UK Dies - working with customers to provide longer product life

By UK Dies Group Ltd
schedule22nd Aug 19

Collaborating with customers is the focus for precision tooling company UK Dies as it seeks to make products with a longer working life, increasing their cost efficiency.

Digbeth-based UK Dies’ managing director Paul Singh and his team are on a mission: to standardise the life of tooling products they provide so customers know they will get a minimum number of parts made when they buy from the company.

“There are lots of variables with tooling and we want to eliminate them,” says Paul. “Our objective is to become a one-stop-shop for all tooling so our customers can focus on making the parts and do not have to worry about the tooling. We are not only offering design consultancy but also audits – going out to customers and auditing them to see if there is anything we can do to help them standardise their tooling.”

UK Dies is testing the norm, collaborating with customers on drawings and their tooling design in a positive way to ensure longer lasting tool life. This approach has proven effective; UK Dies has improved tool life by 400% in some cases. To achieve this increase in tool life does sometimes require a culture change from customers and, not unexpectedly, some are defensive about this. But the UK Dies team works closely with them to overcome this. UK Dies’ input is focused on being positive – not looking what is wrong, but rather what can be done better.

The UK Dies website (www.ukdies.com) shows the most common tools the company manufactures - its bread and butter – but a much wider range of products can be produced. UK Dies supplies a variety of products in different materials and is proud to be able to machine tungsten carbide as hard as 6% cobalt on CNC machining with high accuracy. Be it one-offs or large batch work, with UK Dies bespoke planning system, every job is planned with every programming and manufacturing step and the time needed for each step taken into consideration. This enables UK Dies to ensure consistency on large or repeat orders and give accurate lead times leading to consistent on time delivery.

UK Dies is especially successful with customers who practise lean manufacturing and measure tool life, taking total cost of ownership into their calculation. UK Dies products are in demand in the UK and worldwide with customers in industries like fasteners, valves, plumbing, ammunition and many more, basically tools for any presses are made in UK Dies.

To stay at the forefront of precision tooling, UK Dies continuously invests in state-of-the-art machinery, purchasing 13 new machines in the past four years, with four just in the past 12 months. Its newest machines are from Mazak in Worcester, another Made in the Midlands member. 

Besides capital investment into new machinery, UK Dies invests in training, to ensure that the next generation of skilled workers is coming through. The company has taken on 10 apprentices in the past three years, working closely with local colleges, including MakeUK. The transfer of skills takes years and is a long-term investment. Apprentices staying the course will see a defined career path within UK Dies and the aims is for them to stay with the company for the long-term.