More capacity and orders thanks to Bruderer investment

A UK manufacturer of scaffold board end bands has posted a 12% increase in volumes, thanks to an investment in ancillary equipment and a switch to a four-day working week.

Chilwell Products, which is now under third generation family ownership, has invested nearly £100,000 into equipping 11 of its power presses with the latest servo feed technology from Bruderer UK.

Located at its factory on Lows Lane in Stanton by Dale, the company was originally looking to continue using air feeds, but was convinced by experts from the high speed press specialist to trial its MF-2P servo feeders and the results have been surprising.

Volumes have gone from 15.6m to 17.5m over the last 12 months, and the firm has managed to achieve this with just a four day working week – the company made Friday a permanent day off as a thank you to staff whilst still maintaining full pay.

“We always thought that using servo feeds would mean the material would slip when oily, but these initial concerns were quickly blown away once we put the equipment through a supported trial,” explained Laura Clarke, managing director of Chilwell Products and the granddaughter of founder Derrick Telford. “Through experience we found set up times were far quicker and they run the material significantly more efficiently than our incumbent air feeds; less jams, less downtime, less material rejected and wasted. All making for a much more efficient production.”

She continued: “With this in mind, we began to roll-out the feeders across every press in our factory and are now up to eleven, with a twelfth on order.

“Working 39 hours per week and overtime during multiple points throughout the year is now a thing of the past. We always worried that we’d have to move to a larger premises and buy additional presses, but we’ve even eliminated one of the lines as it proved to be surplus. Thanks to Bruderer UK, the outlook and future for the company really has been totally transformed.”

Ms Clarke, who took over the reins from her mother and now company secretary and director Lorraine Clarke in 2019, is a firm believer in work-rest balance and ensuring Chilwell Products looks after the heart of its operation – its people.

Boosted by the new technology and changes on the shopfloor, the 30-year-old business leader has written into employee contracts that they’ll never have to work on Fridays or weekends again.

“We’ve made the changes and have still achieved a 45% increase in capacity, helping us increase turnover and giving us the chance to go after new opportunities,” continued Ms Clark. “Everyone at Bruderer has been brilliant. From the start, they understood our issues and our concerns and quickly came up with a solution that eased our fears and, instead, opened our eyes to up the opportunity.

“The 11 servo feeds are all high quality and installed in a timeframe that suited our business, with the added bonus of having full support of an account manager on hand if we had any small issues in the early days.”

Adrian Haller, managing director of Bruderer UK, added: “We’re very used to our technology and equipment having a really positive impact on the shopfloor, but it is even better to hear we have helped introduce a new culture that has transformed Chilwell Products.”

Bruderer UK
www.bruderer.co.uk

Chilwell Products
www.chilwellproducts.com