DMG/Mori Seiki UK headquarters and technical centre opens

During the five-day event, which featured individual days dedicated to the aerospace, automotive, oil gas and energy sectors, and supplier partnerships, DMG/Mori Seiki welcomed over 550 guests. The new facility extends to 3,189 m2 and includes a showroom of 1,225m2, has around 13 machines under power at any one time, a dedicated CMM room in partnership with Hexagon Metrology, and secure facilities for the development of confidential processes. Mr Kondo, vice president Mori Seiki, Japan, welcoming guests said: "DMG and Mori Seiki have been working together for three years and this new facility will power UK sales growth. Once installed, our machines have a 15-20 year lifespan, so we have to maintain spares and provide continuous service 24 hours per day, 365 days per year over a long period of time. Sales levels are, hence, very important to us to maintain sustainable growth. Our policy is to listen to our customers, face to face, to enable us to offer innovative solutions. The new Middlemarch technical centre provides the venue for this." Dr Schmidt, member of the GildemeisterBoard and responsible for sales, service and IT, added: "This is a very exciting opportunity for DMG/Mori Seiki. The investment decisions for many global production centres are made by UK companies and this facility enables us to be involved early on in their future business plans. Not just for the machine tool, but for the complete manufacturing process and its implications for the objectives of the customer. The Middlemarch facility is a unique set-up, with 100 employees who have no other interests than providing the best solution and a commitment to growing future business." Richard Watkins, sales director DMG/Mori Seiki UK spoke about the challenges faced during the integration of the two organisations in the UK. "We have made every effort to communicate with our staff on a regular basis to ensure they are fully informed and consulted about progress. This policy has paid off, and we are now in the lucky position of having a strong and happy team that functions well. "Additionally, we have been working hard to build on our strong customer relationships. The smaller sales areas we have introduced will enable us to offer a far more personal service, spend more time with each customer understanding their business, and increase our market penetration. Our aim is to change the way we sell and service in the UK for the long term to provide real value for our customers." Practical improvements include real-time monitoring of customer call waiting times and figures for not just service response times, but also machine 'back in service' times. Cross training programs for the 30 service engineers are already well underway, ensuring that any breakdowns can be resolved as quickly as possible by a single engineer. Commonly used spare parts are largely UK sourced. Other spares come from Stuttgart and Geretsried, both in Germany, where an order placed by 3 pm is delivered by 9 am the next day 95% of the time. Mr Watkins added, "We are already receiving positive customer feedback about response times." Steve Finn, managing director DMG/Mori Seiki, said: "This is an historic day for DMG/Mori Seiki in the UK. It puts us on a global platform in the fast paced high technology marketplace. "We have 3,000 aerospace customers in the UK, including the leading companies within the industry. The aerospace supply chain extends to a further 13,000 companies. Similarly, the automotive industry alone supports 170,000 people working directly in manufacturing, while motor sport develops a new component every 20 minutes, which gives some idea of the scale of the engineering industry. In this environment, suppliers within each sector need to react to their customers. Sixty percent of our clients have 50 employees or fewer and our portfolio of machines will enable us to offer, develop and verify innovative chip forming processes which will build confidence and add value to business development programs." Image: Mr Lehmann, CEO DMG/Mori Seiki Europe, called upon his fellow managers to fill the clear, giant DMG/Mori Seiki logo with green and red liquid.