New Forest precision engineering company Benham Manufacturing has joined a select club of UK manufacturing companies by winning a prestigious SC21 (Supply Chain for the 21st century) bronze award for business and manufacturing excellence.
Benham, founded in 1978, makes complex parts for the aerospace and defence industries at its factory on the Rushington Business Park in Totton and employs 57 people.
Managing director Paul Benham said: “Working for this award has encouraged us to transform our business systems to meet 21st century standards of excellence. We are now a more structured and integrated company, ready to move forward and grow to face the challenges of the future. Our next objective is to work towards gaining the silver award.”
The skilled workforce welcomed the initiative. Supervisor James Ahrens, who has worked for Benham for eight years, said people could see the benefits in working towards a nationally recognised quality mark: “It made us all think about what we could do to improve our systems. Winning the award was a real morale booster and reinforced the fact that we work for a successful, forward thinking company.”
To achieve a SC21 award, companies have to demonstrate continuous improvement. Besides improving processes and systems, the bronze award reflects more than 90% reliability on delivery and 95% on product quality. More than 600 companies have signed up to take part, but only 24 have earned a SC21 award since the inception of the scheme in 2006, 20 at bronze level and four at silver.
Phil Curnock, SC21 Project Manager at A|D|S commented: “Winning a SC21 award is a real achievement and it reflects twelve months of continuous hard work by everyone at the company. We congratulate Benham Manufacturing on joining this elite group of organisations working within UK aerospace, defence and security supply chains.”
Benham Manufacturing
www.benhammanufacturing.com
