At GSE, making our customers’ ink processes as efficient, and reliable as possible is why we’re in business. In the service-oriented supply chain converters compete in, jobs must be ‘right first time’ to meet short lead times and grow as a business.

If we are to get our customers the best return on their ink logistics investment, we must always be looking for improvements in the ways we work too: building and servicing ink dispensing and software systems demands precision and clear communication at every stage of the customer journey.

Faster feedback, perfect designs

We use Lean techniques keep making those improvements. Looking critically at our processes in a series of workshops, we’ve found a faster way to get visit reports to our customers – and we’re creating technical machine drawings with perfection at the first draft in the design stage. To lead these projects, we enlisted the expertise of HAN University students Idde Heutinck and Karel Wilms, who helped us find and cut out the bottlenecks. At the HAN Lean event, held on January 26, 2023 in Arnhem (The Netherlands), the two students presented the project results and their recommendations on how to assure GSE’s continuous improvement process in the future.

Continuous improvement for best return on investment

According to Maarten Hummelen, GSE’s marketing director, three elements are essential for meeting customer expectations: “Adopting Lean to focus on creating customer value, and employing the latest IT infrastructure automates processes, but this must be underpinned by continuous improvement. In this dynamic business, there is always something new to learn – from our own experience or from others. Never being satisfied with the way things are is how we innovate – driving down costs, assuring better quality and delivering on our service promises.”