Customer: ACW Engineering Services Ltd
Location: Gosport, Hants
Industries: Aerospace, Nuclear, Defence, Offshore Yacht Racing and Oil & Gas.
Contact: Lee Wood, General Manager
ACW found themselves surrounded by others recommending Fitfactory to them. They credit the system as the reason they were able to achieve ISO accreditation within 3 months.
Overview
ACW Engineering Services Ltd was founded in 1987. It is a small, privately owned company employing five full and part-time staff and has a turnover of around £250,000 per annum. Based in Gosport, Hampshire, it offers direct and sub-contract engineering services to the Aerospace, Nuclear, Defence, Offshore Yacht Racing and Oil & Gas industries.
They pride themselves on being a multi-skilled Engineering Workshop, having full in-house CNC milling with offline programming. They can cater for prototype requirements, helping their Clients create and design new products, offer a silver soldering service and also do assembly work, where they have taken on some major assemblies, i.e. diesel timing gear for submarines and burner assemblies for Arab Nation power and desalination plants.
Lee Birchwood, General Manager, said “We were working to the level of BS5750 before Fitfactory was involved, it was a “paper-driven” and laborious method we were using to manage the business. Our awareness of the system came when a piece of software was installed for our CNC machinery. This happened to be installed by someone who had been involved with Fitfactory, in the development of the system.”
Selection Process
ACW subsequently found themselves working with two or three customers that used Fitfactory’s system, all of which recommended it to them. They then asked for a demonstration at their offices, when, Lee said, they realised it was the perfect solution for their business and ‘ticked all the boxes’ for them. It was installed in 2010.
Implementing the System
The installation went well and Lee received a couple of day’s training – although further and ongoing training is available. He said the back-up and support is excellent, response is quick, reliable and friendly and mainly done remotely.
Impact on Business
Lee concluded, “Installing the system has made a huge difference to the efficiency of our business. It has made traceability and accessibility of information quick and easy and had been invaluable for us operating with the ISO:9001 Accreditation. At our assessment, the auditor had been “blown away” by the efficiency of the system and amazed that a small company had achieved accreditation in three months, when most take eight to twelve months.” Lee concluded, “This was totally due to Fitfactory. I can’t fault them, they are efficient, friendly and a great team to work with.”