Talk:Unipart

"Unipart Way"

"However, the company has struggled to successfully integrate this process into its network of motor factors, Unipart Automotive. Some employees have been reluctant to adopt its practices, since they apparently found that utilising "The Unipart Way" itself was a time-consuming hindrance to achieving tasks in a fast-moving business environment. In response, Unipart's management remains convinced of the merits of the system and continues to refine aspects of it in the hope that it may become more universally accepted."

Although this paragraph apppears to be factual and balanced, it is unsourced. I have removed it until someone provides a citation. Chris 42 15:43, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

On second thoughts, having looked at articles on other large companies, e.g., Tesco (which has an entire section devoted to various controversies), I have re-inserted it but with a {{Fact}} tag. Chris 42 16:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Its seems to have gone.... --FireBadger 19:01, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

NPOV?

Is the "Unipart Programme Delivery System" really nessecary and NPOV?

Its not widely known or used outside the company, its not a universal tool like PRINCE2. It also sounds to me more like a sales pitch rather than something that warrants inclusion in Wikipedia. I therefore feel that it should be removed... If no-one has objections I shall do in a days (a week) if I remember --FireBadger 19:04, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Unpaid Commercial, or Brochure Extract?

The entire section about the "Unipart Way" reads like an unfocussed sales pitch, and the bit after the BBC News link (with the illustration of the philosophy and the theoretical examples) is clearly just copied in verbatim from some Unipart intranet page or something - it refers to Unipart as "we" and "our" several times. I'm junking it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.104.160.179 (talk • contribs) 16:20, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the junking. 82.69.4.157 01:33, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Corporate waffle

Today the company operates as a logistics expert across a series of sectors, using its assets and intellectual property branded as "The Unipart Way" to both deliver and consult for a diversity of clients.

Apart from looking like it was lifted from some internal marketing brochure, this is meaningless. I'm sure it contains relevant information, but can someone who speaks management translate into English please? G7mzh (talk) 09:23, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Changes to Unipart Group business structure

I would like to suggest a couple of changes to this article as the information contained in the article is now factually incorrect following changes to the business structure. In September 2011 Unipart Group sold a controlling interest in its Unipart Automotive business to H2 Equity Partners, a private equity company, and this business is now no longer part of the Unipart Group. See press release on Unipart Group's website

. Unipart Automotive is mentioned in the introduction and the section on operating divisions.

I would also like to point out that the manufacturing division of Unipart Group is not mentioned at all. Unipart has two joint venture manufacturing businesses located in Coventry which manufacture original equipment parts for cars for a number of vehicle manufacturers. This is a whole operating division of the business which is missing from the information.

To be clear and transparent I am an employee of Unipart Group and as such I am reluctant to make these changes to this article because of Wikipedia's COI policy. I have no interest in changing the tone of the article or making any controversial edits, however I am keen that the article is factually correct as Wikipedia is a respected reference source. As such I would like to invite any editor who is watching this page to make appropriate edits to ensure the factual accuracy of the information. --DD OX4 (talk) 14:26, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Rewrite of the article located here: Draft:Unipart Group

FXDN submitted a rewrite of the Unipart article to AfC, disclosing his/her COI:

To be clear and transparent I am an employee of Unipart Group and as such I am reluctant to make these changes to this article because of Wikipedia's COI policy. I have no interest in changing the tone of the article or making any controversial edits, however I am keen that the article is more informative and is factually correct as Wikipedia is a respected reference source. As such I would like to invite any editor who is watching this page to make appropriate edits to ensure the factual accuracy of the information. I have added material and also included the existing text below with a significant increase in the number of citations. I hope that this will make it easy for an editor to cut and paste the material below into the existing page.

I'm posting the link here, as it's the appropriate place for a COI editor to suggest changes to the article. For the record, I've gone through the references, citations, and tone, and everything's in order. JSFarman (talk) 20:54, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

I will propose the changes below for your consideration.Fxdn (talk) 14:36, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

I have updated each section with some feedback, I have been critical due to the nature of the rewrite and your ties with the organisation. I think some adds value but cannot help thinking that it feels like a "big up" for the unipart way and John Neill rather than a rewrite for the sake of improving the article. Would be good to understand others opinions on this. SomethingAndNothing (talk) 12:35, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New introduction section proposed

This is the current introduction

Unipart Group is a multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sectors that include automotive, rail, marine and leisure.

Originally part of the state-owned conglomerate British Leyland, Unipart is now employee-owned and is one of the largest privately owned companies in the UK.

This is the proposed new introduction

Unipart Group is a multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sectors that include aerospace, automotive, consumer products, retail, mobile phones, technology, rail, health, marine and leisure.

The company offers a range of services include warehousing, inventory management, E-fulfillment, aftermarket supply chain, reverse logistics, engineering support, repair, transportation, and business support.

In 2011 50.1% of Unipart Automotive parts business was sold to H2 Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Unipart is employee-owned and is one of the largest privately owned companies in the UK. It is ranked as one of the UK’s Top Track 100 private companies.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• Is Leisure and marine still a part of Unipart, I can see online references to it being sold?
• Propose changing the opening to ".....across a variety of sectors that include aerospace, automotive, retail, technology, rail and public services"
• The second paragraph could be expressed simply as "Unipart is a 3PL" the business functions are implied by function but personally I don't really see the point in this paragraph.
• The third paragraph (Sale to H2) belongs in a history section rather than an introduction.
• The forth paragraph is not factually correct, Unipart is only part employee owned the remainder being owned by pension fund and "sympathetic investors" from Uniparts own website. If memory serves 70% employee owned and the remainder with other investors?

SomethingAndNothing (talk) 11:14, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Regarding the ranking as a "Top 100 private company" please see WP:ORGAWARDS. There are very few rankings, such as the Fortune 500, or being #1 in some cases, that warrant inclusion. Including a complete list of markets served is also promotional. It communicates to the reader that whatever market they are in, you have a product for them. This information is usually included only if there is something more specific/distinctive, such as a single market revenues are obtained from almost exclusively. Probably the list of markets needs to be removed, rather than expanded. CorporateM (Talk) 04:16, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

New History section proposed

This is the current History::

Unipart House, Cowley. Headquarters of Unipart Group, and some subsidiaries.

Unipart as it operates its business today was formed in 1974 by John Egan. State-controlled British Leyland put him in charge of their Unipart parts and service division, let him make it independent and brand it Unipart. The use of the Unipart brand to market service parts for British Leyland vehicles was similar in concept to Ford's Motorcraft brand. The next year British Leyland was nationalised. Egan left in 1976 to join Massey Ferguson.

Then 29-year-old John Neill replaced Egan and he continued Egan's policy of providing the same logistical services to its parent's competitors as well as to British Leyland. In 1987 Neill led a management buyout of Unipart in part financed by a wider employee buy-in. Unipart is now 70% owned by its workforce and pension fund, the other 30% is held by sympathetic institutions.

Unipart's traditional promotion of its services was by motorsports sponsorship, from 1978 with the Triumph Dolomite Formula 3 team, and from 1980 in Formula One, first with Ensign and then with McLaren until 1983. Once Unipart were completely independent they returned to Formula One sponsorship, with Tyrrell and later with Jordan Grand Prix.

In 2011 50.1% of Unipart Automotive parts business was sold to H2 Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Today Unipart provides logistics services across a series of sectors promoting them as "The Unipart Way" to both deliver and consult for a diversity of clients.

This is the proposed new History::

Unipart as it operates its business today was formed in 1974 by John Egan. State-controlled British Leyland put him in charge of their Unipart parts and service division, let him make it independent and brand it Unipart. The next year British Leyland was nationalised. Egan left in 1976 to join Massey Ferguson. The Unipart Brand was created in 1969 as a Trade Brand by British Leyland for its Service and Parts Division.  In 1974 John Neill, the Division’s new Marketing Manager convinced the top management Lord Sheppard and Sir John Egan that it should become a consumer brand.  Over the next decade more than £100 million s was invested in building the brand and, in 1989, with the arrival of Sir Michael Edwards, British Leyland Parts and Service Division was renamed Unipart under the leadership of Managing Director John Neill. Neill was appointed as Managing Director of the Service and Parts Division in 1977 becoming British Leyland’s youngest Managing Director.

Then 29-year-old John Neill replaced Egan and he continued Egan's policy of providing the same logistical services to its parent's competitors as well as to British Leyland. In 1987 Neill led a management buyout of Unipart in part financed by a wider employee buy-in. Unipart is now 70% owned by its workforce and pension fund, the other 30% is held by sympathetic institutions.

The company’s buyout and share offering to employees was presented through a musical show as Chairman and CEO John Neill recounted: “The three and a half hour theatrical experience represented the risks and opportunities, and ran over five nights at Warwick University. My proudest moment was at the end when I said: We’ve done the deal and it’s your choice whether you want to buy into it. There was 70% take up.”

The mainstream of Unipart’s business was logistics. Within the structure of the buyout, Unipart gained manufacturing sites, which became increasingly important to the entire group of companies as the foundation for learning about lean production.

At the time of the buyout, business performance in parts of the new company was dire, productivity was on the floor and labour relations weren't great either. Unipart went to Honda and Toyota to understand how they achieved such quality, learning the "lean" approach to production but also quality.

Within six years of the buyout, Unipart’s manufacturing site in Coventry was named Britain’s best factory largely due to learning from its Japanese customers and adapting those ideas for UK employees and managers.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• The paragraph starting "At the time of the buyout, business performance in parts..." serves no particular purpose so should be removed.
• Cant help but feel this section would be better served by bulleting the important milestones in the companies history, I will write up a draft for consideration.
• If you quote please make sure the text is formatted as such see Wikipedia:Quotations

SomethingAndNothing (talk) 11:33, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'The Unipart U' Proposed

There is no current text::

This is the proposed copy for The Unipart U::

Unipart’s management team regarded learning as a key to competitiveness and set out to structure Unipart as a ‘learning company’.

In 1993, the then Secretary of State for Education, John Patten, formally opened the Unipart U, one of Europe’s first corporate universities. The Unipart U has been seen as a model for much of today’s organisational learning. It has a mission ‘to develop, train and inspire people to achieve world class performance within Unipart and amongst its stakeholders’. Learning in the U led to direct benefits through the company’s problem solving programme called ‘Our Contribution Counts.’ On face value it showed that highly trained employees could make improvements using a structured set of tools. In the longer term, it demonstrated the concept of shared destiny between the company and its employees. Within 12 months, productivity in the distribution department had gone up by 39% and staff ideas resulted in a savings of £4m a year.

Unipart recognised that creating a ‘people culture’ was key to driving transformation. One of the first changes that the new management team made after the buyout was the development of a company-wide programme called Mark in Action. It recognised employees who showed outstanding personal customer service. In 2012, the programme celebrated its 25th anniversary having recognised some 2,600 employees with awards. The Mark in Action awards have become prestigious, both internally and among clients.The prize for winners – a set number of company shares and a gold pin – is modest, but the event carries clout. Winners are picked out by an independent panel of judges.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A search on the Unipart U yields few results outside of Uniparts own web pages, it doesn't really seem like a worthwhile inclusion to the article in general. SomethingAndNothing (talk) 11:39, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'Stakeholder Culture' section proposed

There is no current text::

This is the proposed new Stakeholder Culture::

Unipart is cited as the UK company most often spotlighted as an example of stakeholder theory in practice. Long before privatisation, the company established a stakeholder philosophy in which suppliers and customers; employees and managers, recognised their shared interest and worked for mutual benefit.The idea of a drive for competitiveness through learning that could bring mutual benefit spread beyond the company to its supply base. For many years every new supplier to Unipart attended a course at the Unipart U entitled `Ten(d) to zero'. The course starts a process by which Unipart people and suppliers work together to improve the ten key elements of their relationship. The company has combined the Ten(d) to Zero approach with state of the art technology in a global control centre for managing complex supply chains. “We have now got a completely integrated system of people, processes and technology which can take any item from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world,” says John Neill.

Unipart’s approach has been described by a number of commentators. In their article for Sloan Management Review, Sumantra Ghoshal, Christopher Bartlett and Peter Moran wrote: “While acknowledging the interdependence between a company and all its key stakeholders, Neill’s notion of shared destiny relationships is very different from “being and doing good to all,” as the stakeholder concept is often portrayed. With suppliers, his program emphasized the need to work together to radically improve performance across ten criteria ranging from transaction costs and lead times to defect rates and delivery errors — and to ultimately reduce each to as close to zero as possible. These efforts created value, not just for Unipart and its suppliers, but also for the industry.” On visiting Unipart House, Neil Collins from The Spectator had this observation: “So how well does this model company work? The 10,000 employees, many of whom come from Cowley’s infamous Blackbird Leys estate, love it. Staff turnover is tiny, and internal promotion is the norm. The approach translates elsewhere, too; the canteen was contracted out and was a typically dreary place. Unipart scrapped the contract, sent the employees to university, and reopened it as The Art Room. Visitors couldn’t believe the transition, and asked where all these smiling staff had come from. They were the same people.”

Unipart is recognised for its extensive culture change programme, which Chairman and Group Chief Executive John Neill claimed was ‘not rocket science, it was harder than rocket science.’ Simon Collinson, Dean of Birmingham Business School, commented: “Based on Unipart’s thirty year cultural transformation journey, and the work the company has done introducing The Unipart Way into so many clients, I’m convinced that it has a unique set of experience and a body of knowledge that can be transformative for other companies”. “Unipart’s strongest legacy is its culture,” said John Neill. “We have philosophies and training programmes to help us get where we want, but we’ll never be happy and will always strive to be better.”

Today, Unipart provides consultancy services across a series of sectors promoting them as "The Unipart Way" to both deliver and consult for a diversity of clients. In 2014, Unipart said it had made a “step change” in the level of investment in ‘The Unipart Way’ brand to continue repositioning the company away from the historic all makes parts business, which it sold control of in 2011, to its core long term business of logistics, manufacturing, and consulting.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

This feels like a sale pitch and I do not think it warrants inclusion. I have searched fairly heavily on Unipart corporate responsibility and there is little outside of targets and aims i.e. the target to donate profits to charity that have actually materialised in a citable source. SomethingAndNothing (talk) 11:43, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'International Expansion' section proposed

There is no current text::

This is the proposed new International Expansion::

The company announced that it has grown its international footprint significantly in China, India and Australia. Unipart (Suzhou) Logistics Co. Ltd, a part of Unipart Group, announced a five year, full-spectrum aftermarket logistics contract with Qoros Automotive Co. Ltd. of Changshu, China. Qoros Automotive is an exciting new Chinese car manufacturer which was started in 2007, and has launched the first of its initial three models into the Chinese market. It is the first car manufacturer based in China to select a UK-based automotive after sales supply chain partner. Unipart began a second logistics operation for Toyota in India in 2012. Unipart now has sites in Bangalore and Kolkata.

In 2013, Unipart Group also announced three major manufacturing developments in the Midlands including two new manufacturing facilities and a joint venture with Coventry University to create an engineering and manufacturing institute. The aim of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME), which is located at Unipart’s Foleshill site in Coventry, is to develop the next generation of highly skilled, specialist engineers and operational leaders by providing up to 40 students every year with direct access to Unipart’s operations, allowing them to work on ‘live’ issues in a real world manufacturing production environment. Unipart Manufacturing Group is also part of a consortium at Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre to help bring new generation low-CO2 engine technologies to market. Unipart has also partnered with Huddersfield University to develop The Centre for Innovation in Rail within the university’s existing Institute of Railway research.

Unipart also received several accolades during 2013. At the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2013 the ‘Overall Winner’ Award was presented to Unipart Logistics for their management of the global aftermarket support operation responsible for 1.2 million Jaguar cars around the world. Unipart also won the Aftermarket Parts Logistics trophy at the Automotive Supply Chain Global Awards. For the second year running, Unipart achieved a double accolade, by winning top ratings for its Health and Safety performance and for its Environmental Management excellence in 2013. Six sites have all received the prestigious Sword of Honour award from the British Safety Council, the pinnacle of achievement in world class health and safety management. Unipart’s Oxford Distribution Centre was one of only seven organisations worldwide to achieve the double award for excellence in winning both the Sword of Honour and the Globe of Honour. In 2014, the British Safety Council awarded Unipart the International Safety Award for the transport, distribution and motor trade sector. The award went to 12 organisations regarded by a panel of judges as being outstanding in their respective sectors.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• The awards section at the end initially I thought should be moved to a seperate awards/recognition section but looking at similar pages they are not included so should probably not be included here either.
• The international expansion needs to be quantified, what constitutes a significantly grown footprint?
• The paragraph "In 2013, Unipart Group also announced three major manufacturing" cites The Business Desk which requires login to view, is there a publicly accessible source to this information? — Preceding unsigned comment added by SomethingAndNothing (talk • contribs) 12:04, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'Operating Divisions' section proposed

This is the current 'Operating Divisions' section:

Unipart Logistics warehouse, Cowley.

There are three main operating divisions within the Unipart Group, these main operating divisions are Unipart Logistics, Unipart Manufacturing and Unipart Rail and within these are various business units.

*Unipart Logistics: Has three main business units within the operating division which are; **Unipart Aftermarket Logisitics (UAL) whose main clients are Jaguar Cars, Land Rover, London Taxis International and Mobis. All but the latter are former British Leyland subsidiaries. **Unipart Technology Logistics (UTL) whose clients include BSkyB, and Vodafone. There are a number of smaller business units of Unipart Logistics which include Unipart Aerospace and Defence Logistics and Unipart Security. **Unipart Expert Practices: This business unit sits within the Unipart Logistics division and represents the company moving from simply focusing on its own internal improvement activities to providing its services to external clients in the form of Management and supply chain consulting based on lean principles and continuous improvement. UEP has worked with a number of sectors including Health, Government and Finance.

*Unipart Manufacturing: This division produces original equipment components and is a first tier supplier to the automotive industry, supplying a customer base which includes British, European and Japanese vehicle manufacturers. It also designs, manufactures and services heat exchangers.

*Unipart Rail: This division is located in the North of England with sites in Crewe, Doncaster and York and provides engineering and logistic solutions to the rail supply chain. The company also has several other brands which it has acquired and trades under such as Dorman who specialise in LED Lighting.

This is the proposed new 'Operating Divisions' section:

There are three main operating divisions within the Unipart Group, these main operating divisions are Unipart Logistics, Unipart Manufacturing and Unipart Rail and within these are various business units.

* Unipart Manufacturing: This division produces original equipment components and is a first tier supplier to the automotive industry, supplying a customer base which includes British, European and Japanese vehicle manufacturers. It also designs, manufactures and services heat exchangers.

* Unipart Logistics: Unipart Logistics' main clients are Jaguar Cars, Land Rover, London Taxis International and Mobis, BSkyB, and Vodafone. There are a number of smaller business units of Unipart Logistics which include Unipart Aerospace and Defence Logistics and Unipart Security.

* Unipart Expert Practices consulting business: This business unit sits within the Unipart Logistics division and represents the company moving from simply focusing on its own internal improvement activities to providing its services to external clients in the form of management and supply chain consulting based on lean principles and continuous improvement. UEP has worked with a number of sectors including Health,  Government and Finance.

* Unipart International: With operations based in mainland Europe, the Gulf and the USA, Unipart International provides services and products to the truck and bus aftermarket, the collision parts industry and the industrial and automotive heat exchange markets.

* Unipart Rail: This division is located in the North of England with sites in Crewe, Doncaster and York and provides engineering and logistic solutions to the rail supply chain. The company also has several other brands which it has acquired and trades under such as Dorman who specialise in LED Lighting.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• listing clients is not really necessary
• If unipart Expert Practices is a Business unit inside a division then it should be included in its parent, in this case the logistics division.

I have updated the main article with the other changes SomethingAndNothing (talk) 12:17, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'The Unipart Way' section proposed

This is the current 'The Unipart Way' section:

"The Unipart Way" is a system of lean manufacturing tools and techniques, with a guiding philosophy to reduce waste or activities which do not add value. Based on the companies learning from Honda and study into the Toyota Production System, it is the name the company has given to its methodology. It involves a process of continuous measurement which is designed to lead to a reduction of wasteful activity, thereby ensuring the best deployment of time and resources.

The methodology is not without its critics. Most publicly, the work done at HMRC was censured by PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, who stated, "By reducing staff to nothing more than machines on the whim of consultants, the department is undermining the morale of staff who face imminent job cuts and office closures."

HMRC argue that Unipart's work has produced significant benefits for them. An HMRC spokesman said: "Lean is all about offering a better service to our customers and staff. It is a key element in HMRC's plan to provide improved service and meet efficiency targets. Staff are asked to organise their desks when shared with colleagues to avoid clutter and to make sure they have everything set up to do their job effectively. Any suggestion that staff are restricted to a pen and cup on their desk is simply not true. Rather than making work boring and repetitive, staff are being invited to work with their managers to improve the way tasks and systems are developed.".

The independent NAO report of 6 July 2007 describes the purpose of Lean as "to streamline key work processes to eliminate duplication or reworking, improve accuracy, increase productivity, and reduce lead times in processing cases", and it predicts savings to the taxpayer of £440 million by 2011 "the majority of which will be achieved through implementing Lean."

This is the proposed new 'The Unipart Way' section:

"The Unipart Way" is a system of lean manufacturing tools and techniques, with a guiding philosophy to reduce waste or activities which do not add value. Based on the companies learning from Honda and study into the Toyota Production System, it is the name the company has given to its methodology. It involves a process of continuous measurement which is designed to lead to a reduction of wasteful activity, thereby ensuring the best deployment of time and resources.John Neill described the way that Unipart Way enhances employee engagement: “The Unipart Way programme focuses on operational excellence, he says, and gives employees the tools and techniques to work collaboratively and solve the problems, big and small, that are part of everyday business. If employees don’t have the right tools they get frustrated and disengaged,” says Neill.

“People keep asking me what’s new in my business, and I say nothing’s new, this is it. I just follow the Unipart way. I want to serve the real and perceived needs of our customers better than anyone else. Equipping your people at every level to do that is very hard,” said Neill.

One of the most difficult areas for application of Lean principles has been the public sector. Unipart recognises the challenge of implementing new ways of working, particularly in the public sector. "If you've done something a certain way for 20 years,” said John Neill,” and someone comes along and says 'actually you can do that in half the time and at twice the quality', it's quite a difficult and painful thing for any human being to accept."

Lean has been described as: “In the broadest sense, a philosophy which aims to develop good practice of process/operations improvement that allows a reduction of waste, improvement of flow and better concept of customer and process view through a culture of continuous improvement involving everyone.”

The methodology is not without its critics. Most publicly, the work done at HMRC was censured by PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, who stated, "By reducing staff to nothing more than machines on the whim of consultants, the department is undermining the morale of staff who face imminent job cuts and office closures." HMRC claims that the introduction of Lean has resulted in impacts of improved quality, productivity and lead time

HMRC argue that Unipart's work has produced significant benefits for them. An HMRC spokesman said: "Lean is all about offering a better service to our customers and staff. It is a key element in HMRC's plan to provide improved service and meet efficiency targets. Staff are asked to organise their desks when shared with colleagues to avoid clutter and to make sure they have everything set up to do their job effectively. Any suggestion that staff are restricted to a pen and cup on their desk is simply not true. Rather than making work boring and repetitive, staff are being invited to work with their managers to improve the way tasks and systems are developed.".[6] Among the outcomes of HMRC’s Pacesetter programme were a change in the role of leaders and a massive change in the style of management, the impact of more coherent teamworking, a broader acceptance and support for the customer view, culture change and problem solving. The independent NAO report of 6 July 2007 describes the purpose of Lean as "to streamline key work processes to eliminate duplication or reworking, improve accuracy, increase productivity, and reduce lead times in processing cases", and it predicts savings to the taxpayer of £440 million by 2011 "the majority of which will be achieved through implementing Lean."

One of the key areas for the implementation of The Unipart Way has been the health sector. Techniques devised Unipart to improve efficiency have been adopted by staff at The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals Foundation Trust is another trust that Unipart has helped to achieve operational and cultural transformation at its Kings Mill and Newark hospitals. Addressing the operational issues in the NHS is clearly on Unipart’s agenda. “The notion that regardless of who you are or where you come from you can, at times of need, get the best treatment available is worth fighting for,” said John Neill. “That’s about the state taxing the citizens to provide the funds for it. Then it became a state-run bureaucracy.”

“The Francis Report shocked everyone but wasn't isolated and it is clear the problems spread way beyond Mid Staffordshire," said John Neill. "Francis makes 289 recommendations, if you try and summarise what he said you have to improve the quality, reduce the costs, change the culture, improve delivery and be more innovative. To create a culture of innovation. I know from having built and implemented the Unipart Way in multiple businesses throughout the world if you put the Unipart Way into the NHS you would get all of these results by getting people to focus on what really matters - the patient - rather than the numbers targets set by some administrative body completely removed from the coal face.”

Unipart carried out a project with leaders of the health economy in Buckinghamshire to redesign processes to create capacity, capability and deliver savings. The project identified key performance indicators to improve patient care, safety and the patient experience.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• A lot of this section relates to public services which from what I understand was Lean not Unipart way implementation.
• The Unipart way seems to be an internal working methodology and is not utilised or functioning outside of the organisation so I don't really see how this is relevant.
• The Lean implementation into HMRC probably fits best in a new Criticism/Controversy section
• Generally this feels to me like a sales tool and probably should be removed entirely from the article?

SomethingAndNothing (talk) 12:23, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

New 'Corporate Social Responsibility' section proposed

This is the current Corporate Social Responsibility

Unipart has strong links with the local community and education, supporting many community initiatives and organisations. Unipart has a traditionally strong affiliation with motorsport. In 2006, the company teamed up with Nigel Mansell and his sons, Greg and Leo, in a sponsorship deal in support of Nigel's sons' careers in Formula BMW.

As the Unipart Way philosophy is wedded to removing waste Unipart has long held to a reduce, re-use, recycle agenda, driving improvements in its environmental performance.

Currently Unipart also supports a pilot initiative to support 11 young people who were struggling at school. They now attend classes within Unipart daily and are supported through work experience. By being treated as trainees rather than pupils their attendance records and academic progress have been transformed.

Unipart also supports an initiative to give homeless people supported and paid employment. With nearly 10,000 employees, Unipart people play an active role in their communities as councillors, special constables and as volunteers for numerous charities and organisations.

Unipart supports Business in the Community's Per Cent Club principles aiming to distribute one per cent of its pre-tax gross profits in goods or in kind each year.

In 2008 Unipart Group achieved overall Gold status in the BitC CR Index and Platinum status for its environmental performance.

This is the proposed new Corporate Social Responsibility

Unipart has strong links with the local community and education, supporting many community initiatives and organisations. John Neill, CEO of Unipart, explained that this involvement was more than altruism: “We strongly encourage employees to get involved in community activities – it’s in our business interests because if we have devastated communities, who’s going to buy our products?”

Unipart Group has scored a four star rating in the Business in the Community’s 2014 Corporate Responsibility Index. The index provides an annual benchmark of responsible business and rates Unipart as one of this year’s highest rating companies for environment, community, workplace and business practices.

As the Unipart Way philosophy is wedded to removing waste Unipart has long held to reduce, re-use, recycle agenda, driving improvements in its environmental performance.

Unipart has supported a number of initiatives young people including a pilot initiative to support 11 young people who were struggling at school. They now attend classes within Unipart daily and are supported through work experience. By being treated as trainees rather than pupils their attendance records and academic progress have been transformed.

Unipart also supported an initiative to give homeless people supported and paid employment. With nearly 10,000 employees, Unipart people play an active role in their communities as councillors, special constables and as volunteers for numerous charities and organisations.

Unipart’s Talent Factory, a national programme designed to spark talent in young people by combining sport with challenging work experience, allowed local 14-17 year olds to spend an intensive and fast-paced week at Unipart’s site in Oxford

UTL employees again inspired young students from across Warwickshire to develop essential business skills and, at the same time, raise funds for local charities as part of the Unipart Challenge. Mentored by UTL employees; students set up and ran their own businesses that generated over £5,000 for local charities. Unipart's manufacturing site in Coventry supported the study of science, technology, engineering and maths topics with the very youngest people in their community at Holbrook Primary School. With both financial support and guidance from Unipart engineers, sixty pupils in Year 6 designed and manufactured a powered vehicle. To bring it to life, Aston Martin brought in a prototype vehicle to enhance the learning experience.

As part of its community programmes, Unipart has sent its engineers into local schools to teach problem-solving techniques and its consultants into job centres to improve employability skills. It has also worked with the long-term unemployed to give them a 'skills passport' to improve their chances of finding work.

Unipart supports Business in the Community's Per Cent Club principles aiming to distribute one per cent of its pre-tax gross profits in goods or in kind each year. In 2008 Unipart Group achieved overall Gold status in the BitC CR Index and Platinum status for its environmental performance.

Unipart's traditional promotion of its services was by motorsports sponsorship, from 1978 with the Triumph Dolomite Formula 3 team, and from 1980 in Formula One, first with Ensign and then with McLaren until 1983. Once Unipart were completely independent they returned to Formula One sponsorship, with Tyrrell and later with Jordan Grand Prix.

Unipart has a traditionally strong affiliation with motorsport. In 2006, the company teamed up with Nigel Mansell and his sons, Greg and Leo, in a sponsorship deal in a sponsorship deal in support of Nigel's sons' careers in Formula BMW.

Fxdn (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

A few comments

• Remove "Unipart Way" references, its not relevant
• Paragraph 3 serves no purpose
• Paragraph 4 requires citation
• Paragraph 9 requires citation, also the BitC CR Index is based on a companies declaration as opposed to an independent scoring system so is not relevant.
• Is Unipart still sponsoring motorsport?

SomethingAndNothing (talk) 12:32, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

General changes

I have made several changes today, mainly removing uncited quotes that I could find absolutely no reference to as well as some corporate advertisement.

The article is a mess and needs some work especially around the history and the operating divisions.

I have also updated the statement about unipart being employee owned as it is not 100% employee owned and online sources quote between 55% and 70% so absolutely no idea what is or isn't correct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.11.120.99 (talk) 19:39, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes it does need updating... did you look at any of the changes above that were proposed by Fxdn ? Ojobson (talk) 08:01, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

I did, the overall tone of them appears to be a bit "corporate" but they are on my list of things to look at in the future. SomethingAndNothing (talk) 13:26, 13 August 2014 (UTC) (Forgot to sign in for my last edit to this)

These are currently the oldest items in the Request Edit queue; should the request edits remain open? It looks like initial feedback was provided, but then the submitter just went dark and did not make modifications or partake in discussion? CorporateM (Talk) 20:10, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

I have marked the requests as declined, as it's been in the queue for over six months without any editor expressing an interest in making the edits. -- Diannaa (talk) 00:54, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Unipart Rail Dorman

Crewe, York, Doncaster are all mentioned as Rail sites however there is no mention about Unipart Dorman based in Southport, Merseyside. This business comes under the Rail side of the business 2A00:23C5:FCC8:CF01:394D:8DCE:F34A:4F51 (talk) 22:05, 31 January 2023 (UTC)