Central Steel Build

Established in 1975, Central Steel Build is a family owned steel building manufacturer, based in Kyneton, Victoria. The company specialises in all types of custom-made steel shed designs such as home sheds, commercial sheds, agricultural sheds, sheds for sporting, aircraft hangars and more.

Project statistics

Project challenge

The challenge with Central Steel Build was uncovering the build-up of inefficiencies that were holding the business’s profitability down. The business was entrenched in the market of buying and selling domestic garages but wanted to improve its market share for the fabrication of industrial and rural projects.

Location

Melbourne, Victoria

Requirements

Vative introduced a 12-month Lean program focused on streamlining processes and increasing profitability.

Approach

Central Steel Build needed a clear and concise system for every operation and process within their business, from quoting right through to delivery on site to maintain a tidy, efficiently functioning and ultimately profitable workplace.

Result

Central Steel Build gained an unprecedented 83 per cent increase to an emerging area of its business.

Solution

With the help of Vative, the company introduced a 12-month Lean program with a primary focus on cost reduction projects and the 5S methodology (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise Sustain).This program included quality control systems to reduce waste, improve lead time and eliminate double handling as well as manual data entry. It also utilised a business performance indicator system to create results-based monthly reports and more effective marketing tools.

Completion

Vative provided Central Steel Build with the value of stream mapping, identifying all areas which impeded on their business’s efficiencies and profitability. After completing a Lean business health check, the company was taught how to apply the 5S methodology (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise and Sustain) to maintain the mindset of continuous improvement for their own future sustainability.

More than a year on the company still strives to achieve the best performance in all areas of their business. Every week and month, management puts more improvements in place which were originally embedded by Vative.

“The result that we’re most proud of is an incredible 83% increase in the fabrication side of our business, which was previously around only half of what we offered in the market. The dollar value of that improvement is around a $1.8 million increase in a year, which was absolutely huge for us. I could attribute the bulk of that increase to the work we did with Vative.” – Gerald Edmonds, General Manager, Central Steel Build