Southfields Engineering - Engineering a more efficient business

Background

Southfields Engineering specializes in precision engineering of metal products. They had 3 old sliding head machines that were slow, old and inefficient. They knew that they could replace these 3 machines with 1 efficient sliding head machine, but need help with the cost, so they came to Low Carbon Business for support.

Southfields Engineering have been trading since 1979 and moved into their current location in Billericay in 2011 as a result of expansion and their old site becoming too small for the business. As a result of expanding they have also taken on 3 more members of staff in the last year and hope to recruit further in the future.

To aid the further expansion of the business they needed their equipment to become more efficient and produce parts quicker. In particular their existing 3 sliding head machines were slow and inefficient resulting in high energy bills. They knew they could replace this with a modern machine that worked much faster and was more energy efficient.

Knowing what they wanted Southfields Engineering came to Low Carbon Business to assist them, with the project. Low Carbon Business was able to guide them through an application for a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant towards the project costs.

Outcomes

The project cost of installing the new sliding head machine was £122,500 of which the Low Carbon Business Programme was able to approve a grant of £40,000 from ERDF funding.

The new sliding head machine is far more efficient and produces parts far quicker than the old machines. For example a part that used to take 4.5 minutes to produce now just takes 36 seconds to produce.

The new machine also enables Southfield Engineering to leave it running overnight when the electricity is cheaper and the parts will be all ready for when they arrive the next morning, saving time and costs. This will allow Southfield Engineering to take on more work enabling them to expand further.

It is expected that Southfield Engineering will be able to reduce their electricity usage by 54,000 kWh resulting in a reduction of 29 tonnes from their Carbon footprint. Additionally the improved efficiency of the new machine should enable 75 litres of waste oil to be diverted from landfill.  All these savings should result in Southfield Engineering make cost savings totalling £7,000 a year.

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Southfields Engineering - Engineering a more efficient business