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turnover in the middle of the Covid crisis to nearly £ 100 million today.
While still very much a manufacturing business, Hanover has shifted its focus to LED technology instead of electromagnetic flip dots. Bringing outsourced fabrication back in-house has allowed Hanover to deliver improved and faster service to its customers. Sean Winter, Operations Director, explains how this shift has empowered the company to regain flexibility and strengthen product development.“ With our extensive product portfolio, we ship between 1800 and 1900 units each week, including assembled products that encompass a wide range of printed circuit board assemblies, such as power supplies, processor boards, and display boards. Outsourcing these presents several issues because some orders are high volume while others are low volume. By bringing these boards back in-house, we gain greater flexibility. For example, if an urgent order comes in today, we can easily adjust our machine priorities to produce the boards needed for that order. Typically, lead times for sourcing from the Far East are around eight weeks for shipping. By the time we place our order with a supplier and they procure materials and schedule production, we could face a timeline of 14 to 15 weeks. In contrast, our in-house manufacturing delivers considerably shorter lead times. Being able to react quickly and take control of our production process has contributed to our growth as a business.
“ Moreover, in-house capabilities help tremendously with prototyping. As we design and manufacture new product lines in-house, our design teams can communicate directly with production and process technicians about the product they want to develop and the challenges it entails. Once we create prototypes, engineers from development work closely with the production team to address any issues. Our in-house capabilities truly help with communication and resolving
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