Vision Newsletter: April 2023

The Employee Newsletter for Autocraft Solutions Group |

Issue 12

|

April 2023

Supporting our Customers to move to Net Zero

Welcome from: Mike Morgan Executive Director

As promised in the last newsletter in October, life at Autocraft continues at a very fast pace! Our EV offerings (REVIVETM MOBILE, WORKSHOP and TRIAGE) are now fully established and are being used in production settings. We have secured new EV contracts and have a very healthy and exciting sales pipeline.

In this issue: » Welcome to... » Big Changes at AMS » AMS Celebrates 1000th V12 » A Visit from a ‘Special Guest’ » The Show Must Go On! » Busy Times at Vertex » Happy Retirement to... » Congratulations to... » Community Sponsorship » Autocraft makes a splash at the RotarySwimarathon

As the world transitions to a carbonneutral, net-zero future, Autocraft has an even bigger part to play than just EV. Vehicle Manufacturers need to free up valuable factory space, plant, equipment and people to be able to increase their EV offering. Therefore they require a robust and trusted partner to supply high-quality new and remanufactured IC (internal combustion) engines for service and aftermarket, while the market gradually transitions to full electric. This is why Autocraft is securing so much future engine business which benefits all 3 ASG sites for many years to come.

Our customers are keen to take advantage of our remanufactured product offerings when calculating their own environmental and sustainability impact.

During the remainder of 2023, we’ll see the introduction of TDV6, with approx £5m investment split equally between ADS & AMS, with SOP (start of production) in early 2024 (if not earlier), and ramping up to 9,000 engines per year.

This new contract really shows the strength of our Group’s vertical integration. Vertex is expecting a record year with over £2m of orders, including all the fixtures and special purpose machinery and equipment to support the assembly and test of TDV6.

AMS will take delivery of 3 new Heller machines for the production of the TDV6 blocks, and we have already started to move machines to create space for the new Hellers, with the heads being machined on the existing head line. As a result, this gives ADS, AMS and Vertex very strong order The environmental benefits of books for the next 3 years and beyond, remanufacturing a typical 4 cylinder engine and we are working on a number of similar compared with replacing with new are contracts with other customers as they immense! At Autocraft, up to 83.4% of the also transition towards electrification. engine is reclaimed and remanufactured, So if you hear or read reports of the and we save more than 617kg of CO2 ‘Death of ICE’, you can be assured that IC (around 90%), and more than 1680 litres of engines are very much still alive! This is water compared with manufacturing a new especially true given that the European engine. We recycle 98.97% of the residual Commission reportedly plans to allow components that cannot be reused – that internal-combustion engined cars powered means only 1.03% goes to landfill - and we by sustainable efuels to remain on sale are still trying to drive down that number beyond 2035! even further!

Got something to shout about? Let us know!

Send your article & photos to Lindsay Morgan - lmorgan@autocraftsg.com

Company News Welcome to...

Richard Heath Group Commercial Director

Peter Bruch Site Director AMS

Big Changes at Autocraft Wellingborough It’s virtually impossible to not notice the recent changes in factory 2 at AMS Wellingborough! In a matter of weeks the new engine sub-assembly room has been added on to the front of the main engine assembly hall, greatly improving workflow. New signage has been installed around the area, and additional Autocraft workstations have been installed for the highest ‘no-faultforward’ quality.

Further machine moves will be seen in the forthcoming weeks and months in both factory areas as floor space and

New Sub-Assembly & Engine Inspection areas

component workflow are fully optimised for our new machining contracts.

AMS Celebrates 1000th V12 Engine

Paul Kelly

Head of Supply Chain

Neil Laking

Supply Chain Manager - AMS

Julian Lugar Maintenance Manager - ADS

Andy Henman Maintenance Manager - AMS

September 2022 saw AMS shipping its 1000th engine from the Wellingborough facility.

Employees were invited to be photographed with the engine to commemorate this prestigious moment, and a montage of all the photos taken is now on display in the V12 build area.

Can you spot yourself in the picture?

A Visit from a ‘Special Guest’ We were also visited by an Aston Martin Vantage V12, giving the AMS team the opportunity to have a good look under the bonnet and hear the Vantage roar

into action. A big thank you to Sharath from Aston Martin for bringing the car to AMS for the day, and also for all his support on this project since day 1!

The Show Must Go On! Frankfurt show, with Mike Morgan and Simon Warburton generating lots of interest not only in REVIVETM but our engine assembly and machining capabilities as the OEMs transition towards EV. At the same time as Automechanika Frankfurt, Chris Rogers was across the pond representing Autocraft on the UK Pavilion at the TM World launch of REVIVE at CENEX/LCV in September Battery Show in Novi, USA. Exhibitions for the year closed with our After REMATEC Amsterdam became a appearance at the DIFA exhibition in casualty of Covid-19 for the second time Daegu, Korea, with Mike and Simon using scuppering the planned world launch their time wisely in the far-east to also of our REVIVETM technology in June, the meet with EV customers and battery cell CENEX/Low Carbon Vehicle show at the manufacturers at their Korean facilities.

Millbrook Proving Ground in September First up in 2023 was Simon Warburton’s really did prove to be a fantastic location virtual appearance at the EV Trend Korea to demonstrate both of our REVIVETM 2023 Conference, followed by REMATEC Mobile and Triage EV battery repair 2023 in Amsterdam in June, at which we centres for the very first time. will be showing the REVIVETM Mobile EV This was then followed up with an Battery Service Centre to our European extremely successful Automechanika customer base.

CENEX/LCV, Millbrook

Automechanika Frankfur t

Battery Show , Novi USA

Have you seen all our new videos at AutocraftSG.com yet?

Busy Times at Vertex in Birmingham In November Vertex were the next to be in the spotlight with a photography session, with the new imagery now available on our website www.AutocraftSG.com and are being included in the new ASG brochure due out in April.

Photographer Chris from our web agency Plott Creative got straight to work taking

Chris from Plott snaps away at Vertex

shots of our low volume machining, and fixture manufacturing and design.

Vertex have recently expanded into their 4th and 5th units, one of which now houses the recently installed 2nd DMG Mori 5-axis travelling column machining centre. This gives Vertex even more capacity for large and very wide components, which most other machine shops cannot handle.

Vertex is a very important part of the Autocraft Solutions Group, supplying in-house designed special purpose assembly and test equipment and complex fixtures to both our Grantham and Wellingborough facilities, as well as providing machined components to their own customer base.

Your News!

Happy Retirement to...

On the last day before the Christmas break we said goodbye to ADS Maintenance Manager Lenny Drew. Lenny joined Autocraft in 1985 and has spent 37 years behind-the-scenes keeping the Grantham site running smoothly.

Our night shift Production Manager Bib Ewing, who we said a fond farewell to in September. Bib joined the company in 1989 when it was originally called South Lincs Engineering and clocked up 33 years service. Bib was presented with a garden furniture patio set as her retirement gift.

Brian Barr and Nigel Gibson presenting gifts to Lenny Drew on his last day at Autocraft

Community Sponsorship - Can Autocraft help?

We were delighted to support AMS Build Room Team Leader Chris Mills’ under 14s Wellingborough OG Spitfire football team with new kit.

Team coach Chris submitted his application for new kit to our HR department, and the team purchased much needed training tops, displaying the Autocraft logo.

If you’re involved with a local sports team or community project, submit your application to HR. We have a small budget each year for community involvement and each application is reviewed based on

Brian Barr commented: “Both Bib and Lenny will be really missed as they were both ‘part of the furniture’ at ADS Grantham. The Management at Autocraft thanks them both for all their effort over the years, and I’m sure everyone at Autocraft will join me in wishing them both a very long and happy retirement.

Congratulations to...

Our Group HR Advisor Kirstie Sandy who became Mrs East after marrying Adam in September!

Wellingborough OG Spitfire U14s show off their new Autocraft training tops

its own merits. But once the budget has gone, it’s gone! So get your application in, ask HR for an application form.

Autocraft makes a splash at the RotarySwimarathon in Grantham Following a request from ADS Quality Manager Martin Conron, Autocraft was delighted to be asked to be a Gold Sponsor of the 34th RotarySwimarathon, run by the Rotary Club of Grantham.

The event took place over 3 days during the weekend of 3-5 Feb 2023, and was a huge success, with an anticipated £30,000 raised for local charities and deserving causes in and around Grantham.

Martin was the driving force behind Autocraft’s participation, and is pictured here with members of the

RotarySwimarathon organising committee. Martin commented “I was pleased to represent Autocraft at this important event, and it was very interesting to see behind the scenes and the level of organisation required to run a fundraiser of this scale. I was thrilled to hear that they’d beaten last year’s total and that the money raised is going to such worthy, local causes.”

Planning has already started for the 2024 event which will be the 35th Anniversary, and during that event the Rotary Club hopes to reach the figure of

£1 million raised since the Swimarathon started in 1990.

Martin Conron shows his support for the annual swimming event

Artwork, copy & edited by: Lindsay Morgan Issue 12 - April 2023