The longevity and productivity of modern CNC machine tools provide a cost-effective manufacturing solution, says a sub-contractor, emphasizing the importance of after-sales support.

Working in the competitive worlds of aerospace and Formula One motor racing, Alpha Precision Engineering is well aware of the need to deliver high quality components on time. During its six years as a preferred supplier to the top Formula One motorsport teams the Poole-based company has the distinction of never falling below a supplier grading of 98.5%. Steve Samways, Alpha Precision director, attributes this success to the company's investment in the best equipment to meet the demands of Formula One and a willingness to work with its customers to ensure deliveries are made when the customer expects them.

Even if this means putting on extra shifts and despatching goods by taxi.

With 40 employees and a GBP 3 million turnover Alpha Precision Engineering is aware that quality, price and delivery are important factors in remaining successful.

As a business it has taken its awareness to the next level where responsiveness, agility and flexibility are key factors to maintaining good customer relations.

'While our initial success in Formula One came about from the experience we gained in aerospace, namely being able to produce small batches of highly complex components on short lead times, a combination that is a perfect fit for Formula One, our ability to listen and understand the requirements of our customers in this sector was paramount to ongoing development,' said Samways.

Alpha Precision Engineering's success in these areas did not come overnight, though.

About 10 years ago it was heavily dependant on one particular customer, which was requesting reductions in component costs.

As a result the company purchased its first Mazak Super QuickTurn CNC lathe.

'Once we had that machine we saw opportunities to diversify into more complex aerospace work,' said Samways.

'This then led to further investment with Yamazaki Mazak and eventually to our involvement with the Formula One sector.' In fact, the latest investment, a Mazak QuickTurn Nexus 100M turning centre, has been installed to cope with specific work from Formula One and major customers in the aerospace sector.

'All of our 10 Mazak machines have performed excellently and have provided us with the versatility, speed and simplicity of use that is vital in supporting our customers.

A good example of the ease of use is that we find we can produce one-offs using the Mazatrol control quicker than is possible by a skilled person on a manual centre lathe,' said Samways.

The use of programmer/setter/operators at Alpha Precision demanded a machine control that is easy to use and program.

'All of our operators are very comfortable with the simplicity of the conversational control and we find that we can train people who are familiar with other control systems very quickly, whereas it is never that simple going the other way,' confirmed Samways.

The type of work that Alpha Precision is winning from Formula One throws up many challenges both in terms of complexity and the material - a situation that has influenced its machine tool purchasing decisions.

'We found over the years that Mazak machines are very robust and are at home machining a wide range of materials.

This build quality also results in these machines having a long service life, with some of our machines being over 10 years old and still capable of achieving the required tolerances on a consistent basis,' said Samways Nevertheless, Alpha Precision is constantly looking to improve manufacturing methods and reduce manufacturing costs.

Therefore, as part of its ongoing investment programme, it will gradually move older machines onto less demanding work and replace them with new Mazak turning centres to increase productivity and provide greater opportunities to win more business from its existing customers.

'This sort of longevity could not be expected from lower cost machines so, over the whole machine life, the cost comparisons are very similar,' explained Samways.

Alpha Precision sees its loyalty to Mazak as one of common sense as it is purchasing machines that are easy to use, and will remain highly productive, even after many years of use.

'Over the years we have purchased lower cost machines to fulfil specific contracts,' said Samways.

'But, after two or three years they no longer offer the reliability that we need.

The longevity and productivity that our Mazak machines provide ensures that we have a value-for-money and cost-effective manufacturing solution.

This, combined with the help and assistance we have received from Mazak's area sales manager Tim Ponter and his colleagues at Yamazaki Mazak, in terms of engineering and cycle time reduction and Mazak's willingness to look at a variety of funding options have made our Mazak's a very viable proposition.