Case History 1- Assembly

From a derelict industrial building to a high-tech production facility in 12 weeks

Opportunity

A small defence contractor needed a production partner to create a bespoke manufacturing facility for a low volume, high-value, security-sensitive product currently in development. The production facility needed to be ready as soon as testing was complete.

Brief

Find a site of 10,0000-20,000 square feet located within a specified area of the UK and prepare it for production. Find and train staff and be production-ready in 8-12 weeks.

Task

The available sites were not suitable for the task, so we needed to convert a rundown warehouse into a modern production facility.

This involved:

  •  Building works

  •  Lighting

  •  Heating

  •  Fire regulations

Contracts for:

  • Security

  • Building maintenance

  • Waste

  • Power

Staff Recruitment:

  •  Managers

  •  Admin

  •  Accounts

  •  Stores

  •  QA

  •  Assembly leaders

  •  Assembly technician

  •  Software installation technicians

  •  Test engineers

Security:

  •  CCTC, Door entry

  •  Security monitoring service

  •  Police monitoring

  •  Staff monitoring

  •  Staff security clearance

Factory Layout:

  • Office fit out

  • Canteen

  • Staff rest area

  • Stores

  • Kitting area

  • Rework area

  • Works shop

  • Clean room

  • Production area

  • QA

  • Testing

  • Product storage: goods in and out, work in progress. 

Hardware:

  • Source specialist equipment 

  • Hire forklift

  • Lockers

Systems:

  • Admin systems

  • Stock control system

  • Human resources systems, Contracts

How we achieved the task

Running tasks in parallel

  •  Site search

  •  Site preparation

  •  Recruitment

  •  Equipment purchase

  •  Service commissioning

  •  Contractors: Electrical, Building, Security

  •  Security operating instructions

  •  Engineering of custom equipment

  •  Systems creation and management

  •  Training

Design team

  • Developed a build plan for the product from the CAD model

  • Created CAD models for the assembly areas

  • Engineered bespoke equipment

Skills and attitude

  • Skilled people

  • Can do approach

  •  Management teams flexibility

  •  Forecasting bottlenecks

  •  Predicting potential failures

Conclusion

Creating a custom manufacturing facility in 12 weeks is not typical for most companies. It usually takes 12 to 18 months. Many projects like this fall outside the scope of prime contractors, as they may not have the resources to achieve a fast turnaround. As a small group of specialist problem solvers, we can get the job done and deliver projects that would be thought impossible.