Sliding-head benefits - Pump manufacturer makes maximum use of automation to ensure competitiveness

摘要

Anyone with an engineering bent would be intrigued by the entrance hall of Stuart Turner. It houses the company's museum, which features more than 100 working models - all in impeccable condition - of engines, pumps, generators and boats. There is even a Stuart Turner motorcycle, a testimony to the early-1900s heritage of this Henley-on-Thames business. Still privately owned, Stuart Turner is today a re-focused business, having sold its models division to a Guernsey-based company in order to concentrate on the design, development and manufacture of pumps for customers in the building services, commercial-products and leisure markets. The 105-person company is currently producing more than 120,000 pumps a year and generating sales in excess of ￡17 million, and it is enjoying the benefits of keenly applied automation to fight off the competition - especially from overseas.