Erwin Hymer Group UK is driving change in leisure vehicle manufacturing
Erwin Hymer Group UK (EHG UK) is a leading leisure vehicle manufacturer and home of the brands Xplore, Elddis and Buccaneer. EHG UK is part of Erwin Hymer Group and owned by THOR Industries, which together are the world’s largest leisure vehicle manufacturers.
EHG UK’s award-winning caravans, motorhomes, and campervans are designed and built in Consett, County Durham and, with a workforce of around 400, is the largest employer in the area. The company strives to be the preferred choice for all leisure vehicle retailers, retail customers, suppliers, and colleagues and offers a vast choice of vehicles, available from its growing network of specialist retailers.
Since its last appearance in Manufacturing Today in February 2017, the company has evolved, rebranded, and reinvigorated, none more so than in the past 18 months. EHG UK has benefitted from over £15 million investment in factory, facilities and technology; implemented improved processes across all disciplines; and realigned its brand strategy, relaunching with a revitalized product portfolio.
There have been key appointments to the senior leadership team, led by Managing Director, Chris Short, who joined the company in May 2022. The EHG UK team has galvanized skills, experience, and vision to address supply chain, production, and performance issues, paving the way for growth and greater profitability. We shine a spotlight on some of the strategies and people behind the changes at EHG UK to see how each area of the business has adapted and improved with targeted investment and improved process management.
Improving quality
EHG UK is dedicated to listening to the voice of its customers. Research and development are based on customers’ wants and needs. Focus groups and customer forums have been brought to the fore, as the company strives to be the number one choice in a competitive market. The relaunch of EHG UK’s brands, Xplore, Elddis and Buccaneer has created a foundation for growth and development, with a targeted marketing strategy for each brand’s defined demographic.
The commercial team has been invigorated with the appointment of Product Management and Marketing Director, Adam Carmichael, and his plans to expand the team and its capabilities. This year sees the first motorized product from Xplore: the brand for adventurers, with the unveiling of the all-new Xplore CV X5 and CV X8 campervans. The campervan market continues to grow, with production numbers now equal to coach built motorhomes. The caravan market remains slower, but EHG UK’s Buccaneer brand bucks the trend, with the UK’s most luxurious touring caravan range and pioneering design and technology. Elddis remains the company’s core brand in terms of volume, for caravans, motorhomes, and campervans. Elddis celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2024 and enjoys a loyal customer base and strong retailer network.
Since joining EHG UK two years ago, Managing Director Chris Short has been clear that the company’s future success is reliant on improved quality throughout the business: from product conception to aftermarket, every part of the business is prepared for change and improvement.
In 2022, Craig Hodgkiss was appointed Quality, Engineering and Lean Six Sigma Director. He tells Manufacturing Today about the team that has been built and strengthened to implement, manage and support the far-reaching policies and processes that the company champions: “Essentially, the role of Quality, Engineering and Lean Six Sigma Director is a new one at EHG UK and, as such, my first priority was to develop a new structure for the new department, creating a variety of crucial roles to increase the capability of the team and therefore support the business in its entirety, with the shared vision: Quality First.
“We recruited several new roles into the team to increase capability and give us the ability to further undertake full root-cause problem solving on the issues having an adverse impact on the quality of the vehicles. In addition, several new quality inspector appointments were made as part of our quality control strategy, whilst working in parallel on quality assurance. These roles are instrumental in providing vital quality inspection checks at specific stages throughout the manufacturing process, providing real time feedback into the process and helping to fix any issues at the point of creation, rather than at PDI stage.
“In support of driving Lean 6 Sigma levels of quality, enhanced vehicle inspection checklists were created and implemented across the entire vehicle range, ensuring the highest levels of compliance, cosmetics and functionality are achieved.”
In addition to the growth of the quality team, Craig and the leadership team have also recruited a full new team of manufacturing engineers, focusing on process improvement, automation, and elimination of waste. To spearhead Lean 6 Sigma, EHG UK has recruited a new team of business improvement managers, plus a Lean 6 Sigma lead. This team is focused on identifying process improvements and ensuring that ideas are implemented through the DMAIC (Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control) Lean 6 Sigma improvement methodology.
Strategic vision
In the main, improvement projects are focused on improving quality, productivity, and cost within the business, with the team supporting suppliers in process manufacturing areas and customer improvements. Over the past two years, EHG UK has seen significant investment within critical process improvements ensuring the drive towards Lean 6 Sigma quality levels are achieved, all of which have been implemented through promoting and fostering a collaborative cross-functional team approach including quality, manufacturing engineering, Lean 6 Sigma, design and operations.
Of course, none of these achievements and improvements would be at all possible without the engagement of the 400-strong workforce at EHG UK. Nathan Hunt, who himself was appointed HR Director just 18 months ago, is proud of the size and scale of these accomplishments. He says: “Team effort is crucial to our ongoing success and it’s clear that our employees are engaging with the strategic vision of the business. As a company, we strive to recognize and reward every colleague who goes above and beyond, shows exceptional enterprise or simply excels at what they do. The energy and commitment displayed by our employees daily is inspiring.
“We are investing heavily in employee training across all levels of the business. We are on a journey to becoming the employer of choice, focusing on the issues that matter to our employees and striving to make EHG UK an even greater place to work. Our 400-plus-strong workforce is diverse. Some colleagues have worked here for as long as 50 years, others are just at the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fulfilling career with us, but all take huge pride in our product, our leisure vehicles, and pride in their personal performance, as well as demonstrating incredible team spirit. Every colleague counts, everyone’s performance matters, and every improvement benefits the business, and in turn, our customers. We are in the business of building dreams, after all!” 
The team cites the following areas of the business as key examples of the company’s cross-functional, collaborative approach: the Bond Shop is the heartbeat of the site’s manufacturing capability, the area where all the external sides, roof and floor panels are manufactured. Critical to the process is a constant and controllable temperature and a high-quality water supply. The recent investments in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), building management systems (BMS) and water reverse osmosis systems have provided this enhanced control, along with the improved water quality required.
This has allowed fine control of the process inputs, contributing to significant improvements seen within the quality of the manufactured panels. There have been notable improvements to the caravan and motorized production lines, too, with regards to line layouts and product flow, embracing the Lean 6 Sigma principles. These changes have facilitated improvements in both the end-of-line quality levels and the daily output. Improvements have been made in the maturity of the site Lean journey roll out, with the sitewide 5S program and the introduction of shop floor management at the differing levels.
Material flow
Dan Padget is now Operations Director at EHG UK’s Consett site, having previously served in the role of Supply Chain Director. Dan explains some of the changes and improvements made onsite, tackling material flow, warehousing and logistics: “There have been some fundamental changes implemented over the past three-to-four years in terms of how we supply both internal and external parts to our manufacturing operation. One of the key changes to note is improved material flow, due to the implementation of multiple line-side warehouses, versus the traditional single warehouse setup. We have moved thousands of parts closer to the manufacturing operation, which has significantly reduced transportation distances, shortened response times and increased part picking efficiency.
“Another major change was the evolution of our delivery method to our production lines and the introduction of our ‘Warehouse on Wheels’ system. Essentially, the ‘Warehouse on Wheels’ is a bespoke kit of parts for each vehicle and is a step forward towards single-piece flow of materials, rather than a batch delivery process. We have seen significant benefits in both material supply and manufacturing since the implementation, with efficiency gains throughout the picking and delivery process, as well as a much-reduced storage footprint required in the manufacturing areas.”
All in all, in the first two years of Chris Short’s appointment as Managing Director, EHG UK has benefitted from sizeable investment and all-encompassing changes to process, headed up by a passionate management team. Chris sums up the ongoing improvements and recent successes: “Here at EHG UK we are exceptionally lucky to have the excellent support and guidance of both EHG and THOR Industries, our parent company and largest RV manufacturer globally. Not only does EHG UK have a 60-year heritage, but our sister brands in Germany are rightly proud of their history and longevity, too. Dethleffs, a much-loved RV brand, has built pioneering leisure vehicles for over 90 years!
“In addition to this, we are proud to have such a dedicated and skilled workforce that has supported the business through some very difficult periods. We celebrated our great team recently with our staff 60th anniversary celebration dinner and award ceremony. Although great improvements have been made over recent years, we are not naive as a leadership team, we know that we still have many external and internal factors to monitor whilst focusing hard on driving improvements across our business KPIs.
“Although the caravan industry is going through a challenging period, motorized RVs are seeing positive signs of recovery, and we are very pleased with the ongoing improvements in our market share across both the caravan and motorized product segments. With our innovative product development roadmap, and continued focus on quality and delivery, we are sure that we can satisfy the needs of our current customers, partners, and future customers. We are looking forward to a positive 2025 season and beyond,” Chris concludes.