The last eight years have seen Coatbridge-based KRG Precision transform itself from an also-ran general engineering subcontractor into one of Scotland's leading heavy machining specialists.
The last eight years have seen Coatbridge-based KRG Precision transform itself from an also-ran general engineering subcontractor into one of Scotland's leading heavy machining specialists. The metamorphosis has been achieved through a combination of vision, skill and commitment from within the company, and development of a unique relationship with Mills Manufacturing Technology in Norwich. Since 1994 all but two of KRG's major machine tool purchases have been sourced from Mills in an ongoing, multi-million pound investment program.

This has allowed the company to switch its emphasis to oil and gas industry work, notably medium-to-large, complex, high precision, high value-added components and sub-assemblies in small batches.

As a result, the company's turnover is on target to exceed GBP 5.5 million in 2001/02, up from GBP 1.4 million in 1997/98.

Jim Hughes founded KRG in 1978 and the company grew slowly through the 1980s and early 1990s.

'We moved into these premises in 1994,' he said, 'at which time we were developing and building special purpose machines and doing some low volume, non-CNC subcontract machining.

'However we bought our first two CNC lathes soon afterwards, a Daewoo Puma 10 and Puma 12 from Mills.

These made us aware of the possibilities available with CNC equipment but we were reluctant to simply graduate from being a general subcontractor without CNC machines to being a general subcontractor with CNC machines - which is what a lot of other companies did.' It was apparent to Mr Hughes Snr and to his son, production director Kevin Hughes, that if KRG was to be a really successful company it had to develop services and capabilities that were uncommon or unavailable elsewhere.

They realised that the building from which the company now operates gave them a significant advantage.

It had previously been a heavy engineering works so a 15 ton capacity crane was already in place and the floor was suitable to support large capacity, heavy machine tools without need for special foundations.

'Even in a bad year the oil production and offshore exploration industry is hard put to find local companies with sufficient large machine tool capacity to satisfy demand,' Mr Hughes explained.

'We did some basic market research and it was apparent that if we developed this type of capability we could expect to see a good level of business.' Armed with this information, KRG was able to formulate a business plan that was used to support an application for a Regional Selective Assistance grant.

This helped to purchase from Mills a Kuraki KBT-11W-AP horizontal borer with six tonne table capacity and twin pallet changer, and a pair of Daewoo Puma 450 lathes capable of turning components up to 700mm diameter and 1575mm length.

At GBP 400,000 this was the largest investment made by the company - although the company has subsequently invested over GBP 2 million in new machine tools.

Said Kevin Hughes, 'Although the machines were a big advance over anything that we had previously operated we were very confident of our ability to get the best from them.

This was partly due to the fact that KRG has always had a strong skills base within the company, and partly due to the high level of training and technical support that Mills promised and delivered.

This has been ongoing and our relationship with Mills is almost a partnership; whereas other suppliers would probably have us wait up to a year for the sort of machine that we need to buy.

Mills has always been able to schedule delivery to coincide with our need for additional capacity.' The first of what are now two Kuraki horizontal borers was installed in May 1998.

Mills gained this important first order partially on rapid availability of the machine, while the pricing was competitive, even when compared with rebuilt machines from alternative suppliers.

The machine offers a work envelope of 2000mm in X by 1500mm in Y by 1450mm in Z and has a 500mm quill, enabling use of Davis-type facing heads.

Table capacity is 6 tonnes and the machine has a 40 tool ATC.

In production the machine has shown itself capable of holding a tolerance of =/-25 microns over a 1200mm by 600mm area.

This is a considerable level of performance given the types of material that are routinely machined at KRG, including stainless steel, Inconel, Monel and other exotic alloys.

'Once the machines were installed we got an immediate response from customers,' Mr Hughes Snr recalled.

'The machine is equivalent in performance to the equipment used by major oil and gas industry OEMs so they have been happy to source major components from us.

That's partly because we have set our stall out to offer the full package of documentation, traceability and parts marking required by the industry.

That in its turn has gained us more work and led us to develop our own supplier base for specialist coating services so that we can act as lead contractor for a ready-to-assemble turnkey package.' KRG has invested heavily in CAD/CAM, DNC and job tracking software as well as in machine capacity.

In addition it has strong engineering support capabilities, designing and fabricating its own steadies for turning and developing its own facing head.

By matching its do-everything philosophy with a do-everything capability, KRG has developed to the point where it can supply customers with complete kits of components to include in finished assemblies.

Along the way the company has installed additional machining capacity.

In 1999 an O-M VT5-16N vertical turning centre was installed with a 75kW spindle and a 1600mm diameter table capable of supporting workpieces up to 10 tonnes; in 2000 the second Kuraki horizontal borer was added.

In between times, two Daewoo Puma 350s and a Puma 250 plus two Daewoo machining centres were also installed.

'Single sourcing from Mills offers us a lot of advantages,' remarked Kevin Hughes.

'We know that we can rely on efficient installation and commissioning services, and that the back-up will be very good.

From a training point of view all of the controls and operator panels are similar and we can also plan routine maintenance more efficiently then if we had machines from a lot of different suppliers.

From Mills standpoint, I guess you could say that we provide them with an excellent demo facility.' Thus far the company's investment has been directed towards overall flexibility as a high proportion of KRG's throughput has been based on small albeit high value-added orders.

However the next stage of commercial development is a move into contract based manufacturing.

'We've reached the point now where order quantities are such that we will be able to specify some of our future machine capacity against specific jobs,' Kevin Hughes confirmed.

'That will give us the opportunity to consider machines with second-operation capability, as batch quantities will justify the longer set-ups and allow us to achieve higher production efficiency.'