Mech-Tool Engineering: partnership brings savings and business
A design and engineering business has cut its costs by £350,000 and gained major new business thanks to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership.
Mech-Tool Engineering worked on the Seadragon Oban B semi-submersible rig designed to drill at depths of up to 10,000 feet.
Mech-Tool Engineering gained the confidence to bid for major new contracts after a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) helped it to improve its processes and save costs.
The business manufactures bespoke fire- and blast-proof enclosures for highly hazardous industries, including offshore oil and gas.
During the 2-year KTP with Teesside University and one of its recent graduates, MTE successfully applied multi-dimensional strategies, processes and systems – typically used in high volume, low variability manufacturing – to its own low-volume, high-variability business.
The new integrated process has reduced both total costs and delivery times for MTE products.
MTE wins £60 million contracts
When the KTP ended in 2015, the savings it created were estimated at £350,000 a year.
MTE recently won new contracts worth £60 million in Kazakhstan, increasing its forecast 2017-18 turnover to a record £50 million. Improved capacity planning, reduced stock on site and other efficiencies that came out of the KTP were instrumental in giving MTE the confidence to bid for these major contracts.