A TEAM of workers nicknamed 'The Skinflints' have won a top award for cost-cutting.
Employees from Philips Components, Blackburn, slashed a third of the site's business unit maintenance budget.
In mid-1996, spending on maintenance at the site was running at £2.25 million but the team managed to cut it to £1.5 million in six months.
One idea was a method to recycle industrial diamonds used in laser welding, which were covered in glue and otherwise couldn't be reused, saving £120,000 so far. The team - accountant John Leaver, technician Mark Walsh, stores planner Dave Crankshaw engineering supervisor Jack Westall and technican Mike Livesey - beat competition from nine other Philips sites across Europe in a cost cutting competition.
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