Manufacturing Facilities

The Hydrovane business operates at the Redditch facility in the centre of England, a location which is very favorably situated with major road, rail and air links close by.

The Redditch site occupies 8½ acres on one of the town's industrial estates and has 90,000 square feet of factory area with 20,000 square feet of offices.

Major air-end components are machined from iron and aluminium castings and feeding the assembly section on a Kanban. Bought out components are delivered direct to each assembly line.

As with many world class companies Hydrovane has adopted BS EN ISO9000:2000 as its benchmark quality standard. Each assembly team ‘owns’ a particular range of products. The final operation is the computer aided testing of the complete package unit to Pneurop standards. The philosophy in manufacturing is to be as responsive as possible to customer demand. With a wide variety of machine configurations, this means having a flexible workforce that has been cross-trained to be skilled in a number of different activities. With a flexible shift system, the facility has ample capacity to meet projected demands.

Providing value for money to customers is the primary company objective. The manufacturing unit has adopted the latest thinking in material control and product flow. The factory is split into small manufacturing cells which have total responsibility for a defined set of components. Employees are encouraged to change the layout and organisation of their own area to bring about continuous improvement. The concept of internal customers is used to reinforce the idea of interdependence in satisfying customers.

Making many activities ‘visual’ leads to straightforward decision making on process control and inventory replenishment. Improving the quality of products and services is a goal that is everyone’s responsibility.