Like the rest of the nation, and the world, the last few months have been a challenging time for everyone here at Kirkstall Precision Engineering. Who would have thought at the start of the year that all our plans would have to be put aside to remodel our engineering processes to help in the making of ventilators for the NHS in conjunction with several other companies. It has even seen us work in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, and as lovers of all things automotive here at KPE, that was a little bit of a dream come true.
Whist there are still many challenges ahead, including the installation of a new automated production line (more on that to come in future posts) everyone here at KPE are incredibly proud of what we have achieved.
It all started by our management team seeing the huge amount of news stories at the start of the coronavirus crisis and realising that we were perfectly placed to aid in the production of ventilators. We immediately set about contacting everyone from local MPs to news organisations and contacts in a wide range of engineering companies to let people know that KPE were ready and waiting to help.
And help we did. Quickly our machines and teams were put into action and gone were such things as weekends and evenings as we worked tirelessly to complete vital parts of ventilator machinery that were needed by NHS teams throughout the UK.
Commenting about the last few months, Kirkstall Precision Engineering’s Director of Operations, Iqbal Bahia, commented that: “Looking back we’re proud of what we have been able to do here at KPE. Our team of precision engineering experts have gone above and beyond to very quickly enable us to adjust our machines to provide vital sections of ventilators… and they didn’t stop there as our teams gave their all when it came to working hard to get the parts out of the door to the highest of standards that we have become renowned for at KPE.”
As we come out of these strange times there are still challenges ahead but the investment in both people and machines are a key focus to ensure Kirkstall Precision Engineering can meet the demands of any kind of precision engineering request whether it be for cars, medical devices, machine parts or even something as vital as life-saving ventilators.