Hone All – During the 'sluggish' period for the offshore sector, Hone-All Precision Ltd employed a strategy of 'preparing for the upturn', a strategy that is now coming to fruition with order books at the Leighton Buzzard company starting to swell. Part of the strategy of 'preparing for the upturn' has seen the Bedfordshire company invest in new staff to underpin the earlier investment in two TIBO Tiefbohrtechnik deep hole boring machines. This well conceived strategy is now seeing Hone-All win business from historic customers that also felt the pinch of the slow-down as well as new customers that are keen to take advantage of the company's additional capacity. The £650,000 investment in the two machines increased capacity and extended Hone-All's maximum boring capacity to 250mm diameter with a length of 3.1m. The addition of the deep hole boring machines was the perfect complement to the company's 4m turning capacity. However, the strategy has gone far beyond investing in new technology, as Hone-All Director, Andrea Rodney comments: "Having the additional machine capacity and the larger dimensional capability has proven extremely valuable throughout the quieter periods in the Offshore market as it opened up new opportunities in alternative sectors such as the large capacity Hydraulics sector as well as the continued growth and expansion of our roller manufacturing business. However, equipment and capacity is only ever one aspect of ensuring excellent customer service and response. We have also strengthened our business by employing Craig Ruffett as our new Operations Manager who is focusing on process efficiencies and improved lead times – the most important factor for winning orders in some sectors right now. Furthermore, we have added a new quality control engineer to our team who has not only enhanced the quality and inspection process and but also allowed our current inspector to work more closely with goods-in and out departments. Both positions have been a factor in Hone-All now exceeding its previous target of 95% on-time delivery." "By inspecting and gauging parts at goods-in we can identify jobs with excess stock removal requirements prior to set up. This streamlines and prioritises our production whilst reducing downtime. The new appointments have enabled the management team to focus on alternate tasks such as faster quote generation and response, something that has further streamlined the business. As a business, Hone-All is now leaner, faster and more responsive to market demands than ever before. Added to this, the company has greater machining capability and capacity than it did prior to the slow-down in the offshore sector."
