PCBs for safety products

alternative components to negate shortages across the sector.

This has ensured that many Fortress products can be supplied to customers in just two weeks, thanks to forward scheduling and advancing ordering.

capabilities in Stevenage to do prototyping work, so we can support the customer with quick turnaround assembled PCBs that speed up the development stage.”

There has been a lot of talk about disruption in the electronics supply chain and this is something Nemco has helped Fortress overcome through flexibility of supply, just-in-time production and providing

Michael Trice, Design Manager at Fortress, went on to add: “Nemco boards are in all but two of our product ranges and that’s testament to the quality of the components supplied.

“We know the PCBs will work at the first time of asking and this means production and assembly at our factory in Wolverhampton is not held up and we can meet urgent client requirements. It’s a relationship that is going from strength to strength as we continue our collaborative new design with Nemco.” 8 nemco.co.uk

A precision machining company that specialises in the extrusion tooling and subcontract machining industries has achieved 30% growth in turnover following the installation of a manufacturing analytics platform.

Chesterfield-based Sterling Machining installed FourJaw’s manufacturing analytics platform on 14 of its CNC machines, to support and inform its continuous improvement strategy.

Co-owner and production manager, Andy White says: “We had an ERP in place but no way of accurately measuring jobs and their profitability, until the jobs were finished. If a job took longer than expected, we couldn’t see why. FourJaw’s machine monitoring system has given us valuable data that we use to understand machine utilisation, operational efficiency and profitability. In the last 12 months our business has grown from £3.8m to £5m turnover.”

FourJaw’s MachineLink IIoT device can be easily and quickly self-installed on any manufacturing machine, regardless of brand, type or age, which makes it perfect for small and medium-sized businesses who’d prefer a low-cost, no-fuss ‘plug-and-play’ solution. By monitoring and analysing machine data, FourJaw enables manufacturers to make machines run productively and profitably.

The Industry 4.0 technology has also inspired a degree of competitiveness amongst the workforce. Andy explains: