Small parts subcontractor business up by 20%

Closing 2004 with a 20 per cent increase in business, Unicut Precision's plans include further machine and software purchases and an increase in factory floor space.

Closing 2004 with a 20 per cent increase in business, Unicut Precision's plans for the following 12 months include further machine and manufacturing software purchases, an increase in factory floor space and a move into an acquisition strategy.

Says Jason Nicholson, joint managing director of the Welwyn Garden City-based precision small parts subcontractor: "We have reached the point in our business that acquiring an established subcontracting operation will give us the accelerated growth we need.

However, we will continue our policy of investment in our existing operation because that has proven to be the recipe to maintain our competitive position in the market." In 2004 almost BGP 500,000 was spent on new machines and software to improve management of the business which now has 12 CNC machines all under four years old.

New purchases through the year included a Miyano BNJ-42S compact turning centre, two Citizen C16 CNC sliding head autos, a Durr Minio 85C component cleaning system, automatic deburring and DataTrack manufacturing software.

"These investments", confirms joint managing director Charles Kenny, "Have enabled us to restructure into three production cells which has improved our productivity considerably.

One cell now concentrates on high volume component requirements, the second is for high value complex parts requiring good setting skills and the third for normal average batch size components.

We have employed three additional machine setters in the last quarter and invested in extensive training for everyone over the last 12 months." Unicut works around the clock and at any time, up to 140 different jobs can be in the production system.

Over the last two years the business has grown by 38 per cent.

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