Client Background
Our client is a designer of space-defining office furniture. It is focused on making inspiring products for contemporary professional work environments, including shared spaces and breakout areas. Designed and assembled in the UK, manufactured goods are shipped throughout Europe and the United States.
Client Brief
Our client has experienced great success over the years. Changing work patterns caused by COVID greatly accelerated growth. Their existing metalwork suppliers struggled to meet increasing order volumes as they only offered manual processes and could not offer mechanical assembly.
They needed more consistent quality with timely delivery, at peak times on a weekly basis. In addition, they made the strategic decision to outsource part of their mechanical assembly for products so that their skilled build teams could focus elsewhere.
WHY CHOOSE CEL?
From the very beginning, the client was impressed with our approach and flexibility to meet their needs. We are now their go-to supplier for production volume parts, particularly those that require robotic welding and mechanical assembly.
Supply chain integration
We look at the whole process leaving nothing to chance to ensure we hit deadlines every time, allowing their transport company to make weekly collections. Our agile approach and understanding of the supply chain means our on-time delivery enables our client to deliver against their timelines.
Focus on quality
The quality of our robotic welding fixtures was not delivered by chance. We have industry leading systems, internal processes and quality control procedures in place for all stages of the manufacturing process, underpinning our constant focus on quality.
Fixed price reassurance
We forward bought raw material to smooth out the supply chain and provide surety of delivery and fixed pricing that has extended beyond an interim three-month period. Services provided included laser cutting, folding, robotic welding, mechanical assembly and powder coating.
INITIAL CEL SUPPORT
We worked through engineering and a First Article Manufacture (FAM) prototyping process, including mechanical assembly, on an accelerated basis.
Whereas a normal process may progress over a period of four to five months, we delivered our client’s first production run in barely over two months.
In this time, we successfully designed, built and tested robotic welding fixtures so that we could offer scheduled and consistent quality on their parts. In addition, CEL forward purchased raw material to cover a upcoming orders, providing both (i) surety of delivery and (ii) fixed pricing over the initial three-month order period.
CEL SOLUTION:
By working through engineering and a First Article Manufacture (FAM) prototyping process we were able to identify and take action regarding any potential quality or production challenges.
Forward buying raw material proved so beneficial for the client that we were able to arrange fixed pricing and fixed weekly deliveries over quarterly periods.
We are now moving to the next phase of the project. This will include purpose-built jigs to ease transport, reduce risk of damage and speed up our client’s remaining mechanical and electrical assembly processes.
From the start CEL realised we needed to find and onboard a new supplier urgently and so treated our enquiry as a top priority. Everyone at CEL was professional, efficient, and friendly. CEL ticked all the boxes for us in terms of price, lead times, communication and quality. We look forward to many more years of mutually beneficial trading.
