July/August 2015
Welcome to our Blog feature! Our Directors Malcolm Healey and Chris Batty will, each month, share their perspectives on how Lestercast continues to thrive as a dynamic and entrepreneurial company.
This month Chris will be sharing his insights for July and August:-
Towards the end of July the annual sales and golf day took place. Attended by all the sales staff, the day proved very productive although the golf in the afternoon was a little more challenging in the rain! In summary, reports from the day showed that sales are going very well in 2015 and are well ahead of budget, though August and September look a little more challenging as is normal for the time of year.
We are well on our way to being certified as ‘Fit 4 Nuclear’ having achieved astounding results in the programme’s assessment stages. We believe we will be the first investment casting foundry in the UK to have achieved this status.
Continuing on the quality theme from above, we were assessed for our quality standards TS16949 and ISO 9001 in our audit these past few weeks and achieved only one ‘minor’, an excellent overall result.
- In relation to our onsite continuous improvement, we have had a computerised storage system installed and expect the team to have undertaken the system’s training by the end of August.
- Also installed this month are new flat, touch-screens in the inspection department and our engineers have new 3D software to assist with quoting and customer liaison.
- We anticipate the building to start on our new Research and Development area over the next few weeks which we expect to be completed by the end of September allowing us to move forward with achieving our goals in our R&D capabilities.
Having sent out 100 customer satisfaction surveys to our existing customers this past month, we’re delighted to have received 77 back with an average score across the board of 22 out of 25 which is outstanding. Due to our proactive approach towards all aspects of the business our customers continue to remain loyal to a great brand and excellent team behind it.
In November we have three of our team travelling out to China to our partner foundry in order to work with our colleagues into how we record and report some of our processes with the intention of streamlining some of the processes.
On a final note, we’ve had a great month within the business, although challenging, but there’s always a little time for fun and frolics, and of course promoting the Lestercast brand at the inaugural run of Bugalugs (Frazer Nash) in action at Chateau Impney near Droitwich! Bring it on!
Thanks for reading, Chris.