MDF mouldings manufacturer W Howard Ltd has invested more than £150,000 in its joinery operations to cut lead times on its Primer Mould products.
The Manchester-based company moved its joinery department to its own building and replaced two cross-cut saws and a double end tenoner with new CNC machines from H&M in Holland, sourced through JJ Smith.
“It’s allowed us to deliver a very competitive and comprehensive offer to the market,” said operations director Graham Wiliams.
“While core products are available in five working days, cumulatively the advances in our joinery department have enabled us to reduce lead times on bespoke products from five working days to just 10 working days.”
Mr Williams said the improvements meant the joinery department could progress from the problem of multiple handling and extensive set-up times to a situation where lengths of pre-machined MDF were loaded on automatic feed magazines. Set-up times have been reduced to about three minutes.
One of the machines which produces windows boards with returned ends has an additional feature of a material optimisation programme, allowing the production of multiple orders from each length of window board and increasing material utilisation by up to 15%.
