Velocetec Continues to Grow Despite COVID
Velocetec started 2021 with further investments across the business including new starters and capital equipment. The most notable change currently developing at Velocetec is the introduction of a night shift.
2020 was undoubtedly a tough year for almost all businesses and the transition through Brexit at the beginning of 2021 only compounded the challenge. Foreseeing a short-term decline in requirements from its traditional customer base, Velocetec decided in early 2020 to bring forward plans to introduce its Tooling Division.
The Velocetec management team quickly executed the deployment of the process, purchased new capital equipment and, most importantly, bought in new talent with the honed skills and experience to support the formative months of this diversification.
Dan Giles, Velocetec’s Tooling Manager, said:
“Being asked to set up the Tooling Division at Velocetec was an exciting prospect.
“When I first viewed the facility, I was impressed with the infrastructure that was already in place and it made sense that the business was committing to toolmaking, especially given the background of the directors.
“The division has seen substantial growth over the last year, with both new and returning customers.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with our sales team who provide technical expertise to our customers at the front end; the manufacturing team who produce tooling with such efficiency; and the guys in the tooling studio who are building all manner of tools with varying levels of complexity.”
Velocetec quickly became a formidable force in the rapid production of quality injection mould tools, both prototype and production, by utilising the knowledge, skills, and techniques from decades of prior working experience manufacturing injection mould tools for high-end and niche automotive customers and a variety of other industries.
By the first quarter of 2021, Velocetec had already built an excellent reputation with its growing customer base of injection moulding specialists who quickly came to rely on them to supply fully built, ready to run injection mould tools in short timeframes. Further expansion was required to keep up with demand, so an additional grinder, surface table and work-cell equipment were purchased to accommodate the addition of two more skilled toolmakers.
With additional capacity available to build tools, the onus was on the business to keep up the pace. Phase three, then, was to introduce a night shift to offer reduced lead times for tooling programs.
Rob Carter, Director at Velocetec, commented:
“We knew that the machining related element of some mould components could become more hands-on and less frequently suited to being run lights-out than our usual mix of work.
“Introducing a night shift to cover those hours that couldn’t be utilised any other way was the easiest part of the puzzle to solve.
“It has also enabled us to reduce lead times on one of our recent programmes, helping our customer to deliver their moulded product sooner than anticipated – further justification for them to have re-shored the programme with Velocetec in the first place, and a benefit we will be able to take forward on future programmes.”
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