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Turning up the speed - Reduced wastage, improved lead times
The demand to optimise material, due to supply shortages globally and massive price increases has led High Peak Steels to review how they can support customers, keep supply of smaller lengths and improve production on the larger saws.
Our warehouse team, led by Josh Thornley, identified that downtime on the large saws was slowing production and also delivery, so by adding a saw to handle the smaller pieces would resolve this. Consequently, the business has invested in a new Kentai Circular Carbide Saw. The KTC-100EHC is ideal for handling fast turnaround of smaller jobs.
The results are that this has reduced wastage, by having a smaller trim cut, as well as utilising what was previously scrap ends, or smaller remnant lengths.
The KTC-100EHC features 3rd vice technology, so it can also cope with middling 6 metre lengths from a 1 tonne bundle. It has carbide cutting technology and can cut up to 100mm diameter 10 times faster than a normal bandsaw. This innovation is already helping to bring our lead times down by almost 20%. These are early days, however we have already seen cost savings and lead time reductions – another great benefit to customers.
Storage Supply
NEW STEEL STORAGE FACILITY
In the light of the troubles and subsequent demise at Liberty Steel, High Peak Steels has spent the last 18 months building our supply chain and extending our tonnage of stock capability. By acquiring undercover storage facilities at Immingham we can now provide weather proofing of materials, with added safekeeping. Liam Wright, Sales Manager said ‘We decided to invest heavily; bringing in 25 tonne loads from Turkey, Italy, and Spain to make sure the stock was on the ground for the increase in demand that came early 2021, and that has continued ever since’. With the outbreak of war in Ukraine and Russia and subsequent ban of supply of steel to the UK, we have continued to invest in the stock levels being held at Immingham and now we have a 30 tonne wagon trunking between Immingham and Glossop topping up our stock levels at our main warehouse on a daily basis.
1000 tonnes of black engineering bar available
High Peak Steels now stock around 1000 tonnes of black engineering bar stored in dedicated yards in Rotherham. This is one of our long term partners we have worked with for 20 years. We are proud to be associated with them and they have been part of our continued growth and success, when Brexit happened and then Covid, we had planned on making sure we have black bar stock on the ground in the UK as business begins to pick up. This expansion proved a good decision, and has substantiated our success. Having the yard space in Rotherham to bring in container loads too, from all over the world further supports our OTIF service. High Peak Steels now have the storage facility, close to head office and this enables our operations team to respond quickly to customer requirements. As a company we are committed to turning customer orders around in a matter of days, rather than weeks. This responsiveness differentiates our business from many competitors, who we understand are often quoting long lead times. We’re grateful to our customers for sticking with us through what have been and continue to be significantly challenging times due to supply chain issues and it is their continued loyalty that has enabled us to respond with this storage initiative and many more changes High Peak Steels has made to adapt to market changes.
New starters join the team
Ollie Andrew
Welcome to Ollie who joined us on the 25th of April as a Business Administration Co-ordinator, working closely alongside Liam.
Works Experience:
Ollie joins us from Monkhouse Sports, where as Sales and Account Manager he was responsible for developing and training different outlets selling sports equipment mainly to schools.
Education:
4 A star A levels, degree in Accountancy Finance.
Ollie is a keen sportsman and plays off an impressive golf handicap of six. He also enjoys cricket, in October 2019 he was involved in coaching cricket to youngsters in Australia and now enjoys playing cricket with Liam and Jordan at Mottram Cricket Club, (he says he’s won a lot more trophies than Liam!)
His new role at High Peak Steels will involve Sales, Purchasing and CRM implementation, as well as being out on the road seeing customers face to face and building relationships.
Matt Fletcher
Welcome to Matt who also joined the team in April as a Stock Control Assistant.
Works experience:
Matt joins us from a local stone merchants where he previously worked as a Warehouse Operative and Yard Manager.
Matt is a keen sportsman and plays for the High Peak Steelers Basketball team – the fastest man on the court, ‘like a whippet’, which is great news for Mark. Matt also coaches basketball to year 7-11.
He recently got married to Nicola, (who also plays basketball) and the couple are about to move into their first home together.
