Made in the Midlands member PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) has signalled its intention to double sales to over £40m after it became the latest manufacturer to be selected for the Sharing in Growth (SIG) transformation programme.
The company, which provides strategic outsourcing manufacturing services to some of the world’s biggest machinery builders, has started a 100-day intensive business improvement project that will help it increase operational efficiencies, create a more resilient supply chain and open up new opportunities in aerospace, defence and renewables.
Experts from SIG have completed a gap analysis to identify immediate and longer-term goals to work towards, as well as implementing a ‘survive and thrive’ approach to overcoming the joint issues of Brexit and Covid-19.
This will pave the way for the Cheslyn Hay-based firm to increase production capacity as it targets more than £40m of sales between now and 2024.
Tony Hague, CEO of PP C&A, commented: “There is no point even thinking you’ve reached your optimum performance; the moment you do that then complacency will set in, improvement stagnates and ultimately you will find yourselves dropping back behind the new competition that emerges.
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“That is why we embraced the opportunity to take part in the Sharing in Growth programme, a business transformation scheme that gives companies like ours accesses to world-class experts with more than 2000 years’ industrial experience between them.”
He continued: “What we really like about the collaboration is that a lot of the learning will be delivered on-site and we can handpick the different specialists, whether the focus is HR, leadership and management, logistics, lean manufacturing, even adoption of digital technologies.
“We have some really exciting expansion plans in place as we emerge from the economic shackles of Covid-19 and look to seize on the many new and exciting opportunities, some of which are developing on the back of the ‘attraction’ of reshoring supply chains within the UK manufacturing sector.”
PP C&A has been fully operational throughout the entire pandemic, providing strategic outsourcing solutions to customers involved in food and drink, packaging, renewables and medical.
The company’s expertise in control and automation and contract manufacturing, combined with the ability to quickly set up new production cells, has seen it supply critical wiring harnesses to the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium and a host of new Covid-19 inspired technologies designed to protect people and reduce the spread of the virus.
New orders have seen the firm return to pre-pandemic levels and in a position where it is now looking to hire new staff in a range of production and office roles.
Avais Chaudhri, Business Transformation Coach at Sharing in Growth, is leading on the project: “PP Control & Automation is already world-class in a lot of things that it does, but the management team still recognise the benefit for external expertise, especially in making it fit for new opportunities in aerospace and defence.
“We’ve identified some quick wins and a number of strategic changes that will help it meet some of the major requirements of the tier 1s and primes in these sectors, as well as putting the building blocks in place to help the company secure the relevant quality accreditations.
“Our 100-strong pool of experts ‘get industry’ and this makes a massive difference when it comes to imparting our knowledge through the senior leadership teams to the shopfloor, cascading an aligned message.”
Established in 2013, Sharing in Growth was initially set-up to provide intensive transformation support to accelerate business growth in the aerospace sector.
Its team members are deployed into clients to provide training, coaching and mentoring to address specific ambitions and diagnose challenges, including strategy development, operational excellence, productivity, culture and new product introduction.
Over the course of the last eight years, SIG’s focus has widened to also facilitate growth in offshore wind and other sectors, supporting the creation of 9000 highly valued jobs and generating £4.7bn of contract values in the process.
For further information, please visit www.ppcanda.com or follow ppcanda on LinkedIn. More details on SIG, can be found at www.sig-uk.org