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Manufacturing orders, contracts, financial reports
News Release from: Kenard Engineering Company
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 09 August 2005
Machining contracts intake rises 30%
Contracts for producing high value components for the oil and gas, aerospace, medical, telecoms and motorsport sectors have risen by 30% in the first six months for Kenard Engineering.
Contracts for producing high value components for the oil and gas, aerospace, medical, telecoms and motorsport sectors have risen by 30% in the first six months of this year for Dartford-based Kenard Engineering following re-organisation of its production scheduling and installation of over GBP 1 million of 'one-hit' machining technology equipment Explains director Keith Ellis: "Customers are demanding ever shorter lead times and if you are able to respond and guarantee quality, there is still significant high added value work available in the UK
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Jan 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Director for specialist subcontract machinist
In just over a year of joining Kenard Engineering of Dartford, Kent as northern area sales manager, Neil Ransom has introduced the company to new customers in the oil and gas industry.
We have been able to generally reduce our delivery lead times from between 12 to 16 weeks typical of five years ago to under four weeks now and we are well on track to hit our 40 day target from enquiry to delivery." Most of the work at the Dartford site, which employs 55 people, is high in precision and value and is produced on 15 CNC lathes and machining centres.
Currently the most expensive component on the shopfloor is an aerospace bearing worth more than GBP 6,500 each.
These bearings are produced in batches of 10 involving almost 40 different processes.
Recent investment of over GBP 1million at Kenard has included a Mori Seiki SL603 mill/turn centre which enabled the company to almost double the size of its machining capacity from 500mm to 1000mm diameter and accommodate parts up to 2000mm long and a Mori Seiki MT2500 simultaneous five-axis mill/turn centre with 120 tool capacity.
But, maintains Ellis, the key to achieving these high production targets has been the installation of Seiki Systems totally integrated manufacturing execution systems (iMES) giving 'real-time' feed back with live dynamic predictions of machine workloads such as projected completion dates and performance reporting in a paperless environment.
The iMES system provides planning, a real time scheduler, display of all stages of relevant manufacturing data right through to final dispatch and management reporting.
Says Ellis: "At any time we can have upwards of 320 jobs on the schedule which can easily comprise 3,000 separate operations." But here, the investment in 'one-hit' machining technology has enabled Kenard to combine five or six operations into one or two cycles.
"That has made a real difference - we know it is paying off by the order book," he maintains.
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