Jenton Group
The scenario
Jenton Group’s expertise traditionally lies in the development and design of innovative new products.
Whilst its manufacturing capabilities can produce small batches of fifty at a time, the management team had identified the need to find an outsourcing partner that could help it rapidly scale-up to cope with the potential of major increases in sales demand.
The firm had already been in discussions with PP Control & Automation about a new ventilator design and how it might use its manufacturing capacity in the West Midlands to create an urgent production line.
This particular project won the Engineer Magazine’s Collaborate 2 Innovate Award, but unfortunately never made it past the design stage, with the Government choosing instead to increase existing supply chains.
What it did do was create the platform for the two businesses to work together and Jenton Group, faced with escalating orders for its GRU-V® system, took the decision to place the first large order for production units with PP C&A at the start of the year.
The PP Control & Automation solution
PP Control & Automation immediately created a dedicated manufacturing line at its Cheslyn Hay factory, with a team of engineers assigned to understand the build, before putting in place bespoke production processes that allows for consistent throughput and repeatable quality.
This was achieved in a matter of days from the first parts arriving on site and, from there, PP C&A has taken just a few weeks to complete build and lamp burn testing for the GRU-V® systems.
Supply chain management has also been outsourced meaning that Jenton Group simply provide the initial designs and then wait for first-off inspection and then delivery of the finished product – freeing up its engineers and designers to continue their R&D work and development of next generation products.
“Scaling up is a massive challenge for specialist manufacturers, both from an operational, capacity and sometimes an investment point of view,” explained Tony Hague, Chief Executive Officer of PP C&A.
“This sometimes prevents businesses from taking the next step, often missing that market opportunity in the process. For those that do gamble, many fail due to lack of experience of handling production lines of that magnitude.”
He continued:
“Jenton Group’s UV product range and its effectiveness to combat Covid-19 is gaining a lot of interest and the firm wanted the confidence of having a manufacturing partner they could turn to if volumes quickly escalated.
Tony Hague, CEO, PP C&A
“The order for the first 100 has allowed both parties to dip their toe into a working relationship and how ‘outsourcing manufacturing’ could work. So far it has been a seamless process and should pave the way for new opportunities.”
