Citizen delegation visits successful UK sub-contractor

The group was keen to see first hand how the firm was taking full advantage of its 14 Citizen CNC sliding-head automatic lathes. The visitors were also keen to listen to views and opinions in relation to future machine development that could be of benefit to further increase productivity on the type of work being produced at the Welwyn Garden City company. The delegation of 12, several of whom were visiting the UK for the first time, made this reciprocal visit timed to include a group meeting at the NC Engineering offices in Watford and followed visits by Unicut’s joint managing directors Jason Nicholson and Charles Kenny to the Citizen machine tool plant in Karuizawa, Japan. The Citizen visitors were keen to gain an appreciation of Unicut’s recent expansion and how the £250,000 investment in two Citizen K16-Vll and a Citizen L20-VIII sliding head autos was helping to support the over 15 per cent surge in the precision sub-contractor’s order book for 2007. In addition to the way that Unicut’s machines were set up and operated to provide long periods of unmanned or limited manned production, the Japanese were particularly interested in the support services installed by Unicut such as the AutoCrib 2000 fully automated tool dispensing system that is directly linked into the management information network to track tool usage and initiate re-order. The fully programmable Dürr component washing (Geo Kingsbury Machine Tools) and OGP SmartScope non-contact video and electronic probe programmable measuring centre also drew a lot of attention. The OGP system automatically measures and calculates SPC data on components and from the results, that are also sent to customers to qualify the level of quality maintained with the batches of components, the Citizen delegation could appreciate the high levels of consistent production achieved by their machines. Further in-depth discussions then followed on the way Unicut exploits the advantages of a one-hit strategy for mill/turned components by a regular investment policy and its strict quality and delivery targeting that has led the company to maintain a growth of some 20 to 25 per cent, year on year.