Local firm wins award for investing in its people

Birchwood based company Twinfix was rewarded for its successful NVQ programme by winning ‘Highly commended 5S award small company’ at the Yorkshire Productivity Business Improvement awards, which were held at The Royal Armouries in Leeds on 19th May. This award recognises the work done by the Twinfix NVQ team on ‘5S’ workplace organisation techniques.

Twinfix has been trading in Birchwood for 21 years and is enjoying a period of continued growth. The company designs, manufactures and installs playground canopies, walkway covers and shelters at schools and other buildings throughout the UK. Four new permanent employees have joined Twinfix during the last year; taking the total number of staff to 42, most of whom live in Warrington and the surrounding area.

Twinfix initially put seven employees through the Business Improvement Techniques NVQ in 2009.  The NVQ aims to encourage a greater quality culture within a company and enable staff to learn useful tools and techniques for business improvement.  During their training, the Twinfix NVQ team applied 5S workplace organisation techniques in the production area and identified a number of improvements.  Since then, the company has set up a Business Improvement Committee, made up of the members of the NVQ training group who meet regularly to drive through further audits, actions and improvements.

Sarah Mallen, Project Planning Director at Twinfix says, “As a direct result of the NVQ training, and the resulting increased quality awareness, we have seen a massive improvement in our business culture. We are so keen to continue these improvements and progress even further that we have now enrolled six more employees on the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) NVQ”.