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With effect from 1^st November 2023, the team at Fairburn are relocating to 96B, Blackpole Trading Estate West, Worcester WR3 8TJ.  Our phone number is unchanged as are all other contact details.

Commenting on the move, Managing Director Craig Carr said “Since we opened our office in Martley in 2005, the business has changed considerably and now is a good time for us to move to new premises that meet our current requirements and give us a good base for the future development of Fairburn Heating Solutions.   Our new location, closer to the M5 will improve our response time to the vast majority of our clients and the additional office space is a better working environment for the team and will help them deliver the excellent service that our clients value.”

Cam Fraser finished the season in style with a second place and first place at Brands Hatch last weekend, securing the British GP2 championship by a massive 83 points from his nearest rival.

Cam achieved 7 wins, 12 second places and 2 third places from his 22 races this season, a phenomenally consistent performance across over 7 months of hard racing.

A massive “well done” from all of us at Fairburn Heating Solutions, we’re so proud to sponsor you and your team.

Cam Fraser (pictured above) has made a flying start to 2023, building on his second place finish in the British GP2 Championship in 2022.  Cam picked up a second place in the first race at Silverstone and then won race two.  After the first six rounds he has taken 133 out of a possible 150 points and leads the championship by 8 points.  The next two rounds take place at Knockhill this weekend (16-18 June) and we’re keeping everything crossed for more strong results.

Michael Tustin (above), our other sponsored racer is competing in the EMRA 401- 600 cc class in 2023 and opened the season with a 4^th and 3^rd place, then won both the 3^rd and 4^th races to open up a big lead in the championship table.   He is also leading the Mallory Trophy for bikes up to 600cc with 90 points out of a possible 100 so far.

Craig Carr, Managing Director of Fairburn Heating Solutions said “It’s great to see Cam pushing on again from his strong performance in 2022 and Michael has made a tremendous start too; it’s great to see both our riders at the top of the table and we’re very proud to be associated with them again this season!”

At Fairburn Heating Solutions, our guiding belief is that process heating should never cause downtime.  Our vision, values and everything we do for our clients is built on this simple, but powerful belief.

How do we do it?

We work with our clients to help them transition from “reactive repairs” to a philosophy of “proactive asset management”.  We take them on the Fairburn Asset Management Journey to reduce breakdowns, grow productivity and transform the performance of their industrial gas heating system.

Does it work?

We get lots of very positive feedback from our clients and whilst many like to remain anonymous, some have allowed us to share great testimonial quotes and case studies.

However, that wasn’t enough for Craig Carr, Managing Director of Fairburn Heating Solutions.  As he put it “It’s fantastic when a client tells you how pleased they are, but we wanted to have some more concrete evidence, so four years ago we started tracking the amount of downtime repair work we carried out, to see if it was indeed reducing as we helped our clients move to a more proactive, planned approach to maintenance.”

What are the results?

The early data was very encouraging, but we quickly realised that looking at individual months was potentially misleading due to the inherent unpredictability of breakdowns and some seasonality in the maintenance work we undertake for clients.

To give a clearer picture we decided to track a moving 12-month figure which gives a smoothed figure.  This approach is commonly used to track performance where there is seasonality and volatility in the monthly data.  Unfortunately, it meant we had to wait a bit longer to see the results which tested our patience!  However, we now have over three years data and there is a clear trend with invoiced work from downtime repairs reduced by over 35% compared with 2020 for the same basket of clients.

Doesn’t that mean the business is in decline?

You might think so, but on the contrary, our strategy is not only delivering positive results for our clients, but it has also created the conditions for our business to enjoy sustained growth.

A shift from reactive to proactive maintenance work has allowed us to make better use of our expert engineers and given us the confidence to quote for and win new clients.  As a consequence, our business is growing, diversified and more resilient.

In summary, as Craig says “It really is a win-win:  our clients suffer fewer unplanned breakdowns, save money and strengthening their customer relationships; while our business continues to grow.”

Can my business benefit from the Fairburn approach?

If you would like to find out more about the Fairburn Asset Management Journey and how we can reduce unplanned breakdowns in your operations, please call us on 01886 5358 025, email totalsolutions@fairburnhs.com or send us an enquiry.

Just over a year after our first visit, James, Jay and Dan were back in the Isle of Skye for a week earlier this year, working for Mowi ASA, the largest producer of Atlantic Salmon on their Salmon feed driers.

In addition to our role as annual service provider, we were commissioned to replace two gas burners with smaller ones to provide more temperature control and save energy.  We removed two Winnox WX300 burners and replaced them with two Ratiomatic RM300 burners to give Mowi a lower temperature at the end of the oven, forcing the start and middle zones to increase temperature which gives the oven a better overall temperature profile for the drying of the Salmon feed.

The burners were acquired through Kempston Controls, who are channel partners of Honeywell.

The installation was a great success, and Mowi are now enjoying the energy saving.

We are always happy to support our valued clients when they undertake charity fundraising, but it’s still nice to receive a letter like this from Tim Freeman the Deputy Managing Director of Toyota thanking us for our support.

Like many of our clients, our relationship with Toyota is along one, going back over 15 years and is a good example of building a trusted relationship and a proactive maintenance service that supports their manufacturing goals.  To read the full letter, click on the image above.

Weishaupt are a leading manufacturer of gas, oil and duel-fuel burners widely used across the world.  With a history dating back to 1932, the company has a well-established reputation for reliability and quality.  Oil burner manufacturing began in 1952, with the first gas burner produced 60 years ago in 1963.

Craig, Sean James & Dan undertook a training session at Weishaupt UK HQ, Willenhall in December 2022. The Training focussed on the WG gas burner range which offer a wide capacity range up to 700kW, and with excellent programmable air gas/ration emissions performance.

Commenting on the successful training session, Craig said “Weishaupt gas burners are a great example of high-quality German engineering, and have very good spares availability, so we ‘re always happy to recommend them to our clients where the application fits.”

Find out more about our comprehensive process heating services – design, installation and maintenance.

Craig has always been keen to roll up his sleeves and support the team, and he’s now gone one step further having spent the last 18 months working through the commercial gas training programme to become a Gas Safe Registered Commercial Gas Technician.

This doesn’t mean he’s about to desert his responsibilities as Manging Director, but means he can help out at times of peak demand or emergency call outs.

As Craig says “It’s very hard to recruit decent Commercial Gas Technicians at the moment, and freelance Technicians are also in high demand, so it just seemed sensible to get my own qualifications and be able to support the field team when required.  At Fairburn we pride ourselves on the service we give to our customers, including working weekends and so if I can provide some back up to the front-line team it means we won’t let anyone down, even in periods of high demand.”

If you are interested in joining the Fairburn team, please visit the careers page of our website for details of current vacancies.

As energy and almost every other cost of production rises at rates we haven’t seen for a generation, many manufacturers are scutinising their costs looking for opportunities to make savings. In previous downturns, some businesses have chosen to cut maintenance. At face value, it’s an easy decision; move away from paying a regular fixed fee and only pay out when something absolutely needs fixing.

However, that is often a false economy. Moving away from proactive, planned maintenance will push a manufacturing plant back to a reactive approach to maintenance where parts are replaced or mended when they break. This inevitably results in more unexpected failures, unplanned breakdowns, unpredictable repairs and a rapidly spirally amount of downtime, with all the costs of idle plant and the potential damage to customer relationships. For many manufacturers, even one hour of unplanned downtime can be hugely expensive.

More enlightened manufacturers realise that good maintenance actually saves them money. Not just the reduction in unplanned breakdowns and downtime, but in a number of other ways. Installing secondary gas metering can identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency. Monitoring key expensive assets ensures they are replaced at exactly the right time, when their performance is deteriorating but before they break gets the maximum value out of the assets and keeps the whole production process running at optimal levels.

In addition, well-maintained production equipment enjoys a longer life, delaying the capital cost of replacement. In a climate of rising interest rates, securing finance and meeting more expensive repayments is a much more challenging situation than in recent years.

For more information about our approach to maintenance and the benefits that your business could enjoy, you can download our free white paper – The Asset Management Journey, or you can contact us directly through the contact form or give us a call on 01886 358025.

A fantastic end to the motorcycle racing season for our sponsored riders ended in the last few weeks.

Mike Leeson (pictured above) finished second in  the last race of his season to claim the Mallory Trophy 601-1300cc championship and second place in the Mallory Allcomers Trophy.

We’re really proud of your achievements Mikey – you absolutely smashed it!

Cam Fraser (pictured above with Craig Carr) had a fantastic finish to his season leapfrogging from 3rd place to 2nd in the Bennetts British Superbikes GP2 Cup.

Cam’s 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the last two races saw him finish 17 points clear of third place and narrow the gap on the championship leader.

Fantastic stuff Cam, we can’t wait for next season!