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PRESS RELEASENew press investment eases production bottleneckSandy, UK. 9th November 2009. Finishing equipment manufacturer Watkiss Automation has invested £100,000 in a new press as part of a £250,000 investment programme. Admittedly this is not a printing press – but a computer controlled sheet-metal punching press which will ease production bottlenecks and reduce delivery times.
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“Regardless of whether you are installing a new printing press, new finishing equipment or a new metal punching press, there are striking similarities.” says Technical Director Mike Watkiss “We have to arrange financing, plan the machine location and installation, implement new workflows and train our operators in exactly the same way as our customers do when they install new equipment.” Just as print runs are getting shorter, there is also a trend towards making smaller batches in manufacturing. “In order to meet customer demands efficiently, we need the capability to produce the parts for a single machine, rather than for a large batch,“ explains Mike Watkiss “this is manufacturing’s equivalent of personalisation and print-on-demand.” The new press is being used in the manufacture of Watkiss Automation’s range of booklet making and collating machinery, including the Vario and DigiVAC collator lines and the SpineMaster and PowerSquare™ SquareBack book production systems. Between them, these products have over 1800 different sheet metal components that will be made on the new press. Watkiss has planned this investment for some months. “Just like many of our customers, we put our plans on hold for a short while over the summer. But now is a good time for capital investment - business is definitely improving, our order intake is up and there are good deals available.” The new press more than doubles capacity and will allow Watkiss to increase the proportion of in-house production. “It’s a bit like bringing your finishing in-house,” explains Watkiss “it gives us much better control over production quantities, quality and delivery time.”. |
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