The power of a third eye

(This article originally appeared in Windows Active magazine October 2024.)

Attention grabbing headlines announcing vast investment in machinery are great for the ego. But are they really better for the business? Jade Engineering owners Sean Mackey and Adam Jones highlight how using an external consulting resource can save you tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds of unnecessary expenditure.

According to Wikipedia, the third eye is an invisible eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. Before you turn away thinking that we’re getting a bit woowoo, it is actually a proven fact that a third person can actually see a situation from a completely different perspective than you. While your neurological pathways follow a certain pattern based on rhythm and routine, someone else’s has followed other pathways. This can be incredibly useful when you know deep down that you need to make changes to your manufacturing processes, but have no clue where to start!

Access to this third eye could be incredibly powerful in the factory environment. Many operations managers work hard at creating a flow of processes that fulfil certain obligations around quality, speed and cost. However, when external factors unwittingly creep into those processes the balance is upset, often in ways that just can’t be identified. It’s a form of cognitive dissonance – you know that something is not quite right, but you just can’t put your finger on the reason why.

Over the years, Adam and Sean have helped hundreds of businesses save millions of pounds by responding to queries through a more consultative approach, rather than trying to fit a company into one of a number of ready made solutions.

“Working closely with all the systems houses – both aluminium and PVC-u, we have worked on projects from complete production line refits, to the simplest of re-tweaks,” said Sean Mackey. “This has given us an incredible insight – a third eye, if you like – into the different types of challenges that fabricators face in our industry every single day. “Jade Consulting exists to get to the bottom of a problem, understand what drives it, and provide a solution that is congruent to the problem, rather than us ‘making a sale’”.

The motive behind Jade Consulting is to find and fix a problem in a way that enhances the manufacturing process without unnecessary expense. One example was the request to find an alternative solution to what was always an overlooked part of the process in terms of mechanisation – reverse butt welder cleaning. With an increasing number of clients consulting on this, Adam and Sean turned their creative minds to finding a solution that would speed up the process, give greater consistency of results, yet not cost the earth.

“We consequently put our heads together and developed the incredibly simple, but extremely practical JBC2 – a reverse butt welder cleaner that is a stand alone machine with a small footprint, and only requires a one off investment of just £7000,” said Adam Jones.

Since its launch, Jade Engineering has received numerous request for this standalone piece of kit, despite never having actually officially launched it.

“There is a nervousness about committing to massive machinery investments in light of the government’s impending Autumn budget,” continued Adam Jones. “The challenge at the moment is to balance the strive for improvement with a potential over-investment in an unpredictable market. The JBC2 sits in a place of comfort, providing tangible benefits to manufacturing efficiencies for a small and manageable investment. Depending on your output, the return on investment weeks, rather than years”.

Jade Consulting is shaping up to be a key resource for fabricators throughout the UK and Ireland who are keen to establish and vibrant and dynamic manufacturing environment while riding out the unpredictability of the coming months as the new government settles into a ‘new normal’. While multi million pound machinery investments will always make great headlines, sometimes the need to proceed with caution overtakes the ego. Solutions such as the JBC2 reflect a growing thrift in an industry that needs to inject creativity into progress if economic survival is to be assured.