PEP make large investment to facilitate greater capacity for future growth plans

Published - 12th Nov 2019
PEP make large investment to facilitate greater capacity for future growth plans 8

Precision Engineering Plastics (PEP) is a leader in the production of close tolerance injection moulded components. For more than 30 years the company has delivered world class manufacturing solutions, combining the highest levels of technical capability with a genuine problem-solving mentality. From a 40,000sq ft. London based manufacturing facility that boasts 30 injection moulding machines including automated 6 axis robotic cells. Equipped with a state of the art in-house toolroom and a dedicated floor for assembly and other added value services.

“Employee satisfaction and retention are key performance indicators for business success”

This continued investment strategy will enable PEP to further strengthen our position as a market leader for technical injection moulding in the UK. The extension incorporates new offices & conference rooms, additional injection moulding machines, state of the art manufacturing facilities, as well as brand-new facilities for employees.

PEP offer tool design and manufacture in-house and have experience handling multiple tooling suites in our fully equipped UK toolroom. Since the toolroom installation in 2009 we have gone from strength to strength in our tool making ability, as a result the toolroom is in higher demand than ever. To keep up with this growing demand we are increasing the size and capacity of our in-house toolroom.

Alongside this investment we are also making some process improvements by implementing a lean manufacturing method called Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED). This will reduce waste and improve efficiency within the manufacturing process by providing a rapid interchange of tooling.

Benefits include:

  • Improved speed of tool changeover gives greater flexibility for production and improves efficiency as well as opening the door to revolutionised production methods
  • Reduction of stock which drives inventory turnover rates
  • Improved productivity rates
  • Lower expense of setups

Included in the investment is a brand-new 3D Printing machine. This allows us to fully evaluate part design and prototypes to meet customer demands. Printing 3D parts can also be very useful when carrying out DFMEA. 3D Printing allows low cost and time efficient prototyping. Various materials; PLA, Nylon, CPE combined with PVA support material up to size:

-Width (X) 330mm
-Depth (Y) 240mm
-Height (Z) 300mm

To help manage the growing business and client demands PEP have added an additional dedicated project engineer. Communication and visibility are vital throughout these technical projects and the team, now consisting of 4 project engineers’ responsibility is to manage the project from start to finish and maintain a single point of contact throughout the client’s entire project.

PEP’s attention to Quality is at the centre of everything we do. Maintaining the IATF16949 quality standard is a top priority for the business and with this in mind we will be doubling the size and capacity of our Quality Assurance and Testing Laboratory. This will help maintain the quality expectations and demands of our clients.

At PEP we have an ‘open door’ attitude. We are always happy to welcome our existing and potential clients to visit us at our manufacturing facility in Enfield. This has always gone over well and to continue to facilitate this ‘open door’ policy we have added additional

state of the art meeting and conference rooms which are currently under construction.

There is no getting away from the Brexit discussion and the uncertainty surrounding imports from the EU. This will affect businesses in different ways. PEP is in a fortunate position that we rely heavily on the UK within our service supply chain. However, this could present a risk to a small portion of our raw material supply chain. To mitigate against this our new expansion creates more storage space for a longer-term stock holding of the ‘at risk’ materials as well as our production stock holding for our export clients within the EU that may require increased supply prior to the UK leaving the single market.

At PEP we believe employee satisfaction, morale and retention are key performance indicators for business success. We feel very strongly about this and so we have created new staff changing rooms, showers, lockers and a brand-new canteen area where all members of the team will have access to an equipped kitchen area with modern and comfortable dining facilities. We have increased parking for commuting staff and client visitors. When you arrive at PEP you will have dedicated visitor parking bays and a brand-new reception and waiting area. We look forward to welcoming new and existing customers to our new and improved production facility.

“This investment represents a culmination of a great few years for PEP and we are very excited about the opportunities this expansion will unlock. We look forward to continued growth in what we believe could be a prosperous time for UK manufacturing, as we stabilise our independence from the EU with domestic sourcing as well as secure new global trade deals to, in the long term, benefit the UK economy”

Padraic Doheny, Managing Director, PEP Ltd.

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