Livett says the move into tooling application and sales support was motivated by a desire to understand more about the job he was running, and improving set up and reducing costs by combining different cycles and operations.
Previously with 13 CNC machining centres and eight people in his department, Livett was responsible for 3- and 4-axis subcontract operations involving a wide range of materials. Altogether, his previous company employed 35 people and was a regular supplier to sectors involving customers in the motorsport, medical and optical industries as well as general engineering. Most components were in batch quantities, which were often tricky to tool up, program and set, as they involved a variety of different control systems on machines.
As part of his Sumitomo training, he attended seminars and tooling demonstrations at the European Design and Engineering Centre (E-DEC) in Germany, the first engineering and design centre of its type within Sumitomo and outside of Japan. It provides an application support for customers, cutting and tool proving trials as well as tooling evaluation.
Livett will be responsible to Mick Shuter who was recently promoted to national sales manager for Sumitomo in the UK.
