Member Article

Technoset celebrates 40th anniversary with £700,000 investment and new quality award

A Warwickshire precision manufacturing specialist is celebrating 40 years in business by completing a £700,000 investment drive.

Technoset, which employs 25 people at its facility in Rugby, has installed four new lathes and a state-of-the-art laser scanning device to support the machining and measurement of complex components for customers involved in the Aerospace (Civil and Defence), Medical and Fibre Optics markets.

Supported by the Manufacturing Growth Programme, the company has also successfully worked towards and secured AS9100 Rev D, a quality accreditation that is fast becoming a prerequisite for winning and maintaining high profile contracts in the aerospace sector.

The award will ensure it can deliver more than £1.4m of orders to produce engine, actuation, interior lighting and landing gear parts.

Kevan Kane, Managing Director of Technoset, explained: “The business started life completing high volume/low value work, but this has evolved over the 40 years so that we are now recognised as a manufacturer of complex and specialist parts designed to be used in demanding environments.

“This has only been achieved due to a commitment to continually investing in our capabilities, the technology we use and in attracting the best talent. The £700,000 investment is a prime example and this gives us the platform now to take on more LTAs (longer-term agreements) and add to the current £2.2m turnover.”

He continued: “Critical to our future growth was securing the AS9100 Rev D quality award, which is a very demanding and stringent process with Rev D containing a stronger focus on risk management.

“As a SME this can be a very time consuming exercise so we turned to the Manufacturing Growth Programme, which provided us with a continuous improvement project/plan and then part-funded a specialist consultant to work with us on refining our operations and developing new strategies.

“The support was invaluable and ensured senior managers could focus on what we do best…produce complex components for our global customer base. MGP is an easy to access resource that I would recommend to other SME manufacturers.”

Technoset, which is part of the Techno Group, uses multi-axis turning and milling centres to manufacture turned products from 0.4mm to 200mm and milled components up to 1000mm by 500mm. The company works with a wide range of common, high performance and more exotic materials, including Nimonic, Titanium, Colsibro, Berylco, Arcap, Ferretic Stainless Precipitation and Austenitic Stainless. In the last year, the firm has also developed export relationships with clients and now supplies into China, France and the USA. Michelle Connor, Manufacturing Growth Manager at MGP, added her support: “This is a great example of how targeted business support can help a manufacturer unlock new opportunities and safeguard contracts.

“By introducing the management to a specialist in the AS9100 process, we freed up valuable time for its managers to focus on core business activities and this has already led to the development of new actuator parts that control the flaps on the trailing wing of the aircraft. This is now a 5-year order.”

The Manufacturing Growth Programme, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and delivered by Economic Growth Solutions (EGS), is promising to fill the void left by the Manufacturing Advice Service (MAS) by providing access to specialist assistance to help manufacturers to grow and improve.

This is being achieved through a 19-strong network of experienced manufacturing growth managers, access to industry specialists and the opportunity to apply for an improvement grant, minimum value £1000.

Support can be used for improvement projects, such as leadership and management, R&D, lean manufacturing, productivity and capacity, quality systems and supply chain development.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .