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Wales
by Joske Vermeule, September 1
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Jun 14th, 2026
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Joined: Feb 2012
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LEAN is a culture that operates throughout the business, Morgan have made some good improvements compared to where they have come from, but they are a long way from meeting the criteria for lean.
Martin (Deano)
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Member of the Inner Circle
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I'm intrigued about you comment that the back axles are too wide Dave....I'd not want anything narrower! Oh...I forgot....you have some garage access issues  
Last edited by Jays; 23/11/13 05:20 PM.
Jays
Former Morgan owner. Gone but hopefully not forgotten!
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Green & Grown Up Talk Morgan Addict
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Green & Grown Up Talk Morgan Addict
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That's the problem with LEAN. It becomes 'for its own sake' and exists as nice graphs on a board. Sorry Dave, I can't agree with this part of your view. During the days of the old DTI program of factory visits I was fortunate enough to observe a few excellent UK factories. Ideal Boilers in Hull had made massive savings in site costs by eliminating whole warehouses as they did not need to stock pile rolls of steel and castings. The 'Milkman' came twice daily to fill up the production line boxes of nuts & bolts etc. Like Morgan they now only needed to make boilers with firm orders rather than stock piling models to suit production. Less Warehousing and lower Capital Employed. http://idealheating.com/videos/logicplus-video.phpKab Seating in Northampton was another example of a company making 'Bespoke Seats' for Truck & Bus Drivers. They also had their cut steel components supplied Just in Time rather than store masses of steel rolls and need to cut their own. http://www.kabseating.com/Even in Clothing manufacture we were able to use similar techniques to reduce Work in Process and the capital Employed from 7 weeks to 3, making what was selling rather than filling the warehouse with slow movers. Most of the Charts and Diagrams were part of a Team Driven Quality System and Continuous Improvement Initiative. In all of these initiatives there are Capital Equipment penalties as for the process to work well, JIT manufacturing usually uses small teams to assemble a complete product or section of a product of any model in the range as the order book demands. So instead of one long line making stock products, multiple smaller 'Teams' make what is required. It is a very empowering process for the teams. Given a free rein, I imagine that there are plenty of 'JIT' opportunities within MMC available to make improvements, without 'throwing out the baby', if they choose to design them into the processes and use them. It is not without its risks. In Clothing, we had to stop normal production for a couple of weeks and produce 'Clearance Shop Lines' just to get the WIP out of the system for JIT to start. Then the pressure went on Procurement, Sales, Distribution and us Management to keep the orders flowing. 
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Joined: Oct 2013
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Talk Morgan Sage
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Talk Morgan Sage
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That's the problem with LEAN. It becomes 'for its own sake' and exists as nice graphs on a board. Sorry Dave, I can't agree with this part of your view. During the days of the old DTI program of factory visits I was fortunate enough to observe a few excellent UK factories. Ideal Boilers in Hull had made massive savings in site costs by eliminating whole warehouses as they did not need to stock pile rolls of steel and castings. The 'Milkman' came twice daily to fill up the production line boxes of nuts & bolts etc. Like Morgan they now only needed to make boilers with firm orders rather than stock piling models to suit production. Less Warehousing and lower Capital Employed. http://idealheating.com/videos/logicplus-video.phpKab Seating in Northampton was another example of a company making 'Bespoke Seats' for Truck & Bus Drivers. They also had their cut steel components supplied Just in Time rather than store masses of steel rolls and need to cut their own. http://www.kabseating.com/Even in Clothing manufacture we were able to use similar techniques to reduce Work in Process and the capital Employed from 7 weeks to 3, making what was selling rather than filling the warehouse with slow movers. Most of the Charts and Diagrams were part of a Team Driven Quality System and Continuous Improvement Initiative. In all of these initiatives there are Capital Equipment penalties as for the process to work well, JIT manufacturing usually uses small teams to assemble a complete product or section of a product of any model in the range as the order book demands. So instead of one long line making stock products, multiple smaller 'Teams' make what is required. It is a very empowering process for the teams. Given a free rein, I imagine that there are plenty of 'JIT' opportunities within MMC available to make improvements, without 'throwing out the baby', if they choose to design them into the processes and use them. It is not without its risks. In Clothing, we had to stop normal production for a couple of weeks and produce 'Clearance Shop Lines' just to get the WIP out of the system for JIT to start. Then the pressure went on Procurement, Sales, Distribution and us Management to keep the orders flowing. Thank God I've left the corporate world.. Just me, the road and a three wheeler. I use the KISS principle these days. Keep it simple, stoopid!!
Steve
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Drive on the Wild Side Part of the Furniture
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Drive on the Wild Side Part of the Furniture
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Dave I do not quite agree with this. When a new model or model change is made, i.e. in a traditional Morgan this usually means the introduction of an engine/gearbox change and related ancillaries, and any other modifications/improvement in design. The usual process here is to build a prototype car and as components/sub-assemblies are used to ensure proper fit and that they work as sub-assemblies and within the whole end unit, and to test them out statically and in use, if a component/sub-assmebly does not work then a solution should be found and documented, this is then feed into the production/build criteria for the new model. For example if it meant modifying a hose or sourcing a better fitting one to avoid chaffing it should be found out and done during the prototype build, this ensures quality in the end product that goes into production. As with the development of any product a clear build and testing process needs to be defined and managed to ensure the QA of the end product, this is a re-iterative process and all faults/issues need to be carefully recorded and addressed prior to the end product going into production. Also issues should be categorised from high to low priority, for example anything effecting safety would be high priority, whilst at the other end a pure cosmetic issue might be a lower priority (depending on the view of the management team). During the whole of the prototyping phase daily/weekly meetings should be held to address the current issues and ensure that the are being proactively addressed in a timely manner to ensure that the move to production will not be impacted. Any Showstopper issues would be identified and escalated to senior management during these meetings, for urgent resolution. Simples!!!! 
Adrian
Buggered Off, to a modern none leaky car, heart's still ticking
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Member of the Inner Circle
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I don't see where any of this prohibits introducing better fitting tubes or changing fitting procedures at any moment during production.
Peter ![[Linked Image]](http://bradley.it/public_images/drive.jpg)
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Green & Grown Up Talk Morgan Addict
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Green & Grown Up Talk Morgan Addict
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Thank God I've left the corporate world..
Just me, the road and a three wheeler. I use the KISS principle these days. Keep it simple, stoopid!! So Have I, long ago, but fortunately, the old memory still functions  . And how much easier life would have been then with 'Google Search' available.  
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Joined: May 2011
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Drive on the Wild Side Part of the Furniture
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Drive on the Wild Side Part of the Furniture
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 4,896 |
The point I was trying to make that QA is of the essence to ensure that the end product meets the standards that are adopted by the manufacturer of a product. If it is 99.9% at the beginning then the cost of warranty repair per unit is low and customer satisfaction and reputation become high! The end result is a win win for all, manufacturer, dealers, and end users, all smiley happy people. 
Adrian
Buggered Off, to a modern none leaky car, heart's still ticking
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 14,748 Likes: 158
Member of the Inner Circle
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Member of the Inner Circle
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A good example of poor QA is the rear springs which were giving so many problems. There were many replaced under warranty, mine included. It seems that the quality dropped with the new supplier after British Springs closed. I happen to know that QA procedures were designed but not applied. The end result was unhappy customers and a lot of expense for Morgan.
Peter
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 983
Talk Morgan Regular
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Talk Morgan Regular
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You only have to look at this thread to see why TM has so much potential. Intelligent, articulate, enthusiastic owners with a wealth of industry wide knowledge and experience that could in effect become free consultancy. If Simon could arrange "structured feedback" that is offered and accepted in a spirit of mutual respect, cooperation and benefit, what an opportunity that could be! I know this is a thread in the M3W Forum and there are more than enough examples already cited by that community, but you only need to look at the contributors above to recognise that there are also "Trad" issues which deserve consideration as well. Quickly, and without a detailed trawl through posts, coolant hose routing, rear spring quality, cracked windscreens, and inadequately sealed cables routed through bulkheads leading water ingress, are just a few of many things discussed on this site which are not really "fettling" issues. Neither are they the inevitable result of variability of a hand build processes. They represent basic quality control deficiencies. Eliminating such issues are not bank breaking changes. Indeed, as Peter rightly points out above, if they are dealt with at source they can save money in the long term by eliminating expensive warranty claims or rework, and improve customer satisfaction. So, to be clear, I'm not having a go at MMC, I'm not criticising the workers at the factory, I'm not criticising the management teams, I'm just trying to promote some very useful dialogue between an experienced, passionate owner group and the manufacturer that could be to everyones benefit. I'll give up my crusade on this topic now before I begin to sound like a broken record (for those of you who are old enough to know what that means).... if I haven't already
Philip.
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