Racing certainties

Solutions reports.

What do you do when, virtually overnight, you lose 50% of your predicted turnover for 2009? Do you batten down the hatches and pray for a miracle or do you stay positive, get on the front foot and continue with investment plans?

That was the situation confronting precision subcontract specialist Laranca Engineering earlier this year when the shockwaves created by global decisions in the motorsport industry – such as the ban on testing in Formula One – coupled with the recession and credit crunch began to be felt all across the supply chain.

But in typical bullish fashion Laranca's managing director and ex- Formula Renault team owner Richard Shaw chose the second course of action and now, some six months after the installation of the new Mikron UCP 600 Vario 5-axis machine, Laranca's decision to plough on with its investment plans have been totally vindicated, the company reports.

Solihull-based precision Laranca Engineering manufactures high precision, complex parts for customers predominantly in the Formula One and motorsport sectors, and to a lesser degree, to customers operating in the automotive, aerospace and defence sectors also.

Classic case

Established in 1988 and today employing over 20 people, the company supplies finished parts direct to Formula One teams such as Renault F1 and McLaren F1, and to a number of the biggest names in the motorsport supply chain – Xtrac, Zytek Group, Ricardo, Ray Mallock (RML) and Prodrive. Components manufactured span everything from engine, braking and suspension parts through to steering mechanism products in a number of materials including titanium, aluminium, stainless, Inconel and composites.

The company also produces parts for classic and vintage racing car teams including sister company Laranca Race Engineering, which has ex-Arrows team founder and LeMans winner, Jackie Oliver as one of its drivers. Laranca Race Engineering runs four BMW cars that it enters in historic events throughout the UK & Europe. Specialising in BMWs, the race team also builds and prepares race cars for sale or rent, as well as designing and manufacturing a range of its own Laranca labelled proprietary automotive products.

Components are typically machined from solid or castings and are manufactured in small batches or one-off prototypes. Parts are manufactured mainly from drawings, but in the case of classic car parts where engineering drawings no longer exist, the company has a reverse engineering capability. The Holy Grail

“The motorsport sector is tough, challenging and uncompromising – and the demands placed on subcontract manufacturing companies operating in the sector are, to put it mildly, exacting,” explains Mr Shaw.

“Quality, cost competitiveness and delivery are the Holy Grail for motorsport component manufacturers and if you can achieve all three simultaneously you're doing well and can live to fight another day. If you can't – you won't survive in the sector. It's as simple as that.”

From a quality perspective Laranca manufactures high precision parts with tight tolerances – often 3 – 4µm accuracy on certain machined features such as bores, thread forms and thin walls. Similar demanding surface finish requirements are also specified on many parts with Ra 0.2µm or better not being uncommon.

According to Mr Shaw, leadtimes for motorsport components are always incredibly tight and are measured in days rather than weeks. To cope with these pressures Laranca's manufacturing operation runs 24/7 – and is geared around just-in-time principles and practices.

“Cost down pressures affect all manufacturing sectors – and motorsport is no exception,” says Mr Shaw. “To remain competitive and improve efficiency we have introduced a number of manufacturing strategies aimed at controlling – and reducing – costs which include: an adoption of lights out operations and automated manufacturing; the creation of dedicated manufacturing cells; investment in TIG and MIG welding and fabrication capabilities; use of CAD/CAM software and: investment in hard turning and hard milling technology.”

Being proactive pays off

It is against this backdrop of being able to manufacture parts faster, better and more cost-effectively that Laranca made its investment in the Mikron UCP 600 Vario 5-axis machine – despite the fact that a significant percentage of its anticipated motorsport business in 2009 was put on ice by the Formula One testing embargo and the wider economic downturn.

Comments Mr Shaw: “We took the decision to continue with our machine tool investment plans early in 2009 even though we'd received news that some of the contracts we'd banked on had been cancelled.

“We recognised that we needed to replace this lost work quickly and the best way of achieving this would be by improving our manufacturing efficiency and machining capabilities. We were no stranger to multi-axis, multi-tasking machine tools and we knew that the significant performance benefits that can be achieved from one hit manufacturing could be used to spearhead our quest for new work.” The Mikron UCP 600 Vario, supplied by AgieCharmilles – is a compact, productive, highly flexible 5-axis machining centre capable of high accuracy volumetric removal and superior surface finishes.

Since its installation earlier this year the machine has helped Laranca machine parts in a single set-up thereby helping to improve delivery times and reduce time and resources spent on workholding and fixturing. Part accuracy has been improved because work handling and parts transfer between machines has been minimised. Additional benefits include increased productivity, better machine tool utilisation and the elimination of production bottlenecks.

“Now some six months after the UCP 600 Vario's installation, we have managed to replace a significant proportion of the lost work from the beginning of the year,” Mr Shaw enthuses. “The UCP 600 investment has paid off and without it we would have found it difficult to win new business. We are more productive and more efficient than was previously the case and, as a consequence, are more competitive.

“Some companies may have taken the decision to cut their investment plans in the light of cancelled orders, but we took the opposite view and the decision has proved to be the right one,” he concludes.

GF AgieCharmilles
www.gfac.com/uk