 8%
20% productivity improvement
Implemented visual communication
Established operational KPI’s to improve performance

To see more about MAS East and how the government has recently supported their activities please click here.

All images and content Copyright Visual Planet 2009

For Press Information please contact:
Gareth Willmer, Visual Planet Ltd
Telephone: 0845 123 5370
E-mail: info@visualplanet.biz