Introduction

Portakabin is an international company. It produces some of the most advanced building systems available. The company is part of the £700 million turnover Shepherd Group. The Shepherd Group is one of the largest family-owned companies in the European building industry and employs 3,500 people. It focuses on three main areas:

• manufacturing
• construction
• property.

The name Portakabin is a registered trade mark. This instantly recognisable sign means that no other company can use the Portakabin name on its products. Donald Shepherd, the founder of Portakabin, came up with the idea of stand-alone re-locatable buildings in the 1960s. Since that day, only buildings produced by Portakabin can be called Portakabin buildings. Portakabin uses modular buildings. This means they are made up of one or more modules that are constructed in a factory environment. These are then linked together to form multi-purpose buildings.

Typical examples of Portakabin buildings include:

Portakabin buildings can be erected almost anywhere in the world. Portakabin is able to deliver the same high quality buildings across the globe because it closely monitors processes and standards during production at the Portakabin site. Portakabin is able to deliver value to customers by manufacturing products that exactly meet customer requirements.

Lean production is an approach to production that seeks to minimise waste and inefficiency. In short, it means doing more with less. A lean company will make the very most of its resources. Lean production is based on the principle that any use of resources that does not create value for the consumer is 'waste'.

This case study focuses on how Portakabin uses lean production methods to ensure it produces a quality product that gives value to the customer.

Find out more about Portakabin