ALPHA MANUFACTURING

Ben Austin was recently recognised by Alpha Manufacturing for reaching his twentieth year with the company. Ben joined Alpha back in 2000 as a programmer and has since gathered a wealth of experience in sheet metal fabrication, having worked in a variety of roles across the business. He quickly rose into management as Programming Manager before becoming NPI (New Product Introduction) Manager. The most recent of his roles being Quality Manager, which he became in August of this year. His vast engineering knowledge and understanding of sheet metal programming, processes, machinery and quality makes him a truly valuable member of the Alpha team. Operations Manager Neal Lafford last week presented Ben with a gift of high street vouchers in recognition of his outstanding service over the past two decades.

Alphas recent investment in a Trident 6010 CNC router will support existing production of commercial vehicle floors and open up new design possibilities. Alpha currently produce between five and six thousand tread-patterned plywood floors per year for sister company Bri-Stor Systems, which are installed in a range of commercial vehicle conversions for various UK fleets. Bri-Stor’s continued growth means increased demand for floors as well as more complex specifications. The new router offers the perfect solution to help meet this demand and open up more design options, whilst also keeping Alpha one step ahead through more flexible processes.

As part of the Bri-stor Group’s push to reduce our environmental impact, Alpha Manufacturing, Atlas Coating and Bri-Stor Systems have changed the way we process our waste. The Group recently invested in a new waste compactor into which all non-recyclable waste produced on-site is placed. This replaces the many skips that were previously located around each of the businesses, which were collected twice a week and transported to landfill sites. Instead, the compactor waste is collected just once every two weeks and its contents converted into refuse derived fuel that can be used in place of traditional fossil fuels to produce energy. This now means that 100% of the Bri-Stor Group’s non-recyclable waste has been diverted away from landfill, while carbon dioxide emissions from waste collections has been reduced by 75%. That’s equivalent to taking 34 cars off the road in a year or planting 316 trees. This is just one of the many steps currently being taken by Alpha Manufacturing, Br

Design Engineer Gemma Smith explains a recent engineering solution that Alpha implemented for a customer within the food processing sector. This Stainless-Steel chute forms part of a hopper assembly used for separating foods and has a Hex-embossed finish.

Alpha’s latest intake of young engineering talent last week completed their first week as Apprentices with the company. First year Apprentices of both Alpha Manufacturing and Bri-Stor Systems spent the beginning of the week at Bri-Stor Group training partner JCB Academy where they completed a series of team building activities, focusing on problem solving, design & build and communication skills. During their first year, the group will spend four days per week at the Academy working on engineering principles and theory, with one day per week spent with their respective companies. During the second year, this will switch, with the majority of their time spent in the work environment and only one day per week at the Academy. Apprentice Team Building The second part of last week for the group was spent on-site settling in to their new companies, adjusting to the new surroundings and learning processes and procedures.

These Images of the Alpha Manufacturing factory shop floor, taken 3 years apart demonstrate the huge progress made in Alpha’s “smart factory” vision. The images to left, taken after a factory paint out back in 2017 show some of the early steps of the journey, with the original installation of the automated STOPA Storage System at the far end of the factory. Closer to, the TruBend Cell 7000 automated folder can be seen in the middle of the factory, not long after its installation. These were purchased as the first stages of an ambitious 5-year investment plan which has bought the company to today’s highly organised, efficient and automated set up. The most notable difference between the shots (aside from the colour scheme) is the amount of WIP (Work in progress) around the shop floor, with pallets of raw material and part processed items stored on pallets or in racking either side of the main gangway.

Ben Austin has been appointed Alpha Manufacturing Quality Manager after twenty years with the company, bringing with him a vast amount experience and knowledge. Having joined the company back in 2000 as a programmer, Ben quickly rose into management and has since been involved in various areas of the business. Becoming Programming Manager shortly after joining, Ben then moved in a new role for Alpha as New Product Introduction Manager in 2018. He has also acted as Production Manager on various short-term production projects.

As the social and economic shock-waves caused by the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic begin to subside, Alpha Manufacturing are among the many UK companies currently rebooting and picking up from the point that lock-down struck. The majority of Alpha’s workforce have now returned to their positions, with the remaining few still furloughed due to return in the coming weeks. The Alpha factory never completely stopped production throughout the entire lock-down period, due to demand from customers involved in supporting key workers or directly supplying the NHS. A skeleton crew was deployed to ensure supply to these key sectors remained uninterrupted. As many of Alphas regular customers have begun to return to their operations and demand has risen, the workforce has been recalled gradually and now stands at around 80% capacity.

Alpha Manufacturing’s latest machinery installation was recently completed with the final sections of the STOPA automated storage system added to the existing structure. This large-scale installation concludes an ambitious five-year investment strategy outlined back in 2015, with the aim of making Alpha the foremost precision sheet metal fabricator in the UK. The focus of this plan was on utilising high-tech machine automation to realise a “smart factory” vision. Now, close to £4 million has been invested to secure Alpha’s position as one of the most technically advanced factories in the industry. The STOPA system has been integral to this, with the first installation taking place back in 2016 alongside a state of the art Trumpf TruLaser 3030 fibre-laser machine. This laser machine and an existing Trumpf TruPunch machine were integrated into the STOPA at the time.

Alpha Manufacturing have recently completed a project to rapidly manufacture and assemble 3500 hand sanitizer stations destined for pubs and restaurants across the UK. The enquiry came to Alpha from a retail POS manufacturer who was struggling to meet the unprecedented demand for the units from the leisure and hospitality sector as a result of the current pandemic. In terms of sheet metal fabrication, the units required laser cutting, CNC folding, welding and powder coating before being assembled complete with dispenser and internal fixings and finally branded with vinyl graphics. Since the order was placed, Alpha have produced around 450 per day to meet the demand with new production lines created and additional assembly operatives allocated to ensure a constant flow of finished units.