Investment
RE Thompson are continuously investing in new technology and hardware in order to offer greater design, costdown and production capabilities to our customers and positioning ourselves as a forward thinking company capable of facing the challenges of tomorrow.

RE Thompson has built its reputation through working in partnership with its customers, collaborating at the early stages of design and right through the manufacturing process. This close relationship helps it to achieve quality, cost-down and delivery targets.

This philosophy also extends to its suppliers. The company has been using Mori Seiki machines, and before that, Hitachi Seiki machines for 18 years. Managing Director Michael Thompson said, “We wanted to grow our business by 67 per cent, and we could not achieve this with our existing equipment, leading us to re-evaluate every aspect of our business and methodology including batch sizes, machine tools, fixtures, clamping, inspection and tooling.”

In the first phase of reorganization and investment, RE Thompson have installed a Mori Seiki NH5000 40 DCG horizontal machining centre with a 12 pallet Fastems Flexible Pallet Magazine and a Zoller CNC tool presetting machine. A second Mori Seiki and Fastems combination will follow at the beginning of 2008, closely followed by a third and fourth.

The confidence for this move comes from the long term visibility of aerospace projects and the close working partnership which RE Thompson maintains with its customers. The company aims to migrate the majority of its production onto new machines, which will each do the work of four conventional CNC machines. The benefit will be the ability to economically manufacture batches of just five components. Previously, batches were around 50 to compensate for setting times.

Matthew Shaw, Business Development Manager, explained some of the advantages. “When we have to manufacture large batches, the components remain in storage until the customer required them, and if a design change occurrs this is not be reflected in the manufactured parts. Additionally, planning to meet sudden changes in production requirements is very complex.”

With the introduction of the new machines, storage costs will be greatly reduced, design iterations can be incorporated immediately, and the company can be responsive to changing delivery priorities. Each new machine has 240 tools and 12 pallets fitted with tombstone fixtures, presenting 48 faces for machining.

RE Thompson has chosen horizontal machines, as around 90 per cent of each part can be reached at each setting, making it possible to complete parts in two settings which may have taken up to six on a vertical machining centres.

The company is putting a considerable amount of effort into re-engineering its methods to maximise the benefit it gets from its Mori Seiki and Fastems systems.

Michael Thompson said, “We maximise jobs on each pallet, rationalise the tooling and reprogramme the part to enable us to stay within the 240 tool limit. That way we can ensure each pallet is machining for at least one hour, optimising the efficiency of the machine. Similarly we will arrange for parts which are in the same assembly or family to be located on the same fixture, simplifying our ability to meet production requirements. We are planning to achieve a 53 per cent reduction in total component cycle time.”

This drive for efficiency means that each machine only needs reloading with components at its two docking stations on a 12 hour day shift, allowing unmanned machining over the weekend and 24/7 production.

A Further advantage is the on machine probing, which automatically checks some of the key component dimensions and verifies the condition of the tooling before each operation.

Installing the Mori Seiki and Fastems systems will have a profound effect on RE Thompson, introducing a ‘just in time’ ethos which extends to the company’s suppliers.

The efficiency improvements and the investment programme will have a positive impact on RE Thompson’s relationship with its customers, enabling it to achieve cost down targets and build their confidence in the continuity of supply of high quality products.

Michael Thompson concluded, “The investment will enable us to grow our long term business, increase our flexibility and enable us to offer our customers a reduced leadtime for their jobs, achieving a step change in our business.”