July 2013 Issue 31

Chief Executive’s Diary

The 7th June 2013 was a good day at Dunmurry when Farrans and Northstone people came together to have a tea party in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. The charity provides home nursing and hospice care free of charge to those suffering from the disease.The tea party was the idea of Denise Geddis, Ann Cathcart and Karen Gibson, who are all based at Dunmurry, when they decided to do something to assist those with cancer in the Lisburn and Dunmurry areas through Marie Curie Cancer Care. On the morning of the event there was much brewing of tea and making of coffee as well as displaying of cakes, buns and pastries. Needless to say, the event was a success with the magnificent sum of £565 raised to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Special mention goes to two catering assistants drafted in at short notice, namely Northstone Chief Executive, Eamonn Sweeney and Finance Director, Andrew Donnan. The feedback from those attending would indicate that our two illustrious colleagues should not give up their day jobs for a career in catering. Although the off the shoulder apron worn by Eamonn was appreciated by those in attendance.Northlink congratulates Denise, Ann and Karen on their magnificent effort and everyone who contributed to the event.

One of the best known and most popular people at Farrans, Marion Gordon, is about to retire after some 42 years of dedicated service.

Marion joined the typing pool as a short-hand typist at Dunmurry on 1st February 1971 at the tender age of 17 years and 6 months on leaving Lisburn Technical College.

After a few months in the typing pool, Marion’s talents were recognised and she was asked to move across to the role of secretary /typist in the Buying Department. Marion then followed this up with a move to the newly created Building Department under

Marion

Retires

the stewardship of Dennis McClure and the late Peter Osmond.Although the mid 1970’s was a time of major civil unrest, Marion has many happy memories of life at Dunmurry as she recounted to Northlink recently;“Although the troubles were at their height the team spirit and camaraderie at Farrans never was affected. I had the privilege of baby sitting for many colleagues and to this day I still receive Christmas cards from those children, many of whom now have children of their own. The happy family atmosphere at Farrans was exemplified by the fact that I spent several happy holidays with Peter and Meta Osmand in England”.

Marion’s contribution to Farrans really came to fruition in her 25 years as personal assistant to Dennis McClure, the Farrans Managing Director as she remembers;“Dennis McClure, along with the other stalwarts of the Company that I had the privilege of working with at that time, instilled in me the pride and

L-R: Karen Gibson, Denise Geddis and Ann Cathcart having a nice cup of tea - all in a good cause.

I would like to warmly welcome our newly found colleagues from Cemex (N.I) Limited. It is great to have finally completed this acquisition

and to bring you into the Northstone / CRH family. We will face many challenges together, but you are from a business very similar to ourselves and we see great opportunities for the combined organisations. It develops our business relationships and brings about enhanced and improved services to our existing and new customers. We look to learn from each other in this exciting venture.

The rest of you will probably be aware by now, that we acquired the Cemex (N.I) business in May of this year following on from the acquisition of the Cemex (I.O.M) business at the end of last year. We have renamed the N.I business as Northstone Products Limited and the business will continue to operate under this new name. This latest acquisition sees the addition of concrete plants, quarries, sand extraction facilities and block plants to our group. It further cements (excuse the pun) the Northstone Group as the number one supplier in N. Ireland of heavy sided building materials and gives us much greater coverage in certain areas, particularly the south of the province. From an operational and reporting perspective the new business will fall under the remit of Graham McQuillan and the existing Northstone Materials division. Inevitably there will be a degree of rationalisation in the newly acquired business but we will endeavour

to deal with this as sensitively as possible. By working together we can build on our similarities and both parties will be strengthened by this deal.

By way of introduction to our new colleagues we have three business units within the Northstone Group namely Northstone Materials with Graham McQuillan as M.D, Cubis Industries with Michael Wightman as M.D, and Farrans Construction with John Wilson as M.D. We have enjoyed some very strong performance in the last few years but this year is likely to see a drop in turnover as we face some very challenging trading conditions. Our quarterly Northlink publication is a vehicle for keeping in contact with the workforce and keeping all up to date. Having said that, we will be reverting to the previous bi-annual publication cycle from now on.

With regard to other matters I am glad to report that Cubis continue to build on previous successes. We have just recently had very successful exhibitions at Anga Com in Cologne and Railtex at Earls Court, London. Cubis are delighted to announce that, coinciding with these events, they have won approval for their drainage catchpits from London Underground and for their cable trough from SNCF, the French national railway operator. I know that the Cubis product development team, headed by Graeme Pringle, continues to put an extremely high emphasis on new products and innovation and this continues to be a key factor in our on-going success.

Our colleagues in Farrans are facing

some challenging times and with the falling workload combined with further delays to the A5 road project we are unfortunately going through a redundancy process at present. Whilst this is very much regrettable and traumatic for many individuals and their families, it is unfortunately a necessity to ensure the security of the whole organisation and the security of the remaining employees. The impact of the delay in the A5 was obviously a key factor in forcing us down this route, and I believe that the judge’s decision to uphold the challenge in the Judicial Review was fundamentally flawed and that full consideration was not given to the effect on employment of many people. Farrans endeavour to win new work and we have had a few recent successes in the educational sector in England and Aberdeen. We are obviously continuing to chase every reasonable opportunity to secure further workload for the future.

On a personal note I wish Marion Gordon best wishes in her retirement. Marion has been a long and extremely faithful servant of Farrans and she will be missed by many on her departure. I would also extend best wishes to Brian Thompson who is currently recuperating from hospital treatment. Brian, we hope to see you fighting fit in the near future.

It only remains for me to hope that we enjoy some sunshine over the holiday period and to wish you an enjoyable break and trust that you will get a chance to recharge the batteries.

EAMONN SWEENEYJUNE 2013

loyalty I feel towards Farrans to this very day.”After Dennis McClure retired Marion then worked for his successor at Farrans, John Gillvray, as his personal assistant as well as undertaking a similar role on a part-time basis for the Northstone Chief Executive, Noel Quinn. There followed periods of working for Mark Lowry, the Managing Director of the Building Division and Eamonn Sweeney who was the fourth Managing Director who Marion has worked with; both going on to be Chief Executives of Northstone.Marion is now working for her fifth Farrans Managing Director, John Wilson and she asked us to pass on her best wishes to Elaine Martin, who has taken on the role of John’s PA.Marion’s contribution to Farrans over the last 42 years has been immeasurable. Whether it is using her extensive organisational or administrative skills, drafting letters which summarise complex technical detail or just providing the rest of us

with the benefit of her experience, Marion will be greatly missed when she retires.It is fitting that we leave the last word with Marion.“I have worked with many fine people in Farrans and none more so than Farrans’ Director, Robert McAlister, who is a true character and friend. The five Managing Directors I have worked for have all been high calibre individuals and I feel a great sense of pride to be able to say that I have been personal assistant to three Past Presidents of the Construction Employers Federation, two Past Chairmen of the Institute of Civil Engineers and three Chief Executives of Northstone. This says a lot, not only about the individuals concerned, but about Farrans. I have had the privilege of working with a lot of good people but then what else would you expect from a Company like Farrans. It has been an honour to work with you all.”

All at Northlink wish Marion a long and healthy retirement.

Blooming GreatTea Party

2 NorthLink • July 2013

What’s happening @ Materials

Northstone Launch

“Toomebridge”

Hospice

benefits

from Greg’s

marathon run

A beautiful June day, near Mediterranean temperatures and a glimmering blue lough was the perfect backdrop for Northstone’s latest launch, the sand barge “Toomebridge”.

The Toomebridge, which has been in service since 1973, is the first of the Northstone fleet of six to undergo refurbishment as part of an extensive three year programme. As well as the mechanical and structural checks, the most striking aspect is the Northstone

The outstanding commitment of Northstone people to

supporting charitable causes continues with the latest

example being that of Greg McDaid, a site engineer with

Northstone Materials, based at Croaghan.

Last October, Greg learned that a marathon was to be held in Derry

on 2 June 2013 as part of the city’s celebrations as the UK City of

Culture. Having not participated in any running events since his

schooldays, Greg decided to sign up for the marathon. Greg knew that in doing so he would have to

commence some serious training as he told Northlink;

“I commenced my training for the event in the depths of winter but

by the middle of February I realised that I would have to increase my

mileage if I was serious about completing the full 26 miles. It was at this stage that I decided to join a team supporting the Foyle Hospice

through their sponsorship. They were known as ‘Team 26.2’.”

Over the weeks leading up to the marathon Greg increased

his training mileage and he also completed two or three shorter

runs each week.

The big day arrived and Greg felt as prepared as he could be having achieved an uninterrupted run of

22 miles in training.

Needless to say, Greg completed his marathon in the highly respectable

time of 4 hours and 19 minutes without hitting the much talked

about “wall”.

Greg’s exertions and the support of colleagues at Northstone, family

and friends raised some £800 for the Foyle Hospice. A magnificent

achievement.

Northlink congratulates Greg on his marathon effort and commends his focus and determination to help others

less fortunate than the rest of us.

livery, complete with company logos.

The Toomebridge barge is 120ft (39mts) long and weighs over 147 tons, with a load capacity of 250 tons of sand. Skippered by William Weir, who has over 40 years’ service (twenty six of those on the barge), the Toomebridge is based out of the Ballyginniff depot and is a single man operation. Current production requires two runs per day, each lasting approximately three hours. From dock to pumping ground takes 80 minutes. The actual pumping operation to lift 250 tons of sand through a 14 inch pump only takes about 30 minutes, before returning to the depot for washing and screening.

On several occasions the odd eel has inadvertently been brought on board.

The operation to place the Toomebridge back into Lough Neagh was a mammoth effort, requiring two heavy lifting cranes and taking over seven hours. Once operational the sand barge, fitted with the latest GPS, Depth Finder and Radar systems, as well as a full range of safety aids, including an inflatable life raft, is well equipped to serve the next forty years. Just as well really, as according to Dessie McGuckin, Sand Production Manager, there is “enough sand reserves in the lough to see us through our lifetime”.

As this item is being penned, this year’s BBC

Springwatch programme is underway. For many Northside Materials Division employees, seeing and enjoying wildlife can start as soon as they arrive at work.

The Division’s Airfield Site at Toomebridge on the shores of Lough Neagh would appear to be most unpromising for any wildlife interest as much of it is concreted over. However, there are a few green patches and a couple of ponds which have lots of weedy plants that attract insects which in turn attracts birds. Weed and grass seeds also provide an additional food source for seed eating birds in the autumn and winter. With just these limited habitats, the site is teeming with its own exciting wildlife.

Though spring was late this year, the birds are now making up for lost time and are busy nesting. A sure sign of nesting is when the birds are seen carrying insects for their young. Linnets, sedge warblers, pipets, starlings and blackbirds are relatively commonplace at the Airfield site with the rarer willow warblers and reed buntings also putting in an appearance. As swifts and swallows fly overhead sparrowhawks can sometimes be seen swooping on unwary songbirds busy rearing their broods. This year we also have nesting tree sparrows which are still relatively common around Lough Neagh.

The Airfield site also supports a resident population of Irish hares which lie up during daytime or go mad as hares do. Sean Kearney, the forklift driver, regularly sees up to eight hares around the old tile yard with one even running through his legs when he was marking a bale of tiles. Industrial sites like the Airfield site are often havens for wildlife and witness the dramas of nature each day. There is no doubt that our locations would be the poorer without their unique animals, birds and plants.

The Northstone Materials commitment to improving health and safety performance continues with the holding of the second annual health and safety seminars in June of this year. The venues were local hotels in Ballymena and Toomebridge with all employees invited to attend.

Each seminar was opened by Materials Managing Director, Graham McQuillan, who outlined the health and safety improvements since the seminar in 2012, accident performance in 2013 to date compared to the same period in 2012 and the encouraging increase in the number of safety observations recorded by employees.

There followed a specific presentation by the Materials Health and Safety Team of David Smyth and John Evans who detailed specific learning points arising from recent fatalities in CRH plc including the importance of driver visibility on lorries and illustrated improvements implemented at Northstone Materials which were the result of safety observations by employees.

The seminars were also an opportunity to celebrate successes in health and safety and to acknowledge those locations which achieved superior performance in relation to consecutive days worked which were accident free. Those were as follows:

Over 3000 days ‘Accident Free’ GOLD STANDARD• Lough Sand Sites and Boats• Concrete Plants at Kells, Banbridge, Glenwherry,

Newtownards, Londonderry, Glengormey/Mallusk • Mattest (Dublin)

Over 2000 days ‘Accident Free’ SILVER STANDARD• Quarries at Ballymena, Carrickmore and Mountfield• Toome Tile Plant• Mattest (Belfast)

Over 1000 days ‘Accident Free’ BRONZE STANDARD• Quarries at Ballintra and Croaghan • Sand and Gravel Pits at Greggs and Murnees• Concrete/Block Depots at Strabane, Toome and Carryduff• Mattest (Cork)

In closing the seminar Graham congratulated those who worked at locations which achieved recognition and thanked everyone for their efforts in the past year. He also asked for all employees to continue to make the Division’s work places a safer place for all employees, sub contractors and visitors.

SPRINGWATCH AT THE AIRFIELD SITE

Committed to

Health and Safety

Mal

e Se

dg

e W

arb

ler

sin

gin

g a

t th

e ai

rfie

ld s

ite.

3July 2013 • NorthLink

What’s happening @ Farrans

To Affinity

and Beyond

Paul gets

ready to build

Ellon Academy

Farrans have been awarded the £30m design and build contract for the Ellon Academy Community Complex in Aberdeenshire.

The project, which will be headed up by Project Manager, Paul McClements, on site, includes the construction of a three storey Academy together with sports facilities, a 25m swimming pool and a further educational outreach facility. All site works, drainage and service connections are included together with the construction of a new access road, pedestrian bridge and path at the River Ythan. The contract period is two years.

The new buildings will have an internal floor area of 18,459m2 which means Ellon is one of the largest educational facilities constructed by Farrans to date. The Academy will also have a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Excellent targeted rating in relation to its sustainable building design, construction and use. The contractual obligations require, in addition, the delivery of an Employment and Social Plan as well as Key Performance Indicators.

Paul McClements has been spending the last two months or so getting ready to commence work at Ellon, which is situated some 30 miles west of Aberdeen, as he told Northlink recently;

“We commence work on 24 June 2013 and in recent weeks I have been working on the contract programme and briefing the site team. I am extremely fortunate to have a team with extensive experience of major projects and includes Donald Doyle, Mark McCormick, John Ferguson and Colin Doyle. Together we hope to replicate on the excellent work done on our recent award winning projects at Belfast Boys Model School and Bangor Aurora Aquatics and Leisure Complex.”

Northlink wishes Paul and his team every success as they set sail for Aberdeenshire.

The Farrans Utilities’ team have helped NI Water successfully reach the 1000km landmark on its £90m Water Mains Improvement Programme, exceeding the target set by over 100km. This project has involved replacing water mains across Northern Ireland with more modern, durable pipes, and in just under three years Farrans, together with the project’s other Principal Contractor, Lagan Construction, have laid pipes which would stretch from Belfast to Luxembourg! At a recent ministerial visit to the site the Regional Development Minister, Danny Kennedy MLA said;“I welcome the news that this ambitious water mains target

has been exceeded. Customers throughout Northern Ireland will undoubtedly benefit from the improved drinking water quality, reliability and security of their water supply, as well as the environmental benefits, such as reducing leakage.” Trevor Haslett, NI Water Chief Executive added: “I am delighted with the progress the team has made on our water mains framework, exceeding our target in laying new water mains across the Province. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff involved in getting us to this stage of the Project.” The second phase of work will take place from April 2013 to April 2015, and will be focused around South Tyrone, Fermanagh, and counties Down and Antrim.Northlink congratulates Farrans Utilities on again confirming the Farrans position as the Contractor of Choice.

John Murphy, Farrans Construction Manager, pictured with Bill Gowdy, NIW, Danny Kennedy, Regional Development Minister and Trevor Haslett, NIW.

Farrans help NI Water Exceed

Water Mains Target

This year has seen an expansion of the Farrans Utilities’ client base in England to include Affinity Water and United Utilities.

Affinity Water is the largest water supply company in the UK, providing 900million litres of water a day to over 3.5million customers. As part of the Affinity strategic upgrade works, Farrans are constructing the £2m Romney to Denge Trunk Main on Romney Marsh in Kent. The project involves the installation of 5.5km of 450mm diameter ductile iron pipework as well as associated trenchless and mains pipework diversions at the Denge Water Treatment Works.

Serving over 7 million people and 200,000 businesses in the North West, United Utilities is one of the largest water companies in the UK. The contract for the 9.5km Haweswater Aqueduct (HA) to Ramsgreave Pipeline (£6m) was awarded to Team Farrans at the beginning of May with work commencing at the beginning of June.

Kevin Corley (pictured above), the director with responsibility for Farrans Utilities, told Northlink something of the Farrans aspirations;“Our long-term goal is that continued strong performance on these new projects will put us in a good position to generate future work opportunities with blue chip companies and with particular relevance to the United Utilities Asset Management (AMP 6 2015- 2020) Construction Delivery Partners Framework worth up to £3bn.”

Jonathan Collins, the Site Manager who led the construction team on the Farrans Healthcare project at the new Antrim Area Hospital Accident and Emergency Department, has just celebrated handing over the completed building to a delighted Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

The new state of the art Accident and Emergency Department includes a 24 bed ward and administration block. The project was also constructed at the interface with the existing hospital and as such, required break-throughs into the live operational patient areas on three levels. This complication required extensive methodologies to take account of the need to control the risk of Aspergillus Fungal Disease which is to be found in the fabric of existing buildings in healthcare environments.

The Trust were impressed with the way that Jonathan’s team not only handed over a high quality finished project with an extremely condensed programme but also the way work was undertaken within live hospital conditions and ensuring infection control was a priority before any work commenced. The Trust graciously prepared a three course meal, including a celebratory cake, for all 26 site staff using the kitchen facilities provided within the new building.

Sharon Sherrard, the Trust’s Project Manager, recently provided the following testimonial of the Farrans performance on site:“From the offset Farrans were true professionals and guided the Design Team and the Trust with their knowledge and experience of hospital developments. Jonathan Collins and his team provided a tremendous building with minimal disturbance to the public. The thing I liked most about working with Farrans was their friendly site team who were always happy and willing to help at any time of the day or night. A patient has already commented to our staff about the hospital being more like a 5 star hotel than a hospital after staying in the overnight accommodation. After the build here at Antrim I would recommend Farrans as a top quality contractor. On behalf of the Trust we would like to thank Farrans for the dedication and effort they provided.”

Praise indeed for Jonathan Collins, one of our up and coming Site Managers.

JONATHAN CELEBRATES ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL PROJECT

Jonathan slices the celebration cake with the precision he used to construct the new Antrim A&E Department.

4 NorthLink • July 2013

What’s happening @ CUBIS

Improving Health

and Safety

Information

Finn McCrory, the Technical Support Manager at Cubis Industries, completed the London marathon in April, taking his total to six and his eighth marathon overall. He recorded a time of 3 hours, 16 minutes and 18 seconds, a minute quicker than his last London marathon in 2007.

Thanks to modern technology, friends and family were able to monitor Finn’s progress on a minute-by-minute basis through the London Marathon website. Rumours of an appeal from CUBIS management for Finn to keep the tracker on during week days have been flatly denied.

Finn commenced his career with the Northstone family in 1994 when he joined Farrans as a site engineer, working at Airport Way, Heathrow. He also worked with the Quarry & Asphalt Division on various special projects and then as Production Manager at the Breton Precast factory in Belfast before joining CUBIS in 2007. His current role as Technical Support Manager involves Finn in all manner of product development and testing activities.

Finn is a keen hockey player and currently plays for Lisnagarvey in Lisburn. He started running when studying Construction Management at Sheffield Polytechnic in order to keep fit for hockey and thereafter his interest in long distance running

Much time is spent collating, analysing and reporting the many forms of health and safety information across the three CUBIS locations which by its nature can often lead to duplication of effort and errors. Aoife Quinn, the CUBIS SHEEQ (Safety, Health, Environment, Energy and Quality) Manager, identified this issue within her first few months in post. In response, Aoife has developed a new health and safety data entry system which acts as a single source for data entry and reporting which replaces the stand alone systems at each of the three locations at Lurgan, Liverpool and Roscommon.

Aoife’s new system records all the important areas of health and safety statistics including incidents, training, safety observations, near misses, safety improvements and visible felt leadership visits. It also contains an employee database of relevant information.

Aoife has done a magnificent job in producing a user friendly system which

continued to grow. He completed his first London marathon in 1995 when Mary Peters (a family friend), who won gold in the pentathlon in the Munich 1972 Olympic Games, helped him gain a charity place.

Speaking about his marathon performance, Finn said: “I had hoped to break 3hrs 15mins as my final time but paid the price for starting too fast. The crowds in London are amazing and the entire route is lined with people. Their support keeps you going, even when you are struggling over the final miles.”“It is always a big commitment to keep training, especially through the cold and wet winter nights but I enjoy the challenge - and the relief that the marathon is over for another year!”

Northlink congratulates Finn on his marathon achievements.

Finn keeps on

RUNNING

includes a range of tasks and metrics for management as well as bespoke data fields which are in keeping with the annual CRH health and safety statistical return.

“The health, safety and welfare of our employees is paramount and to continually improve our safe working methods and systems we need more versatile analytical tools which allow us to capture and manage relevant information,” said Aoife. “The new system is designed to do this and also reduce the time spent on completing forms thus allowing the Company to focus on further improving health and safety standards.”

Northlink congratulates Aoife on her foresight and ingenuity.

Michael Donlon and Aoife Quinn review a report provided by Aoife’s system

Sheila McGuire, our recently elected employee representative to the CRH EuroForum attended her first Forum meeting in mid May which was held in Warsaw.

The EuroForum is a statutory consultation structure where companies such as CRH plc have businesses which transcend national boundaries in Europe. Its purpose is to allow meaningful discussion of issues of common interest to employees in CRH plc irrespective of their nationality.

Sheila was elected after a closely fought election replacing our previous employee representative, Brenda Gregg.

This year’s EuroForum was attended by employee representatives from Estonia, Poland, Finland, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. It was led by Jack Golden and Kevin McNamara, who are both based at the CRH plc Headquarters in Dublin.

One of the key achievements of this year’s Forum was the signing of a revised European Works Council Constitution Agreement which confirmed the role of the EuroForum, its scope, membership, structure of meetings, confidentiality arrangements and applicable legislation.

CUBIS Industries has a commitment to continually develop the skills of its employees in order to ensure a well trained workforce and a quality product and service.

In this regard, employees at the CUBIS Lurgan site have been working towards NVQ qualifications in partnership with Southern Regional College.

Three employees have achieved level 2 qualifications in welding, which included training on a wide range of techniques. Congratulations go to Sean Devlin, Ryan Glover and Chris McCurdie for attaining their qualification.

Kevin Smyth of the Southern Regional College, said: “The three employees showed a high level of personal motivation throughout the four week programme and had to face the challenges of learning new skills and also completion of theory and practical assessments. They should be proud of their achievements”.

A further nine employees from a range of operational departments at Lurgan have been participating in training for an NVQ Level 3 in Business Improvement Techniques. They have formed two project teams made up of John O’Neill, Damian Murphy, Archie Drainey, Stephen Lemon, Chris Shanks, Leo Rice, Martin McDaid, Adrian Strazdo and Lubos Tomcik.

The course has been running for six

Sheila represents

Northstone at

CRH EuroforumSheila contributed well to the discussions at the EuroForum and thoroughly enjoyed the experience as she told Northlink recently;

“I was honoured to be elected as the Northstone representative and I took every opportunity to get involved in the discussions with other employee representatives at the EuroForum. The presentations delivered at the EuroForum were very informative and it was obvious from these that health and safety remains the top priority for CRH businesses across the world. Sustainability is another key issue which will become increasingly important to the business and our customers. On a European basis, CRH now operates in 17 countries and at some 590 locations where 10,700 people are employed. It was also made clear that the global recession continues to create uncertainty in European markets for CRH products although the CRH focus on efficiencies and performance goes some way to counteract the market conditions.”

“It became very evident to me at the EuroForum that CRH plc is the type of company that listens to its employees and takes any concerns they have very seriously.” added Sheila.

Sheila, who is the Human Resources Manager at CUBIS Industries, joined the Company in 2006. She graduates this summer along with Damian Murphy, Production Manager at CUBIS, Lurgan, with a Diploma in Management Practice from the University of Ulster.

Northlink commends Sheila on her contribution to the 2013 CRH EuroForum on behalf of all employees at Northstone.

months and is a blend of classroom and practical based learning aimed at developing the understanding of lean manufacturing and various business improvement methods and techniques to aid problem solving and root cause analysis. The end result will be two practical business/process improvements (one from each project team) to be presented to senior management and subsequently implemented on the factory floor.

CUBIS hopes to deliver training to another Business Improvement project team in the autumn of 2013 with the overall aim of involving as many of the operational workforce as possible in project teams, each tasked with improving how we run the CUBIS business in the future in terms of energy savings, process improvements, product innovation and lean manufacturing.

Northlink congratulates all CUBIS employees involved in NVQ training as a means of maintaining our competitive advantage in the market place as well as development of their skills.

Employee

Development at CUBIS

Finn finishes strongly at the London Marathon.

L-R: Sean Devlin, Ryan Glover and Chris McCurdie apply their new

found welding skills