THE Northern Echo and BKR Haines Watts have teamed up to give world-class manufacturing advice to companies in the Tees Valley. Paul Bell, of BKR Haines Watts, looks at where a business should start to improve.

The start point is to look at where you want your business to be in, say, five years' time.

This will probably be different for every company, but in most cases you will want increased profits and satisfied customers.

For increased profitability I usually concentrate on two areas. The first is efficiency. This involves getting more out of the existing people and equipment by working smarter (not harder!).

The additional goods will have been made at a cost of only the raw materials; the difference between these and the selling price is all profit.

The second area is supply chain optimisation. By setting up a fast supply chain for raw materials and finished goods, large amounts of working capital can be released. This needs careful installation to avoid supply failure issues.

The good news is that increased efficiency and faster supply will also be the foundations for improved customer satisfaction.

Top Tip: Never use increased efficiency to make people redundant. I suggest you use your valuable human resource to offer further goods or services, or to bring in work that was previously out-sourced.

l Paul Bell is the manufacturing and business improvement manager for BKR Haines Watts, working with local companies to improve their performance and profitability. Paul can be contacted on Darlington (01325) 254700, or at pbellvening and auction on