Surrey-based firm Amazon Filters, which provides industrial and engineering solutions, has announced the addition of more capacity to its housing component manufacturing with two semi-automated CNC mills.
The purchase and implementation of the mills are the latest stages in a £1m investment programme designed to strengthen support for all industries worldwide that rely on process filtration.
Capital expenditure on new machinery supports the company’s policy of ‘vertical integration’, based on the principle of manufacturing being increasingly done in-house and reduced reliance on third parties or sub-contractors.
The aim is to support ‘quick and able’ manufacturing, which denotes the fast, accurate capacity to turn round customer orders, including complex and bespoke projects.
According to the company, the new CNC equipment complements a doubling of staff numbers in housing component manufacture.
Adrian Price, lead fabricator for housing component manufacturing, said: “It’s big-scale work and we represent the start of the process for making housings.
“In line with the company’s expansion, we moved to our separate and bigger hub from under a mezzanine floor in the main production centre in 2019.
“The extra space and capacity have enabled us to do far more in-house rather than rely on subcontractors or third-party suppliers.
“We have done a great deal of in-house training with everyone upgrading to be able to do all the jobs within the department including the use of the new CNC mills.
“Working in conjunction with colleagues in the sales and operations departments, we have made massive in-roads on productivity through dynamic scheduling and greater control over workflows and delivery times.
“As the worldwide market expands, the ability to do things in-house becomes more important so we have taken the opportunity to grasp the nettle and improve our processes.”
Amazon Filter’s capital investment programme also includes the relocation of storage space and the opening of a new production hall for the manufacture of pleated filter cartridges, a flagship product for the firm.
What’s more, the capital spend reportedly complements recent team appointments on the sales side, including territory managers for the Americas and Asian-Pacific regions.
