Raychem Case Study

The Challenge

Under threat of Outsourcing, this area of the business required massive change both in processes and to ownership and commitment from the people.

The Method

All the Raychem team completed Bancroft Development for Individuals and Teams.   A Leadership module for managers and team leaders preceded the formation of Key Project Improvement teams, guided by Bancroft.

Head of Distribution

"We first came across Bancroft on benchmarking visits organised by the DTI Inside U.K Enterprise.   We were looking at how others had successfully dealt with similar challenges facing us.

Bancroft very quickly gave us the wherewithal for An Amazing Change.   Very early on we saw our people become more confident in themselves."

• This part of the process was not perceived to add much value to the business
• We were introducing new products for the automotive and aerospace markets
• Our business had a lot of challenges facing them, in terms of change
• There was going to be year on year significant changes we had to impose on the organisation
• We had to re engineer our processes and I.T systems
• We needed to do different things with our people and above all we needed to bring our people with us
• We needed to assess our team structures and team processes

The Bancroft Challenge

The organisation needed to gain ownership and commitment to change from their people.   Cross functional project teams were required to focus their efforts on Key Improvement areas for the business to survive.   Culture Change and process improvement had to happen very quickly and be sustained.

Raychem, a very fast paced organisation, had previously tried unsuccessfully, to implement a continuous improvement culture.   To re-launch any project is difficult, but to revisit what was considered a failure, followed by poor performance is indeed a challenge to any outside organisation.

All the Raychem team completed the programme for Individual and Team Development.   A Leadership module for managers and team leaders followed and the work force was divided into Key Project Improvement Teams, with guidance and support from Bancroft.

Head of Distribution Summary

• Bancroft very quickly gave us the wherewithal for An Amazing Change
• We now have a business that is thriving, from a business that was under threat and being considered for outsourcing
• We are now being routinely displayed in front of our customers and other organisations, as being a core part of the Raychem process
• The successful involvement of all the work force in process improvement teams
• Very early on we saw our people become more confident in themselves
• They began to own their processes and talk about the business
• They became more confident in communicating with all levels
• They were prepared to listen
• They accepted their involvement in group activities and were actively contributing
• They were confident to talk to the management of the organisation on equal terms

Before this development nobody would have predicted the Award of a Grade 'A' Supplier Audit from Hutchinson on the strength of our teamwork and continuous improvement programmes.