North Yorkshire-based
D & M Design and Fabrication Ltd, a leading design, manufacturing and fabrication specialist, has opened a brand new purpose-built 3,700ft
2 machine shop from scratch in double quick time with four Doosan machine tools supplied by Leamington Spa-based
Mills CNC.
The first two machines to arrive in January this year were a Puma 2600SY Mk II multi-tasking lathe with sub-spindle and Y-axis capabilities and a large-capacity DNM 6700 vertical machining centre with an integrated Nikken fourth-axis unit.
They were joined in the summer by a second DNM 6700 machine and a Lynx 2100A lathe, the latter supplied with an integrated Hydrafeed short magazine servo-driven bar feeder.
The new machine shop has enabled D & M to substantially increase the range of services it is now able to offer to its existing customers and to expand its offering to provide the machining and supply of high-precision, complex parts in small- to medium-size volumes.
Continuous improvementThe company is committed to continuous improvement and, over its 11-year history, has made regular and significant investment in its people, its plant and equipment — as well as in its systems and processes.
Michael Barratt, co-owner and director, said: “We have invested heavily in new and advanced technologies over the years. A constant theme running through all our investment plans is on improving our manufacturing capabilities and not just on increasing production capacity. We are always looking to make things better, faster and in a more economical way.”
Fabrication still remains at the core of the company. In addition to recently acquiring a ‘state of the art’ 10kW fibre laser machine, with advanced nesting software for the efficient cutting of various metal sheets/plates down to size - the company has also invested in: six CNC press brakes capable of folding, bending and forming a range of materials with varying thicknesses - from 0.7mm up to 20mm; TIG, MIG and synergic MIG welding capabilities with a team of specialist welders able to carry out a comprehensive range of welding operations to exacting standards (EN1090 compliant) that also include weld dressing and polishing; deburring equipment, including a recently acquired rumbling machine, to remove burrs and create round edges on laser cut parts; advanced CAD-CAM software, including SolidWorks and HyperMill; and an in-house powder-coating capability.
Prior to creating its own in-house machine shop D & M used to sub-contract out its machining requirements to local companies. Dave Mawer, co-owner and director, reflected: “Not all customers needed or required their parts to be machined. However, for those that did some issues primarily concerning lead time fulfilment were evident.
“Our customers like, and respond well, to a single source and single point of contact approach where we are in control of all aspects of the job — and all processes are taking place under one roof.
“Having to sub-contract machining work out meant that we were not in full control, and if any issues occurred during machining stage it would, in all likelihood, have a negative impact on delivery times — and possibly part quality and accuracy too.”
The outbreak of the pandemic and its impact on D & M’s suppliers clearly compounded matters with ready access to a high-quality sub-contract machining services being affected.
Mr Barratt added: “Covid-19 focused our minds. We couldn’t guarantee to customers when we would be able to deliver their parts because we were having difficulty locating sub-contract machining resources per se — let alone ones that could meet the delivery times that we required.
“It got to the stage where the lack of in-house machining services was causing us to lose work. This was the catalyst — and it set the changes in motion.”
Creating a machine shop from scratch in the middle of a pandemic while keeping the fabrication business ticking along required careful planning.
Dave Mawer, co-owner and director, said: “We tackled the project like every other and broke it down into its constituent parts. As there was no space in the existing manufacturing facility, we made the decision to build a brand new, purpose-built and dedicated machine shop on land available to us – adjacent to our existing factory where our welding and fabrication operations take place.”
Impressive fully-functional machine shopHe continued: “Our intention was to create an impressive fully-functional machine shop that would not only be the in-house machining resource for our design and fabrication customers, but would also become, and act as, a standalone precision machining sub-contractor able to provide high-quality and competitively priced CNC turning and milling to existing and new customers.”
Another key decision confronting the directors was recruiting the necessary skilled and experienced people to operate and programme the new machines, and to run the machine shop.
Mr Barratt added: “As well as having a good reputation we also have strong relationships with manufacturers in the area. Both helped us attract the right people.
“We initially recruited two people for the new machine shop, but such has been the growing demand for our services that we are now looking to recruit an additional machinist.”
Some companies when setting up a machine shop from scratch may start their new venture by acquiring used/pre-owned machines. This was not the case with D & M which, straight out of the gate, invested in a large Doosan machining centre (DNM 6700) with a fourth-axis unit and a Puma 2600SY II multi-axis Doosan lathe with a sub-spindle, driven tools and an integrated Y-axis.
Mr Mawer explained: “We have a reputation for quality, and we didn’t want to compromise what is in effect one of our key values and market differentiators by purchasing second-hand technology.”
“We therefore decided to invest in new machine tools and, having decided on initially acquiring one CNC lathe and one machining centre, set about researching the market to narrow down our choice of machine tool supplier.”
Mr Barratt continued: “As we didn’t know the machine tools’ market the sales process adopted by the different suppliers was important to us. Mills CNC stood out as the company took the time to listen and to understand what we were trying to achieve — there was no ‘hard sell’ involved.
“We ultimately invested in two advanced, high-performance Doosan machine tools because we wanted to be able to offer quality machining services to customers and to build a reputation based on accuracy, quick turnarounds and competitive pricing.”
With the new building ready and the people and the new machines in place D & M, having already approached its existing customers informing them about the new machine shop, waited in eager anticipation for things to take off — and they certainly didn’t have to wait long.
Mr Mawer said: “Demand for our machining services from existing and a whole tranche of new customers has been exceptional.”
So much so in fact that within the first two months of operation the company had virtually exhausted its capacity and needed to order the additional DNM 6700 machine and Lynx 2100A lathe.
Mr Barratt concluded: “There is no denying that it has been an eventful time. From a standing start we now have a well-resourced and successfully operating machine shop. The decision to invest in advanced and multi-tasking Doosan machine tools has paid off.
“We are competitive. We are able to achieve impressive part cycle times and machine high-precision, complex parts in single set-ups, and we are able to meet customers tight delivery deadlines.”