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Sigma
Customer confidence
Bending is recognized as one of Sigma’ s core capabilities and once fully recovered, post-pandemic, it made sense to invest in the latest equipment.“ We have invested in three new benders to cover a range of tube diameters and materials that are all running identical software and have common processes and training requirements. We have specified the machines to cover our current requirements but also cater for what we see as future opportunities that we would not be able to access with our old machinery. The machines will enhance our capability for some of the larger diameters in the tougher materials and crucially will give us confidence that we can deliver products quickly and in a reproduceable way,” he enthuses.
“ We are a‘ build to print’ supplier, which means that the design authority of all the parts we make rests with the customer and our obligation is to make parts that conform to the customer’ s design and drawing. As such, our innovation focuses on the best way of producing the customer-defined product; be it the way we design the manufacturing route, the use of modular tooling or fixtures and innovative processes to eliminate waste or reduce lead time.”
The company has recently had all its sites surveyed to assess any environmental impact and implemented recommendations for improvement. For example, it recently worked with a customer to allow shipment of multiple products within a single container, rather than one package per product, delivering a significant reduction in shipping materials. Many of Sigma’ s products are sensitive to handling and even changes to the packaging need to be carefully planned and implemented.
“ Clearly,” Richard adds,“ the issue is much broader than addressing things internally and we have a whole supply chain both behind and in front of us that is working to reduce the environmental impact of the
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