The Phoenix product development policy requires that at least two new products are introduced to the market every month. To meet this development target, the R&D team works closely with the marketing department over a planning cycle of up to two years. This enables them to do all R&D, prototyping, test marketing and mould development. The continuous management focus of simplifying the product portfolio means that each new product introduced threatens the existence of prior products. This results in the discontinuation of non-profitable products and a focus on profitable products.
Apparel Crate
MAS Industries, one of Sri Lanka's largest apparel manufacturers, required a product in which to store their cut apparel during transport from the central cutting plant to outstation stitching plants. The main objective was to remove the need to fold garments for transportation, as this required them to then be unfolded and ironed before stitching.
Having considered various alternatives which proved unsuitable, the procurement division of MAS contacted Phoenix Industries. Within weeks, the Phoenix research and development division provided them with a prototype.
With a capacity of 325 litres, the product is the largest in Phoenix's 'Crate' portfolio. A lid was developed for the crate in order to customise applications for the country's fishing, tea and food industries.
Tomato Crate
During the tomato season, farmers in the Anuradhapura district faced a severe scarcity of wooden boxes for the storage and transport of tomatoes. Thus the need for a substitute product was introduced.
The Manager of the Thabutthegama Economic Centre, who had previously worked with Phoenix in conducting awareness campaigns among farmers on using plastic crates, conveyed the need to us.
Based on the input of Anuradhapura's farming community, our research and development centre developed a prototype product. This was then pilot tested among tomato growers and transporters located close to the Thabutthegama Economic Centre.
The observations of this sample group were used to correct imperfections in the design, and the product was again sampled. Final approval has been obtained from the Institute of Post Harvest Technology, the main government body providing crates to the farming community at a subsidised price. The initial set of crates were channeled through this institute in 2011.
Productivity improvements in capital
Phoenix Industries utilised the services of Thomas Group in 2005 to initiate productivity improvement, and followed up with a process simplification project in 2008.
The Process Improvement department was formed in 2009 to establish a structured approach to enhancing productivity and enable continuous performance improvement by reducing the cost and cycle time and increasing first pass yield. With this objective in mind, the Gemba Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma concepts were adopted.
Over the last five years, productivity improvements have contributed significantly to our growth. With our process simplification project, we were able to restructure the B2B segment and lower our fixed overheads, resulting in profit growth. In 2009, our performance exceeded expectations. We re-engineered our manufacturing processes by removing activities which didn't add value and striving for simplicity, customer focus, standardisation, shorter lead times, lean manufacturing and self managed work teams. Our productivity in outbound logistics, manufacturing and quality assurance improved significantly.
Barrier Removal Teams (BRTs) were introduced to identify and remove bottlenecks in processes using Lean Six Sigma tools. Five BRTs currently contribute to reduce machine breakdowns, mould breakdowns, and change overtime, energy cost and absenteeism.
