“To understand the real and perceived needs of our customers better than everyone else and to serve them better than anyone else”
When Unipart became an independent company over 20 years ago, it was clear that we needed to find a different way of working and a new approach to unlocking the ideas in all our employees.
This new way of working has been informed by the best practice from around the world. While it includes the principles of lean thinking, it is also a move from ‘command and control’ to the beginning of ‘employee engagement’. We call it ‘The Unipart Way’.
Today, it is our standard way of working, in all our companies. It is the product of our 20 year journey and has been continuously developed and refined based on our own experience. It has enabled us to transform our performance by generating high levels of productivity and employee engagement across our Group.
The Unipart Way is a philosophy of working that is underpinned by a set of tools and techniques that form the basis of our knowledge management system. We have drawn previously on our relationships with Honda and Toyota to create a world-class body of knowledge for operational excellence. Now we have combined that knowledge with our culture and strong heritage in marketing and branding to turn the Unipart Way into a formidable business system.
The Unipart Way provides a foundation for innovation and organisational improvement on a global basis. When implemented across multiple sites or in multiple countries, it can provide a standard approach and measures that enable people to share best practise more easily and effectively.
While the original development of The Unipart Way took place in our manufacturing sites, we have continually demonstrated how it can be adapted to many other kinds of organisation. Initially, sceptics doubted the relevance of The Unipart Way to improving processes in warehouses and offices. But since then, our employees have enthusiastically adapted the learning from manufacturing into almost every site and function in our organisation – including our company restaurant.