SLEAFORD PLANT GETS £100K UPDATE
Simba’s Sleaford production plant is being extensively re-configured – at a capital cost of some £100,000 – to increase production. This year the plant produced some £11 million worth of equipment, and we expect that to rise significantly in future.
For that reason we are redesigning the main assembly area to house a dual production line served by dedicated sub-assembly bays and a simpler, more efficient parts supply system.
Leading the change is David O’Neill, our new Operations Manager, who joined Simba this autumn. David is trained as a quality engineer, and has held a range of senior operations management positions in the automotive industry, latterly managing a manufacturing plant for a first tier automotive components supplier.
His experience will be vital in helping us achieve the greater output we will need to achieve in 2008, as chairman Rod Daffern explains:
“The improvements and investment we are making will ensure we meet that order book in timely and efficient fashion, so that we provide the quality and speed of service that our dealers and customers both in the UK and in our increasing export markets deserve. David’s experience in organizing such production facilities in the demanding automotive industry is proving highly valuable”.
As well as speeding things up, David says they will make the plant more flexible:
“In the main assembly plant we will be organizing the floor so that we can run two production lines – one on either side of it - or convert it into a single line to handle the bigger machines like the seven metre SL.
As well as the £100,000 capital investment being made, we will introduce a major staff training programme so all employees are truly multi-skilled. The new assembly shop will combine automation and more logical positioning of parts and components around the shop floor to help improve production speed and quality while requiring less physical effort”.
