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of the company. Wherever we can make improvements that benefit the customer and improve our own manufacturing efficiency – reducing labor time to increase throughput – we absolutely will.”
Montracon’ s most significant development is the current exploration of robot welding.“ At present, all our welding is done by hand,” says Paul.“ The parent company that owns our business is called Martin Group, and their board is very supportive of this – in fact, they are actively encouraging us to progress our research.” He explains how the business case is strengthening, as volume is increasing by 30 percent this year, with a further 20 percent planned for next year.“ During Covid, the Doncaster plant was temporarily closed due to government guidelines, and recovery took time. But the volumes are growing substantially now, and robotic welding would put us on a very solid footing,” he expands.“ We’ ve recently appointed a number of key people to strengthen the team at
Doncaster and there is a strong focus on lean manufacturing, quality, health, safety and environment. This is a significant new role and the thinking is straightforward: if you get health and safety and quality right, production takes care of itself.”
Heading on an upward trajectory, the company’ s ambitions show no sign of slowing down.“ We want to see the business back in the top three UK manufacturers,” shares Steve.“ We’ re aiming high, but not at the expense of what makes us who we are. We’ re not going to compromise on quality, strength, durability, or any of our core values just to chase volume.“ I’ d love to see Montracon back where it was – arguably the second biggest in the UK, or certainly in the top three,” he concludes.“ It’ s more than achievable. The volume growth is there; we just need to keep building to the standard our customers expect.” ■
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