Romerils is a locally owned and managed company which has been trading since 1950 and operates from two sites within the island. The Dumaresq Street branch is Jersey’s leading retail home interiors studio offering products and services to complement all homes. The La Colette site is where the trade business operates from and this incorporates the warehouse and transport activity.

Business Improvement Project
Michael Alderman (Studios Manager) and Sean Hannah (Warehouse Manager) participated in the Business Improvement Programme to develop a better understanding of waste within key processes.
They mapped out the full customer journey from initial enquiry through to the completion of sale and installation. The initial process map concentrated on the key steps which cumulated to 30. They studied the timing of each step which resulted in an overall processing time of 27.8hrs. By applying lean analysis, they returned to the initial map and made significant reductions to the timings by reducing non-value add activity.
The analysis continued with Ishikawa diagrams being displayed showing how a sale can be lost and how a sale can be achieved. Detailed SIPOC charts were created and Data Charts were populated within various parts of the process. Defects Analysis was carried out within the warehouse and this highlighted many opportunities for improvements which were incorporated into action plans.
Improvements made
The top-line 30 step process was reduced to 28 steps, down to 18.95hrs. This equates to a cost reduction of £21,770.00 when annualised. The team also identified an opportunity to streamline resources to benefit the business by £3,700.00 by reducing operations errors.
Project benefits
- Cost reductions as identified above
- Improved customer service through the elimination of non-value add
- Staff development
- Incorporation of Lean tools and techniques into other parts of the business
Team experience
"Starting the course and understanding how to measure added value verses Non Added Vale was, to be honest eye opening. Once we had “mapped” a single process of buying a bathroom, we could easily identify added value and could investigate non-added value and waste. Our process was long winded and involved many manual steps and duplication."
"A very small investment in time to measure and discuss the mapped process with the sales team soon narrowed down the areas where most time was wasted."
"We have shown a considerable saving in time and therefore financial benefit. We will now use all the methods taught in the course to lean out processes throughout the entire organisation. We have already started using this new knowledge on other processes."
"I highly recommend this course to any business that are prepared to map their processes, add value and most importantly save money"
Mike Alderman
Studios Manager
The aim of the Business Improvement Programme is to support established organisations to become more efficient and to deliver sustainable growth that will create market competitiveness and a solid operational platform for the future. It is managed by Jersey Business, funded by the Government of Jersey and delivered by Accelerate.