When Coventry based Arrowsmith Engineering retained its Silver SC21 award it also market the culmination of a very personal lean journey for on particular employee.
When Arrowmith received its 2016 SC21 award, Production Manager Kevin Rist was proud to accept it, but horrified by how overweight he looked on photos of the presentation which were widely circulated in press and media.
For Kevin, a former local amateur footballer with Hinckley Town, this was the wake-up call he needed to implement his own Lean strategy to reduce his weight from the twenty stones plus it had become.
Kevin set about doing all the usual lifestyle changes needed to lose weight correctly such as calorie control, nutritional advice, regular gym visits and a personal trainer. However, he also knew it would help his motivation, and make things more fun, if he could somehow incorporate his work role, which is very target driven, into the process.
Arrowsmith was only too pleased to support Kevin in this. especially as it fitted in perfectly with the company’s own focus on employee welfare which had recently resulted in the gaining of a Nation Health and Wellbeing Award
The upshot of all this resulted in Kevin having his own personal company KPI (Key Performance Indicator) which featured on the SQD board in the main company office.
In addition, Kevin was required to give colleagues weekly updates on his progress as his weight steadily and successfully came off. To date Kevin has now lost an amazing six and a half stones (over 40 kilos) and lost over six inches from his waistline meaning this is one KPI target that has been well and truly smashed
The difference in Kevin is all too apparent and Arrowsmith felt it would be only fitting for him to once again receive the SC21 award on behalf of the company to showcase how successful both have been in implementing Lean (Kevin is on the right in the photo accepting the award).
Others have also benefitted as Kevin raised sponsorship for his weight loss from friends and colleagues which has meant he has been able to raise over £800 for local charity Myton Hospice.