Structure and process control are recurring terms used by Mike Treadwell, managing director of Reedway Precision. He says: "Over the years, we have built total reliance on our alphacam system. We simply couldn't operate without it."

In the 1990's, the company continued to strengthen its CNC resources, not least through a £750,000 investment in a suite of new horizontal and vertical machining centres at its 12,500 ft 2premises. The alphacam installation paved the way for the company to adopt a more structured way of working. Among its early initiatives was the decision to move all machine programming off-line.

Every job undertaken by Reedway is first re-drawn and entered onto the alphacam system based on midtolerance dimensions. All drawing conflicts and missing detail, both on conventional paper and CAD drawings, are clarified with the customer at this stage, before the order is released to production.

"It enables us to iron out potential problems before committing to cutting metal. It can be a real pain sometimes, although it definitely pays dividends in the long run, " observes Mr Treadwell.

"Our Licom system is the key to removing the variables that could lead to misunderstandings and mistakes;

enabling us to make components for customer that are right first time, as well as right on time."

The business has developed into a well-respected contract machining operation, specialising in the supply of complex, multi-operation components in a variety of materials, including stainless steels, titanium and Inconels.

Reedway supplies customers in the aerospace, oil, marine equipment, motorsport, defence, electronics and banking equipment sectors, with components that can range from 1mm to 2m in length and weigh anything from a few grams to 3 tonnes.

www.reedway.co.uk