Family values

Dave Tudor visited the company and found a family run business totally focused on maintaining core traditions of excellent products and exemplary levels of customer service.

Generally speaking, family run engineering businesses tend to follow a pattern. Often the father will start the business and, as he moves towards retirement and if the inclination is there, look to pass things onto eager, enthusiastic and somewhat more youthful members of the family – often sons, sometimes daughters, and occasionally both!

In SRD's case, Steve Bonham, along with two business partners began the company back in 1989. From somewhat humble beginnings that involved the company actually operating out of a cowshed in the early days, SRD now occupies altogether more functional premises in Bicester and employs 21 people. Although Mr Bonham is now semi-retired, and fulfils the role of chairman, he leaves the operational side of the business to sons Mark and Paul – both in their thirties.

Since its inception, SRD has had strong links with the F1 fraternity and that remains the case today with around 44% of the company's total business emanating from the sector. “With the exception of Ferrari and Toyota, I think we've manufactured components for just about every other F1 team,” affirms Mark Bonham. “Actual parts manufactured cover everything from interiors, suspension and hydraulics, through to gearboxes, fuel systems, transmission and engines.”

However, SRD's F1 roots – particularly with the high levels of precision required and the ability to work to tight deadlines – have stood the company in good stead to expand its customer base over the years. Gracing its order book in 2010 are companies from a variety of markets including aerospace, oil and gas, food, medical and electronics. “I think our F1 foundations have really helped us in other areas,” Mark observes. “It's a very demanding industry and working to tight leadtimes and tolerances is second nature to us. Testament to our success is the high levels of repeat business that we enjoy.”

Complementary skills

Although still keeping a watchful eye on things, father Steve takes more of a backseat role these days leaving joint managing directors Mark and Paul to handle the day to day running of the business. Both have sound backgrounds in engineering and their respective skill sets dovetail well and complement each other perfectly. Paul looks after quotations, tooling and the technical side of the business while Mark handles admin, IT systems, purchasing, marketing and quality system management.
On the quality front, SRD is accredited to ISO9001: 2008 and with a gap analysis complete and its first assessment visit imminent, is well on its way to achieving AS9100 approval. Work is also underway towards achievement of the SC21 bronze award.

“Quality is something we simply refuse to compromise on,” Mark adds. “Both Paul and I started out on the shopfloor here and have ‘done our time' on not only the machines but also in the inspection department. We have high expectations when it comes to quality – our reject rate is virtually zero – and I believe that's why our levels of repeat business are so high.”

On the subject of inspection requirements, Mark is used to operating under somewhat stringent conditions. “Our inspection department has been a focus of ongoing development and investment,” he reveals. “From literally a micrometer and a vernier in the early days, we now have a Mitutoyo CMM, a Mitutoyo LH600 height gauge and an array of microscopes and profile measuring equipment.

It's a sign of the times,” he adds. “More and more – because of the markets we operate in – we're being asked for first article inspection reports and we have to be able to provide what the customer wants. Although the majority of our inspection is carried out on a sample basis, we're often requested to carry out 100% inspection so we have to have flexibility both in terms of equipment and reporting methods.”

Pro UK

Around two years ago, SRD Engineering acquired the assets and customer-base of local engineering company Kwikturn Engineering and this added another string to the bow in terms of capability. “Traditionally, SRD has targeted and undertaken relatively complex, high level work,” Mark explains, “but Quickturn's expertise was in much higher volume production at lower levels of complexity. Whilst much of this type of work has disappeared to low cost manufacturing companies, we have a small number of customers who absolutely refuse to outsource their work overseas, so they continue to place orders with us.

“Work of this nature is ideal for our Citizen L20 sliding head lathe,” he continues. “It's an 8-axis machine that can handle up to 20mm diameter bar and we have a 4m bar feed fitted. It's not only very precise and accurate but also versatile, highly productive and reliable. We use it extensively for our F1 work. It's also reassuring to know that some customers have absolute faith in UK manufactured products, despite the tempting lure of overseas manufacturing. Our customers like the localised service and support we offer and they know if there's a problem they can pick up the phone and talk to us directly.”

The L20 forms part of a wide array of equipment at SRD. Milling requirements are handled by eight Bridgeport CNC vertical machining centres with a variety of axis and high speed spindle configurations. Turning is equally well represented through a range of Hardinge, Daewoo and Doosan Puma machines – some with live tooling. Finally, despite monumental advances in machining centre technology in recent years, no machine shop worth its salt would be without a Colchester Triumph manual lathe and in this regard, SRD is no exception.

Singing praises

Aside from the obvious need to have high quality machines in place, Mark is also more than aware of the importance of software systems to tie the various elements of the business together. “I can't speak highly enough of Tricorn Systems' production control software,” Mark declares. “Our business, quite literally runs on it and I unashamedly recommend it to any company looking to enhance its productivity and run more efficiently. Colin Reardon and his team provide excellent products and support and the great thing is that the system is modular – you can add modules as and when they're required – and it's all really simple to use.

“We've been a customer for eight years now and use a number of modules including Works Scheduler, Job Processing and MRP. Just recently, we purchased the Quality module which looks after our entire quality management system. Personally I couldn't live without it,” he admits.

Although primarily a company specialising in high precision milling and turning operations, SRD has built up a network of suppliers that can handle ancillary operations such as grinding, heat treatment and anodising. “At the moment it's simply more cost-effective for us to subcontract these operations,” Mark reveals. “For our customers however, the process is seamless and that's entirely due to the excellent suppliers we work with.”

On the verge

Despite a pretty horrendous year in 2009, 2010 is looking much better for SRD – very much better in fact. February saw the best sales figures ever in the company's history with figures for every other month at comparable levels. “Our turnover last year was £1.2 million,” Mark advises, “but this year we're on track to exceed £2 million. It's quite unbelievable. This time last year we fell on such hard times that I honestly thought the company would fold, but 2010 has been absolutely brilliant – a complete reversal of fortunes.”

But the good news doesn't end there. SRD is on the verge of a major investment program as a direct result of recent potential business received from a customer in the electronics sector. “We're really optimistic about this,” Mark enthuses. “A longstanding customer of ours has decided to pull a large amount of work back from China and place it with us. We're finalising the details now and are 95% there, but without counting our chickens, this will result in £30,000 of extra business a month – and that'll mean that we'll need to buy four new machining centres to cope with the additional workload and employ an additional three or four member of staff. “It's yet further proof that outsourcing isn't always all that it's cracked up to be,” he concludes. “Price rises in China, coupled with extended leadtimes means that UK companies really can be competitive with this kind of work. This order if it comes off – and we're confident it will – proves that confidence in UK manufacturing is returning.”

SRD Engineering
www.srdengineering.co.uk