To mark the 1-year anniversary of our Made in Britain membership, We thought it would be prevalent to breakdown exactly how we demonstrate our commitment to using only British suppliers and manufacturers for our products enabling us to support British businesses & keep trade within the UK.
When we look to develop a new product, we have to consider a large number of particular considerations that meet our own company values.
Customer Demand
A lot of our development is driven by demand from local engineers based in the Ipswich area using first-hand experience installing fibre to customers, and through our close links with industry experts and fibre product Manufactures suppliers, leading to us proving high quality solutions.
When these issues are identified, we always ask how many units will be required as this dictates what manufacturing methods would be suitable, based on the projected volumes and within budget.
Sustainability
When designing custom components care is taken to consider how much waste will be made in a subtractive process like CNC milling or how much is wasted in a injection moulding process, This is then further refined by industry experts to ensure the lowest impact and minimize the costs to the customer, leaving only necessary features.
A majority of our products use a combination of plastic and metals. One material we always look to use is aluminum due to its highly recyclable properties, for those that don’t know 98% of aluminum can be recycled & 75% of all the aluminum ever produced is still in use today.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing to select external suppliers due to manufacturing limitations within our factory; those include the supply of crucial components for a tool & those who supply an appropriate packaging solution to suit.
Outsourcing component manufacture is a common process for many businesses & industries throughout the country, and over the years we have developed close relationships with a number of businesses who specialise in specific fields and enable us to sustain our Made in Britain mark.
From Injection moulding to CNC precision machining, there is no limitations on how far we will go to ensure all our products are of the best quality, which in turn we are proud to put our name & stamp on. This availability of different processes allows us to produce our range of products.
Whilst we will always endeavour to ensure that every component is manufactured within the UK there are some drawbacks when it comes down to the simplest of components like fasteners, which often come from outside of the UK but are imported to a Suffolk distributor.
One way we are able to keep component production in house is by having select component’s 3D Printed onsite in our lab, it enables us to be agile, more efficient, and adjust to the needs of the customer.
Packaging
One improvement we have recently made to decrease the impact of our products have on the environment; is to move away from using bubble bags and into using bespoke boxes, this in conjunction with a eco paper-based tape allows for a fully recyclable package.
Printed paper instruction sheets are a thing of the past, modern technology has enabled us to use a bespoke QR code, so instruction & technical information can be view on engineers phones, whilst in the field.
These key values are critical to us retaining our Made in Britain mark, along with other accreditations within the country. Whilst the world around us continues to develop, We will always be looking at these key values that are close to us. Maintaining close relationships with UK businesses & ways on how we reduce our carbon footprint will always be considered with any project or product that we are involved in.