Numac Go from Strength to Strength

It is often said that “quality breeds success”. This is a philosophy which drives Numac’s business, and one that is proving to be true at the moment with the focus over the last 12 months being planned growth in capacity to manage the increasing demand currently being experienced.

“Obviously we hate turning work down” says Andrew McLaren, MD at Numac “So we need to ensure that we have the capacity to deliver customer requirements at world class levels of quality.”

Through this approach of continually reviewing & developing capacity, Numac have seen staffing levels increase 45% in 2011 including the appointment of Mick Fletcher as Commercial Manager, to co-ordinate our relationships with our growing client base. Numac have also invested in 2 new state of the art Mazak machining centres (a Megaturn Nexus 900, and a Nexus 200 MY).

Through these investments, Numac continue to be perfectly positioned to meet the high expectations of their customers into 2012 and beyond.

“We are delighted with our performance over the past year, and look forward to working with a growing number of clients in the coming months. In these times when most economic news seems downbeat, it is great to be able to buck the trend. An achievement that I put down to the hard work & dedication of our staff” added Andrew.

Numac are now expanding their night shift with plans in place to run a full night shift later in the year if orders increase as anticipated through the next 12 months.

Our philosophy is simple:

“In these prolonged difficult economic times, Numac continues to succeed and invest in the latest technology and in the skills of our staff to ensure we provide our customers with the highest quality of product. With experienced staff working around the clock, customer requirements are quickly met with efficiency.”

Andrew McLaren
MD Numac Engineering Ltd

You will find more about the Nexus Magaturn here on the Numac Blog.

Numac is celebrating its 20th year of production this month; that’s two decades of high quality engineering services, with the expectation that we will continue to grow and invest in our state of the art manufacturing facility for years to come. With thoughts of Numac’s formation, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at what happened over the past 20 years.

In 1991 we saw:

• Bryan Adams – No 1 for a record 16 weeks
• PC World opened their first store
• The end of the Cold War & the Soviet Union
• Dances with Wolves win 7 Oscars
• The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact
• The deaths of David Lean, Robert Maxwell, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis & Freddie Mercury
• The World Wide Web launched on the 6th August

Numac Engineering in 1991

And we also saw rioting, recession and a conflict in the Middle East – which goes to show that some things never change!                                                                                                       

There has however been plenty of change in the manufacturing industry with CNC engineering making huge strides to the point where it is now the standard.

In parallel with these changes, over the past 20 years Numac has developed extensive experience in industries like oil & gas exploration & nuclear power generation, where failure is not an option.

Couple this with a focus on quality and experience in working with in exotic alloys and you can see why Numac Engineering is now one of the leading specialist engineering compnies in these fields in the North West.

Numac’s equipment has also seen significant developments over the past 20 years with continuous investment in machinery ensuring that customers always have access to the latest technologies & efficiencies afforded by new technologies.

This is exemplified by the recent installation of our latest Nexus Megaturn machining center. Installed last month, and with reduced costs, improved environmental performace and extended working parameters this is already delivering benefits to customers.

Even in this harsh economic climate, Numac is continuing to grow and invest in the newest machinery to maintain their state of the art manufacturing facility in the North West of England.

The Mazak Megaturn Nexus 900 is the new generation CNC vertical turning centre, designed efficiently for heavy-duty cutting. It’s a new, bigger machine that expands capacity and allows work on larger pieces, with more accuracy and dedication to quality. It replaces our old machine as we continue in our commitment to invest in the latest technology.

Numac is also committed to addressing environmental impact, which has always been an important area. This new tool utilizes a high efficiency lubrication system that reduces oil consumption more than 90% when compared to other systems.

Full details of the capabilities of this new machine can be found on the Mazak website.

You will also find further details of Numac’s experience on their website: www.numac.uk.com

The new machine will expand capacity, and allow us to work on project that to date would have been outside of our core capabilities.

“We always have the idea of delivering maximum quality & value to our customers” Explained Andy McLaren, MD at Numac “And it is with this in mind that we have made this latest investment. It will allow us to meet a wider range of customers requirements, and deliver a truly competitive service without compromising on quality.”

In addition to the installation of the new machine tool, Numac continue to look to the future in other areas too.  Currently training up two apprentices and running a series of continuous training programmes with more experienced staff, Numac are committed to ensuring that they have a highly skilled work force equipped to support their customers, whatever their requirements.

“In these prolonged difficult economic times, Numac continues to succeed and invest in the latest technology to ensure we deliver to our customers with the highest quality of product. With experienced staff working around the clock, customer requirements are quickly met with efficiency.”

Andrew McLaren

MD Numac Engineering Ltd

Click here to learn more about Numac’s commitment to quality

We are always happy to discuss how we may be able to assist,

So contact us on +44-(0)161 338 2125

For many of the industries in which Numac specialise, including petrochemical and oil and Gas, the emphasis on safety and accident prevention has never been greater with increased public scrutiny, stepped-up industrial safety regulations, and more stringent OSHA oversight and fines.  This means that positive material identification (PMI) in alloys used in components throughout the physical plant is no longer a choice, but a necessity.  Simply relying on spot testing of parts and subassemblies is too risky and totally unacceptable.  Today’s best practices include 100% positive material testing of all critical materials.

Historically, Numac have bought in this facility as and when it was needed to fulfil a contract. However, as part of their commitment to quality, they have taken the decision to invest in the technology, and bring the PMI process in house, allowing Numac to offer PMI on all projects, irrespective of contract conditions.

In future Numac will handle PMI using the XRF XL2. Produced by Niton (Market Leaders in PMI Technology) the XRF XL2 use  x-ray fluorescence to confirm the chemical makeup of any material through a simple process of “point & Shoot”.

“For many years we have offered this facility when it was demanded by the client, but we now feel that offering it as standard on all our projects is an obvious next step in our continued focus on quality” Explains Andy McLaren, MD at Numac Engineering. “This is a significant investment for us, but it means that we will have greater control over the analysis process, and will be able to offer it to all our clients as standard”.

“Working with exotic materials in high stress environments like those in the petrochemical and  oil & gas industries requires continual focus on quality. This is why Numac maintains a continued commitment to investment in the lastest state of the art tools and process management systems.”

Andrew McLaren

MD Numac Engineering Ltd

As a hi-tech engineering company, Numac are continually striving to enhance their levels of quality & efficiency.

Given that many of our products are used in harsh environments on critical applications where failure can be catastrophic, our quality has to be second to none.

Maintaining this quality, and still being able to offer a competitive service, means that our production management must be state of the art.

With this in mind, we have now invested in an upgraded production planning system from Tricorn.

Because the new system handles the process from enquiry to delivery, it offers significant benefits throughout the process:

• Faster quotations, reducing the decision time on component sourcing
• Accurate costings from client CAD, drawing direct from production history
• Streamlined production & administration, reducing lead times & costs
• Integration across the organisation from quotation to invoicing, reducing duplicated effort & improving availability of information through the company.

The result is significantly enhanced process management, further enhancing quality, and reducing lead times & improving cost effectiveness.

“This significant investment will allow Numac to continue to grow, whilst at the same time maintaining its unrivalled quality, and continuing to enhance the value that it adds to our customers processes”

Andrew McLaren

MD Numac Engineering Ltd