Due to the pandemic, many manufacturing businesses are struggling or looking to save money. UK manufacturing appears to be improving as a whole, but companies must do their best to ensure they’re not left behind.
As spring manufacturers, we’re taking a look at how you can cut costs while maintaining the same levels of quality and customer experience, in order to boost your bottom line.
Create Greener Factories
Green plants significantly reduce their impact on the environment and the planet and can also help businesses to keep costs down. This social responsibility can help you to partner with companies that prefer to deal with green businesses as well; so, by missing out on a more sustainable plant, you can also be missing out on business opportunities.
You can sell extra materials and products that you don’t need, like batteries, instead of throwing them away. This will give you a nice profit and avoid materials ending up in landfill.
Greener factories are also efficient when it comes to energy consumption. So, make sure you’re using only what you need and invest in energy-efficiency lighting, equipment and machinery.
Airedale Springs have a big focus on sustainability. We are passionate about the environment and are always looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, including reducing the amount of waste in landfill.
Airedale Springs:
- Are an EPC Grade A building
- Installed 132 solar panels generating 22% of our power
- Added LED/ Induction Coil Lighting throughout the factory
- Recycle all recyclable waste streams
- Reduced skips to landfill from 12 per year to 3
Cutting Material Costs
This doesn’t mean compromising on quality. It’s crucial that manufacturers continue delivering the best products and services, so cutting back on material costs should focus on improving the design of the products, making use of all available resources and reusing materials whenever possible.
The first thing you should do is take stock of what you have in place, from the processes to the actual materials – this will help you to determine your bigger expenses and where you can cut costs. Good quality materials are also long-lasting when compared to cheap ones, and they can be reused more easily. In the long run, you’ll end up saving more money.
By checking your inventory, you will also ensure that you’re not ordering more materials than you actually need. Wastage is a massive problem for many businesses and can occur at any stage of the manufacturing process, from sourcing to storage.
Negotiate Better Prices
This is crucial for manufacturers. Shopping around for the best rates should be a priority, so avoid accepting a price right off the bat without checking competitors. And, if you’ve had supply partners for a long time, you should make sure that you’re working with them because of their quality products and prices, not just because it’s convenient.
It should be noted however that the cheapest price might not turn out to be the lowest cost.
Try to negotiate costs with suppliers in order to reduce prices but be reasonable and fair and ensure that all charges are quoted upfront so a detailed comparison can be undertaken.
Use the Best Equipment and Machinery
Airedale Springs have always invested in high quality materials, equipment and machinery. While this can mean a bigger investment up front, opting for quality from the get-go allows us to keep costs down in the long run. And the same can be applied to your business.
After all, buying quality equipment means you won’t have to replace it or repair it often, you don’t have to worry about excessive errors in the production line and you can keep wastage to a minimum. In addition, you don’t have to worry about machinery downtime. Stopping production can be quite costly, so high quality equipment will keep your business running. Instead of price, look at a machine’s production speed, for instance.
We have a great deal of CNC coiling and wire-forming machines manufactured by Wafios, HTC, DKPM and Adtech, and all of them are top of the line. This allows us to make full use of their capabilities and to deliver consistently great results to our clients.
You can find a list of our machinery in our “Why Choose Airedale Springs as Your Spring Manufacturer” page.
Invest in Automation
If possible, automate manual processes so that you can boost your productivity and efficiency. Again, while this can require an initial investment, it can help you save money down the line. Automation can help you to identify issues in all manufacturing stages, can help you to handle complex processes, can monitor your inventory to help you stay on top of your products and materials, and so much more.
At Airedale Springs, we understand these are complicated times for many manufacturers, and that many will be looking to keep costs down. There are plenty more things you can do in your business to achieve this, from doing preventative maintenance to creating a long-term business plan that prepares you for future eventualities.
To learn more about how Airedale Springs can help your business, get in touch today and we’ll be happy to discuss your requirements with you.