In manufacturing, strategic thinking isn't the sole domain of big companies and high-flying executives. The Revd Canon Paul Dawson, Vicar of St Mary's, Whitegate, recently applied his problem-solving ability to a small manufacturing operation that was having difficulties obtaining raw materials.
The manufacturer in question was Paul's mother and a group of her friends, who had heard that nurses were looking for bags to put their scrubs in. And so they set about sewing some bags from their respective homes. But after a while, they began to struggle to source suitable material with which to make the bags. Their own personal linen stash was running dry and the usual high-street outlets were no longer open.
Approaching the problem from a fresh perspective, Paul observed that the bags the group were producing from scratch were very similar in size to normal standard-sized pillowcases. It occurred to him that the group could solve their supply problem and also speed up their productivity on one swoop. If they could just source pillowcases and just simply add a drawstring, it would sidestep the need to go through the process of sewing material together to form a bag.
Paul put the word out around Whitegate and Little Budworth and asked if anyone had any spare pillowcases people could donate. The response was tremendous and so so far has resulted in over 250 scrub bags being produced for NHS staff.
Unfortunately, Paul was unable to provide a photo of his Mother sewing the bags due to her isolation at home, but we do have a picture of his wife Fiona (shown), who also helps to produce the scrub bags.