Wilson Tool expands and continues lean journey

The new unit has been refurbished and fitted out to provide additional manufacturing space and a new dedicated Customer and Employee Training Centre. The overall facility in Swindon now measures 7,600 m2. It will provide space for new machines to manufacture press brake tooling, the fastest growing product line in Wilson Tool's business. It will also allow the company to continue its lean manufacturing journey, with new flow lines for punch press and press brake tooling already installed in both units. "Changing our layout to flow will improve efficiencies and eliminate waste in our manufacturing processes", said Ray John, manufacturing manager. "Reducing our lead times, particularly for special tools, is a key objective of Wilson Tool in 2009. Our commitment to lean manufacturing has already enabled us to manufacture cluster tools and lance and form tools in three days. The new facility will give us the capacity to reduce the lead times of our other special tools." The Customer Training Centre on the upper floor of the new facility was opened with a Productivity Seminar day on 13 May. Sixty-nine customers attended the event to learn more about lean manufacturing for sheet metal companies, increasingly important in today's challenging economic environment. Customers attended a set of workshops throughout the day, with classroom seminars and practical punch press and press brake demonstrations in Wilson Tool's Technology Centre. Wilson Tool plans to run additional seminar days in the future, and will also use the new facility for more specific product and application training for individual customers.