Dock delivers: Plymouth is a hub for industry in the West Country
Arriving at Yeovil Junction station on a bitterly cold morning in the week before Christmas, there is little sign of a hub of industry in the vicinity. The taxi wends its way amid tree-lined, rolling hills and the town emerges, prettily, in the distance, as if rising up from the frost. Metal bashing doesn’t seem to be on the horizon in south Somerset.
In fact, there are manufacturers in the area. These include multinationals such as helicopter maker AgustaWestland and, further down the road on the same industrial estate, Honeywell Aerospace. Also nestled on the estate are many much smaller firms, including Talon Engineering, which works in aerospace but made its name producing Motocross and Speedway wheels, hubs and sprockets.
The company’s recently appointed operations director, Graham Alford, built his reputation in aerospace engineering but fancied a new challenge with Talon. The business is facing considerable challenges. Alford has just overseen the complete reorganisation of the shopfloor as a lean flowline, including a major investment in machine tools which is allowing the factory to operate an unmanned shift during the night, he explains.
Although the focus has traditionally been motorsport at Talon, the company intends to grow by moving into new markets. Turnover could hit £4 million this year, with most of the growth not in motorbike wheels but in the company’s subcontract shop, where it is producing aerospace components to demanding quality standards, and bits for other sectors too. Alford says the aim, with Hinkley Point C power station to be built on Somerset’s northern coastline, is to get into nuclear.
But that is not straightforward. Although aerospace entails exacting quality, the nuclear market has even more stringent demands. Alford explains that Talon has the engineering know-how and robust safety regime necessary to work in the sector but must convince EDF and Areva, the French companies building the UK’s first new reactor since Sizewell B began generating in 1995, that that is the case.
“If you put all your eggs in one basket, it is difficult to survive,” he says. He believes that work in the nuclear sector, including new build and decommissioning, represents £240,000 of new business – not far short of what Talon already makes from aerospace. The subcontract shop could be a £1 million business in itself if the firm breaks into the nuclear market, he says.
Talon is participating in the Manufacturing Advisory Service’s Fit for Nuclear programme, with help from John Ruddleston, a former aerospace production engineer with Messier, Meggitt and Moog. Ruddleston is now focused on helping to gain access to the nuclear market for small firms in Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon and Gloucestershire – where the Oldbury site should soon see the development of nuclear power stations by Hitachi-owned Horizon.
Ruddleston explains that the advisory service’s Fit for Nuclear programme, run in conjunction with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, involves companies completing questionnaires and online assessments, after which they are scored in terms of their readiness to participate in the industry. He says: “We are not talking War and Peace here – it’s what you are going to do, who’s doing it, and when it is going to be finished.”
He can advise firms on areas where they need to improve and provide funding to help them do so through R&D and business improvement projects. “I’m not there to catch them out,” Ruddleston explains, “just to highlight that they might not be where they think they are.”
So where should they be? According to the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), the minimum quality requirement for nuclear is ISO 9000, but companies also need to prove they are working towards securing the ISO 14001 environmental and ISO 18001 health and safety standards. Firms need to demonstrate that they have the right health and safety culture, can provide reliable documentation for the parts they produce over long periods, and are in it for the long haul.
“The nuclear industry is not interested in firms that might not be there in five years’ time,” Ruddleson points out. “It takes 10 years, sometimes longer, to build a power station. It will run for 60 years, and take 100 years to decommission.”
Companies must demonstrate that they have zero accidents in the production of parts or delivery of services, says MAS. Talon’s Alford says: “We know we have a very safe environment in which to work. The paper trail just needs to be tidied up.”
Ruddleston cautions that engineers participating in Fit for Nuclear can take nothing for granted. “There are no guarantees that people are going to get work,” he says. “We don’t give contracts out. But they need to do this to get ready.”
Alford believes that doing the work in itself could be beneficial, even if nothing from the nuclear industry subsequently comes Talon’s way. Ruddleston agrees: “If the worst happens and the company doesn’t get any work, it has still taken itself to a standard that is as good as it gets.” He says that Hinkley Point C has “highlighted the fact that the opportunity is there in the South West, but companies are also thinking about the decommissioning market. The bigger picture is emerging.”
Fresh life: Supacat is diversifying into the marine sector to grow turnover
In nearby Honiton, armoured vehicle design engineering firm Supacat has its HQ, including a large production space. Like Talon, the company is moving into new markets and has plans to grow its turnover from £20 million to £75 million by 2020. In December, it announced the acquisition of Blackhill Engineering Services, providing Supacat with the ability to manufacture large structures.
Supacat is part of the South West Marine Energy Park, intended to strengthen the region’s supply chain in the nuclear and renewable energy markets. Steve Austen, the new engineering director at the company, is a fellow of the IMechE and worked for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Ministry of Defence for many years. Supacat is working on marine products, including a launch and recovery system for the Shannon class lifeboat. The company has also designed its first marine vessel, for transporting maintenance crews and equipment to offshore windfarms.
Supacat’s bread and butter, however, remains armoured vehicles, including the Jackal, which was used extensively in Afghanistan. The primary role of the vehicle in the British Army is deep reconnaissance, rapid assault and fire support – roles where mobility, endurance and manoeuvrability are important – and it has also been used for convoy protection. Small production runs are manufactured at the Honiton factory but larger batches are made by Plymouth company DML, which is owned by Babcock International Group. The number of Jackals in service is about 500.
Supacat employs many engineers and is now working on a programme to deliver a new armoured vehicle to the Australian military, in collaboration with its Australian subsidiary. “For customer support, having a business in that time zone is important,” explains Austen.
The challenge is to integrate chassis for the Australian vehicle manufactured in the UK with the rest of the armoured car, in Australia. The company hopes that doing so successfully will lead to further military work in the Asia-Pacific region. It is already working with Tata on a potential design for the Indian military.
Supacat is also looking at the next round of MoD-backed armoured vehicle projects for Britain, and working on reconditioning Jackals that saw service in Afghanistan. Austen says: “There will be some work to repurpose vehicles. In many ways we are as busy now as when the vehicles were in operation.”
The Jackal and vehicles such as the Coyote were heavily used in Afghanistan by special forces initially and then picked up by the mainstream army and used for transport purposes. Some need repairs for damage from improvised explosive devices. “The design authority must ensure the repair is to the right standard if there is very severe damage,” says Austen.
Although many gripes about the equipment used by the army in Afghanistan centred on the protection offered by vehicles, he says the Jackal proved its worth. “They have been reliable, repaired in theatre if necessary, and then brought back,” he says. “Very few Jackals were lost to attrition or abandoned.”
Supacat is now eyeing nuclear industry work and also the development of vehicles offering protection against radiological threats or toxic or chemical spills. It has participated in several Innovate UK programmes. “We are interested in the challenges involved in moving people and kit around hazardous environments,” says Austen.
Austen feels that the environment for manufacturing is healthy in the region. “There is a lot of work at the moment,” he says. “It has been challenging over the last few years, however. The company took the decision to keep staff on and manage through the challenging times. We have kept the skillset, which has made the company well-placed to meet these aggressive targets for growth going forward. It was important to make sure we maintained the same design team.
“When one person leaves, they take a lot of knowledge with them.”
Is Supacat an easy sell when looking to attract youngsters into the industry? “The products are interesting and we have an inspiring team,” says Austen. Mentoring arrangements are in place for young engineers. Austen says that “geography can be a challenge. We are not in the commuter belt from Bristol and Plymouth. Hiring graduates is a good way to pick people up who don’t have family ties. Most people are amazed when they come and have a look around at how much product comes from such a small place.”
War machines: The Jackal was used extensively in Afghanistan and is now being repurposed in the UK
Also shipping a lot of product is Plessey Semiconductors, on the outskirts of Plymouth, a company that has been through numerous changes of ownership over the last two decades. Most recently, the plant, then known as X-Fab, was bought out by its management in 2009, and is now owned by a small group of private investors who have pumped millions into the business in an effort to secure its future.
Plessey, which makes semiconductors used in sensing, measurement and control applications, has products in a wide range of markets including communications, manufacturing, medical, defence and aerospace. Its products include CMOS image sensors, low- and mid-power LEDs, Hall effect devices and electric potential sensors. Plessey’s high-brightness LEDs, used in solid-state lighting, can help to reduce energy consumption. LEDs are made using gallium nitride, a semiconductor material that has superior light-emitting properties.
At the large Plymouth facility, whose site is fully owned by the company, and which is ready for expansion, 3,390m2 of clean-room semiconductor manufacturing space is available. Plessey currently has a spare clean room. The other two production lines have different levels of cleanliness and produce different semiconductor geometries and products.
LED production requires less clean conditions than CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors, for example. The air in the rooms must be frequently recycled and that means using a lot of power: the electricity bill for a month’s production at Plessey is upwards of £200,000.
Chips are used in gene sequencing and for detecting breast cancer, while LEDs can be combined in wearable items or fabric and lighting arrays. Markets Plessey serves include medical equipment such as electrocardiograph machinery, automotive sensors designed to improve driver alertness, as well as lighting.
The market for LED lighting could be worth £200 billion, says Myles Blake, information systems director and Plessey stalwart, and also one of the company’s new shareholders. The electricity saved by the widespread adoption of LED lighting could add up to 5 trillion kWh – or the output of 559 full-size power stations.
Operations director Mike Snaith, who is responsible for the firm’s manufacturing, says: “We knew nothing about LEDs when we first set off on this journey in 2010. We had no experience, so we brought Cambridge University on board, and we brought in some fresh talent to get us to where we are today. We can see a clear roadmap going forward. We are making big improvements month by month.” The capital investment required to do that has been more than £40 million. “It will have to continue as we grow,” says Snaith.
Like manufacturers everywhere, Plessey is suffering from skills shortages and a workforce that is skewed towards older engineers. It is promoting Stem activities and working with the CBI locally to try to improve the situation. “The consequence of skills shortages is that we are having to employ people from all over the globe, and attract them to Plymouth to take up these positions,” says Blake. It is a challenge to find these future Plessey employees based overseas, sponsor them, and bring them into the country, he says.
The South West is not thought of as a manufacturing centre. Blake admits that there are limitations in terms of transport. But Plessey is an important local employer. Snaith says: “Although we’ve not a huge number of employees, we turn over a lot of materials. We do try to source locally where we can, and it has a knock-on effect.” He adds that the site is known as innovative and is a key player within the Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group, which also includes Babcock and UTC Aerospace Systems.
What all these firms working in the same region seem to have in common is that they are responding to improved economic conditions by ensuring they are not over-reliant on a single sector in the future. They also seem determined to embrace the latest processes.
Talon is running its unmanned night shift with its new equipment for half the cost of a manned operation. “That’s because the guy isn’t standing there,” explains the firm’s Graham Alford. “Electricity is cheaper. There is no heating or lighting.” The next step may be to introduce robots to feed aluminium billet into the machines. But he says: “We haven’t talked about losing staff as a result. We are talking about increasing our capacity and capability. We are more profitable, more productive, and more efficient as a result. It is adding to the business – not taking away.”
He says manufacturing in the region is healthy. “There is a network, and we talk to each other and help each other out. You can meet people face-to-face, which is always preferable.” Alford says that, given the opportunity, he will always pick suppliers within a 15-mile radius.
As well as bringing in apprentices, as youth unemployment is high, the company employs temporary staff as necessary, many of whom go on to take permanent positions. Desirable qualities for temps include being “physically fit and willing to learn”, says Alford. Some temporary staff subsequently become adult apprentices. “The temps are willing to get stuck in, willing to roll their sleeves up, and willing to take advice.”
It is a year since Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos declaring that manufacturing work that had been lost to the UK was coming back to these shores. Alford says Talon is seeing evidence of this, as are other South West manufacturers.
Lead times, responsiveness, language barriers and quality are all issues, he says. “The quality of the work we are producing is a lot better than the Chinese imports. The quality is the biggest thing. And I think there are other suppliers in the area who are having a similar experience.”
He says: “I think the government has switched on to the fact that there is a lot of manufacturing in this country that is still viable and efficient, and that investment has been lacking for several years.
“There is no point looking back. We need to see how we can move forward.”