Member Article

Investment in new ESD facility opens up £2m of new opportunities for PP Control & Automation

One of the UK’s leading providers of strategic manufacturing outsourcing services has invested over £100,000 into creating a new Electrostatic Discharge manufacturing facility.

PP Control & Automation, which works with 25 of the world’s largest machinery builders, is now targeting up to £2m of new opportunities where this dedicated and controlled environment will help it take on more complex and delicate builds encompassing high-end PCB assemblies and box builds.

“It is a decision that is already paying off,” explained Garry Myatt, Sales Director at PP Control & Automation.

“A number of our existing clients were asking us for this additional capability, so we decided that the time was right to make the investment and bring this service into our offering.”

He continued: “This meant developing an environment that met the needs of our customers and legal compliance to the recognised standards and involved special flooring, benches and test equipment - all grounded to earth to ensure that life of the electronics is protected from potential electrostatic discharge.

“Five people are now employed in this area and all have undergone specific training to ensure compliance. We estimate that there is £2m of new opportunities in the pipeline and, if these come to fruition, this manufacturing cell will increase in capacity and we’ll need to recruit more staff.”

As a strategic outsourcer with its core competency being ‘box build and system integration’, populated printed circuit boards are handled just like another material line item by PP Control & Automation and the requirement is managed accordingly through an approved vendor process.

With 80% of customers on a kanban supply agreement, implementing the right processes and key partnerships from the start is key, with robust planning and lean manufacturing operations, backed by a skilled workforce of electro-mechanical technicians, ensuring that the business is currently operating >98.50% ‘on time in full (OTIF)’ service.

PP Control & Automation is also ideally positioned to offer ‘Design for Manufacture and Assembly’ (DFMA) in conceptual development of ideas as well as in basic consulting.

“Many companies continue to develop a product design that leads to unnecessary costs, requires an inflexible supply chain and suffers from inefficient manufacturing processes,” pointed out Garry, who has more than 25 years’ experience in sales.

“This is why our Engineering, Operations and Supply Chain are integrated at the earliest possible stage to help optimise a design that’s efficient to manufacture and have parts readily available to ensure a quicker time to market.”

PP C&A’s outsourcing partnerships provides machine builders with better production flexibility, reduced lead times and greater control over their supply chain and costs.

Garry concluded: “We’ve got a lot of exciting diversification plans, some of which focus on making the most of the ESD manufacturing facility with both existing and new clients.

“With 2019 being a record year, securing over £3m of new orders from the healthcare, food and drink and packaging sectors, we anticipate further growth in 2020 from this new manufacturing service.

“A spin-out from Aston University is already tapping into this area where we are offering a full turnkey service, from material sourcing through to testing. Volumes are increasing monthly and the expectation is there that this will be a service that PP will take globally on behalf of the client.”

Backed by Canadian investment company Ardenton Capital, PP Control & Automation is exploring the possibility of a joint venture or an acquisition in North America.

For further information, please visit www.ppcanda.com or follow @ppcanda on twitter.

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