“My brother and I are passionate about

the business, but sometimes you can get

too close. Having an organisation like

MAS to guide us has been a terrific help.

We decided to follow Mike’s advice and

invested a six figure sum to purchase the

machine and Mike helped us to source

an appropriate manufacturer”.

Amjad Hussein

Company Secretary

Marble 4 Life 15 employees, £600k turnover, based in Bradford

Key Achievements

As a result of two 10 day improvement projects, the company has achieved the following significant improvements:

• Manufacturing throughput and throughput/m2 has increased by 15%.

• A 5% reduction in scrap and defects has been achieved.

• Labour costs have reduced by 5%.

• A number of new clients have been won as a result of building additional features to their product .

• Turnover has increased by £100k per annum.

• Gross Value Addded (GVA) has increased by £30k.

• A new factory layout has been established to optimise floor space.

Company Profile

Founded four years ago, Marble 4 Life is a

family business, headed up by Amjad and

Zahir Hussain, two brothers who

recognised a niche for quality granite

worktops whilst working with their father in

his fireplace business, and branched out on

their own.

Marble 4 Life started out life in a small

factory in Bradford supplying and

installing its worktops nationwide to a

range of customers including kitchen

showrooms, bars and end users. Rapid

expansion followed and it soon became

apparent that the business needed more

floor space to allow it to grow.

Background

The company moved to its current site

last year, and has continued to grow

rapidly, but identified that some of its

customers’ requirements were regularly

not being satisfied, which was costing

potential sales. A CNC machine would

be able to provide the features

increasingly being required by the

marketplace, but the brothers wanted

some independent guidance tin checking

the viability of their ideas before investing

a 6 figure sum.

What the team had to say….

“Although it is early days, we are

already feeling the benefits of having

more space and the new machine

which enables us to offer our

customers an in-house specialist

service.”

Zahir Hussein Managing Director

Making it Happen Through a referral made by Business Link

Yorkshire, MAS specialist Mike Brook from

Brook Corporate Developments visited the

firm’s new 14,000 sq ft factory and carried

out a manufacturing review which

highlighted the future requirements of the

business and identified potential areas of

improvement to its manufacturing

operation.

This confirmed that the brothers would

gain additional capability, business and

turnover by purchasing an automated

machine to mill recessed drainers into the

worktops to drain liquids (latest trends are

towards this rather than utilising an inset

sink). This would also boost the

throughput capability of the business,

reduce the cost of quality, and increase

productivity, reducing percentage labour

costs.

Mike then undertook a manufacturing

improvement project with the company to

assist with machine selection, confirming

the cost effectiveness of the purchase.

He then helped the brothers to establish a

suitable factory layout to optimise usage of

the floor space with manufacturing flow

processes which involved minimum

handling and non value added activity in

the new set-up.

The installation of the machine and the

training of the operators were managed

with a minimum of disruption, and Mike

then worked with the business to develop

and improve individual standard operations

to operate and maintain the machine. He

also developed skills matrixes for the

operatives, ensuring that the business got

the maximum benefit from using the

investment in the most cost effective

manner.

Marble 4 Life is now successfully operating

from the new factory and has also invested

in the state-of-the-art machinery, which

allows them to provide additional features

in their products to capitalise on latest

trends in contemporary kitchen and bar

design, thereby gaining additional sales.

The new machine has also reduced

levels of scrap and reworked items,

and enabled the additional business

gained to be handled by the existing

team – increasing productivity,

reducing percentage labour costs, and

increasing manufacturing throughput.