New, purpose built headquarters demonstrates UK team's applications engineering skills
The establishment by Chiron Werke UK Ltd of a purpose-built 10,000ft2 headquarters in Southam, Warwickshire, heralds a new era in machine tool marketing in the UK.
Because rather than being set up as a machine showroom, the new £750,000 facility has been designed to act as a turnkey applications engineering prove-out site covering the extensive range of Chiron vertical machining centre projects for which the German manufacturer, and all its worldwide subsidiaries, are renowned.
"Our new home is not a machine showroom," emphasises Chiron Werke UK Ltd managing director, Paul Rhodes. "The facility has been set-up specifically to promote and reinforce our commitment to UK users' increasing demands for turnkey application engineering projects.
"Our adeptness at such projects - particularly for both OEMs and first-tier suppliers in the automotive and aerospace sectors - is a philosophy that is successfully mirrored throughout the world by all subsidiaries of our German parent. And it's a policy that sets Chiron apart from other machine tool manufacturers."
Chiron's impressive UK customer base of over 300 users has been gained by the company's unswerving attention to users' needs. This relates as much to the team's pre-sales applications engineering skills and superlative levels of after-sales service as it does to having the ability to actually supply machines that meet customer’s specific production criteria within an agreed time-scale.
"Chiron has never claimed to compete with some of the Far East's volume machining centre manufacturers on either availability or price. And it never will. That's because we operate in a totally different way.
"Firstly, Chiron is not a volume manufacturer geared to produce thousands of machines for a global network of showrooms. Neither do we act simply as a company that sells a machine and installs it then walks away, perhaps also offering a service or maintenance contract that is fulfilled (at a relatively high price) often by a third party."
Chiron, he says, has identified a number of major flaws in such practices.
"The most obvious is the fact that the manufacturer rarely hears the views of the end user. The divide between the two is so distant - and extended by the 'barrier' of local dealers - that any feedback on the machine and its performance rarely reaches the manufacturer's ears, let alone influences machine design."
On the other hand, the Chiron policy of working in close co-operation with its customer base means user feedback is instant and that machine design, for example, can be influenced in real-time.
"Apart from not being able to afford such a luxury, traditional machine distributors simply don't have the culture for that," comments Paul Rhodes.
"Okay, we are obviously in a position to supply machines that will produce more parts much more quickly. But, of course, so are other machine manufacturers and dealers. But the difference is we don't make machines for stock; each and every Chiron VMC comes off the line to order, to satisfy a particular need.
"If a potential customer approaches us simply to add another spindle to satisfy an immediate capacity demand, then we know he's not someone we can help.
"But if he comes to us with a manufacturing headache - a set of production requirements that go beyond simple capacity demands - then clearly we have the basis for a long-lasting partnership, a project that will generate continual benefits for him as a Chiron user."
Included among the problems faced by Chiron customers is the need to reduce piece part costs by adopting the principles of lean manufacture, perhaps, or the development and use of clever fixturing, or the desire to adopt latest tooling developments in combination with high-speed machining routines.
"It is our ability to develop tailor-made solutions to such problems that has enabled Chiron to develop a niche role in the UK machine tool market," says Paul Rhodes. But being able to provide the right technological solutions at the right price is only one side of the story. The other is making sure everything happens when it should.
"Apart from the necessary technical expertise, a successful turnkey project will also involve the suppliers of tooling and fixturing as well as representatives from Chiron, Germany - even perhaps the supplier of the raw materials, such as castings.
"By necessity, each project instigated by the UK team will involve a tremendous amount of project management, and this is another skill that sets Chiron apart.
"A
professional approach to project management is crucial to the success of
every turnkey; every stage, and the actions of every partner, need to be
carefully planned and co-ordinated."
It is clear that having identified its core strengths, Chiron Werke UK
Ltd has adopted a tightly-focused approach that continually enhances
those skills and, in turn, its reputation in the UK marketplace. Yet the
team also recognises how some customers will always want to see machines
'in the flesh'.
For this reason the Southam base houses a series of Chiron VMCs which can be set-up for demonstration - as will be the case at the forthcoming open house.
"However," concludes Paul Rhodes, "the machines are not there to be sold off-the-shelf as commodity items. They are powered up specifically to show how we can solve users' problems. And that means making sure whatever machine or cell we install can make more parts of the right accuracy at the lowest piece part cost.