A unique challenge and some exciting updates!
Following several staff changes in late 2022 and early this year, our Birmingham team was presented with a significant challenge in recovering ground over the preceding months, as we prepared for our recent ISO/IEC 17025 surveillance audit.
Michael Searl drafted in as Head of Lab late last year and has performed an outstanding job to close gaps which were identified through our internal audits. Along with Clive Legg, who recently assumed the role of Head of Quality - overseeing both thread and spline facilities, the pair worked tirelessly to bring all the QMS system audits up to date.
Whilst we received several observations and opportunities for improvement, which were fully expected given the level of management change, UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) granted our continuation, satisfied with our progress and planned actions.
We see 17025 accreditation as a hugely important factor for our business,6* as our labs are the backbone of everything we do. UKAS approval provides a high level of scrutiny to all our processes, procedures, metrology equipment, traceability and employee capabilities, which allows us to provide that same high level of confidence to our customers.
A crucial factor for our future is ensuring the next generation is equipped with the same advanced technical skills that fuels our metrology labs today. This is why we have invested so much into developing the young talent within our business - having senior technicians continuously engage and mentor them to advance their abilities. We believe this will provide us with a stellar group of technicians for years to come and are excited to see how the team learns and grows.
In early March we took to the road to see multiple customers across the aerospace, motorsport, and automotive sectors. Current customers greeted us with resounding positivity, expressing delight with our service and products, while new opportunities received an eager expression to do business.
The most notable comment from customers was the compliment on our competitive positioning as the only remaining UK gage company with the combination of thread gage, spline gage and master gear in-house manufacturing capabilities. This provides us with the internal technical capability and skills to support customers, who in the majority need both spline and thread gages.
I hope you enjoy this month’s update, and welcome any questions or feedback you may have. Simply reply to this email, it would be great to hear from you!
In any case, I’ll be back next month with another update.
A welcome customer
We were delighted and privileged to have had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Damian Marzec, Managing Director of Oberon, recently. Oberon is one of Poland’s largest and highly successful metrology equipment and tooling suppliers. They focus on representing high quality brands to manufacturing industries in Poland - including the smaller machining outfits to the larger OEMs in the automotive, aerospace and defense sectors.
Oberon was one of our very first customers, when starting OGC - spline and master gears in 2020 at our 11 Kitts Green, Birmingham facility. We had an absolute delight introducing Damian to our team and showing him around both our Birmingham and south coast New Milton thread gage facilities. We were also fortunate enough to have lined up a prestigious supplier visit while he was with us. Damian was very impressed with the facilities, equipment, team and skills we have available.
Oberon is one of only a handful of “exclusive” agents we have across the globe, where in certain geographical locations it is commercially viable to have such an arrangement. Delighted with our service and wishing to grow his and our market share in the supply of spline, thread gages, master gears and calibration services, we have agreed to include three additional Baltic States to Oberon’s existing contract - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
We look forward to our continued support and development with Oberon and a few more vodka sampling nights!!
