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When Dan Williams joined the Fairburn team in October 2014, he was already a huge car enthusiast.  After a period working alongside more senior engineers in the team to gain experience, it was clear that he would be a natural fit to deliver our support to the Honda factory in Swindon.

Honda was the first really big client for Fairburn Heating Solutions, back in 2005 and helped establish the business.  It was therefore a sad day when on 30^th July this year the last car rolled off the production line.  At its peak, the factory made 680 cars per day, with a total output of 3.7 million vehicles since it opened in 1985, with the best known car, the Civic exported across Europe.

Fortunately for Dan, this isn’t the end of his automotive experience with Fairburn.  He now makes regular trips to the Rolls Royce plant at Goodwood, on the outskirts of Chichester in West Sussex.

Dan commented “It’s great to be able to combine my work with my passion for all things automotive and feel like I’m playing my small part in keeping car manufacturing alive in the UK.”

When the Roasting Company, the largest family-owned processor of Peanuts and Tree nuts in the UK suffered a factory fire at their manufacturing facility near Sleaford in Lincolnshire they were quoted a lead time for delivery of replacement equipment of at least 16 weeks.

Fortunately, they decided to call Fairburn and we were able to offer them a complete refurbish as an alternative, with a target of 2 weeks to full recommissioning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo shows some of the clean and shiny refurbished equipment after our engineers had worked their magic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole team pulled together to get the work done, and James (pictured above) completed the commissioning work in time to hit the deadlines.

As Sean, one of our Senior Process Gas Technicians said “we pulled out all the stops, but it’s what we do for all our clients.  Process Heating should never be the cause of downtime”

Craig Carr, Managing Director of Fairburn Heating Solutions said “The Roasting Company were facing a situation which could have caused significant disruption and long-term damage to their business.  Fortunately, by pulling together as a team, we were able to complete the refurbishment and get them back to full manufacturing capacity 14 weeks earlier than they had feared.  They were very grateful to all our engineers for their efforts on the project.”

Last weekend saw the Ducati Performance TriOptions Cup move on to Donnington Park for races 5 and 6 of the 16 race 2021 championship.  The AH Performance team that we sponsor had another good weekend with Michael Tustin (pictured above) scoring 12 points across the two races, thanks to a 9^th place in the first race and 11^th in the second race.  Michael is now up to 9^th in the championship, just 4 points behind the 7^th place rider.  Ewan Potter achieved a 13^th place and 14^th place scoring 5 points in total.

The competition moves on to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire this weekend for round 4.  We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for more good results from Michael and Ewan.

For over 20 years, Leadec, a global leader in industrial technical services for the automotive manufacturing industry have trusted Fairburn to look after many of their customers.

Leadec offer networking capacity and global standards combined with the personal support of a regional partner.  Globally, they support over 200 locations employing tens of thousands of staff.

Fairburn deliver on behalf of Leadec, ensuring their customer service promises are kept in non-core facilities management packages.

Fairburn are responsible for controlling costs and delivering best value to the end customer, and in that role often communicate directly with Leadec’s customers to speed up delivery and protect Leadec’s relationships.

Fairburn have consistently delivered an average call out time of 2.5 hours, which together with their technical expertise in Automotive paint shop process heating systems ensures excellent service and customer satisfaction.

Fairburn hold regular structured meetings with Leadec to review work completed, share learning and plan for the future.

Leadec’s Head of Technical Services, Grafton Gray commented “For over 20 years, Craig and his team have provided a first-rate service to our customers across the Automotive industry. Our customers are delighted with their response time and the value they deliver, and we are happy to trust them with our most valuable customer relationships.“

If you would like to talk to a responsive process heating maintenance company that really “does what it says on the tin”, please call us on 01886 358 025.

We have a fantastic opportunity to join our team of engineers working nationally on a variety of installation & service projects in the process / industrial heating sector.

If you’re looking to join a dynamic, hardworking team of engineers with a great attitude and work ethic and mutual respect values, this may well be the job for you!

Applicants must have completed at least ACS Natural Gas modules CONC1 TPCP1 and TPCP1a; ICPN1; CORT1; CIGA1; CDGA1 and have at least 5 years’ experience of working in the commercial/industrial gas heating industries.  A full UK/EU driving licence is essential.

The successful candidate will naturally fit into our working cultures and values, be computer and iPad literate, hardworking, trustworthy and be able to work some antisocial hours as requested. Due to the nature of our core business being within the processes heating world, some weekend working (mainly Saturdays) and overnight / working away is also essential.

You can read more about our the vacancy and how to apply here.

Although it might seem like putting “the cart before the horse”, experience shows that it can be advantageous to think about maintenance of a process heating system before it is installed.

Specifically, who you will use to carry out the maintenance.  If you can find a maintenance company who can also install your process heating system, it is highly likely that their engineers will be able to provide better on-going maintenance if they carried out the installation.  The knowledge of how a system is installed can make it easier to maintain, and the installation team will be able to give consideration to easy maintenance as they carry out their work.

Fairburn Heating Solutions have extensive experience of installing process heating systems in a range of industries.  All installations are carefully project managed – we know the importance of delivering on-time and on-budget!

Our experience also encompasses a wide variety of industrial heating system brands, including Honeywell Eclipse, Honeywell Kromschroder, Honeywell Maxon, Wieshaupt, Riello, Esa Pyronics, Comtherm, Nu-Way, Elster Thermal Solutions (Honeywell) and Stordy (Fives Group).

You can read more about our process heating installation expertise here, or call us on 01886 358025 to discuss your requirements.

In our previous blog posts, we looked at the five steps of the Asset Management Excellence Journey.

The five step process is the method by which we move our clients from a situation where unplanned breakdowns and process heating systems failures are commonplace with all the associated unpleasant consequences, to a position where their process heating system is continually improved and optimised, positively contributing to the success of their business.

The process draws from four industry best practice principles:

1. Measurement – all key system statistics are recorded and tracked
2. Monitoring – regular reviews of all performance measures
3. Predicting – potential failures are identified in advanced
4. Operating below failure point – maintenance interventions are scheduled to prevent failures

Through the five steps we introduce 3 key enhancements, defined by BS-EN 13306 (2010):

1. Condition-Based Monitoring (CBM) – preventative maintenance, including a combination of condition monitoring, inspection, testing and analysis
2. Predictive Maintenance (PM) – maintenance carried out on the basis of forecast degradation of the item.  The forecast is derived from repeated analysis from CBM
3. Condition-Based Monitoring – monitoring of specific conditions enables prediction of the optimum maintenance timing

For some businesses, adopting these principles and committing to the Asset Management Excellence Journey may require a shift in focus.  A traditional manufacturing focus on output would need to be balanced with the efficiency and longevity of the process heating system.

If your process heating system suffers unexpected failures, unplanned breakdowns and increasing downtime costs, the Fairburn Asset Management Excellence Journey will help you transition to a more planned and proactive approach, giving you back control of your systems and ensuring they work for you and your business.  We can guide you through each step of the process, using our proven methodology and deliver a class-leading, high performance organisation.

To  read more about, please download our White Paper with the full Asset Management Excellence Journey or call us on 01886 358025 to discuss how we can help.

In our previous blog posts, we looked at the first step in the Asset Management Excellence Journey and the second and third steps. By step 3, companies have made a significant switch in their maintenance philosophy to proactive replacement or refurbishment of items before they break, utilising Asset Management Plans, Condition Monitoring and a Critical Spares List.

In step 4, we move from “planned” maintenance to “Proactive” maintenance. Again, this involves a shift in mindset.  The business definition and understanding of maintenance moves from “fixing and repairing” to “improving”.  The information from Condition Monitoring can be used to feed KPIs.  Reliability Centred Maintenance can be introduced and focus is on value.  This typically results in increased uptime, reduction or even elimination of defects and real competitive advantage.

The final step is to optimise the process heating system.  In step 5, companies can achieve BS-EN-55001 and “Best in Class” status.  This can create opportunities for strategic partnerships and alliances with key customers and builds an internal culture of a Hight Reliability Organisation.

Please download our White Paper with the full Asset Management Excellence Journey or call us on 01886 358025 to discuss how we could help your business.

In our last blog post, we looked at the first step in the Asset Management Excellence Journey, often described as the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. This is a very common approach, but often leads to unexpected failures, poor reliability, safety issues, and unpredictable output availability.

We now move to consider steps 2 and 3.  Step 2 is what we refer to as a break-fix model.  Companies adopting this approach hold replacement parts in stock so they can carry out repairs when items break.  This usually reduces the amount of downtime, but still results in unexpected breakdowns and typically incurs high costs associated with buying and storing spare parts.

Step 3 sees a significant shift with a move to a new maintenance philosophy of fixing items before they break.  This dramatically reduces the number of unexpected failures and all the associated tangible and intangible costs.  In this phase we typically see the introduction of Condition Monitoring , Asset Management Plans and the identification of the critical spares that do need to be kept on-site.  The prediction of required maintenance, planning for its execution and ensuring the work is done properly is usually centrally controlled.  As with any major change, this can be a challenging shift for many businesses, but the impact on costs and output and is usually significant.

In our next blogs, we will cover the two remaining steps, but if you can’t wait, you can read more and download our White Paper or call us on 01886 358025.

For many businesses, process heating systems are characterised by unexpected failures, unplanned breakdowns, unpredictable and uncontrolled repair time all combining to create spiralling downtime costs and disruption.

To make matters worse, an increasing number of customers are seeking to reduce inventory costs and asking their key suppliers to commit to continuity of supply with substantial penalties and even loss of business for failures.

At Fairburn Heating Solutions we believe process heating should never cause downtime. We help our customers move from this chaotic situation to a position of excellence where their process heating system is continually improved and optimised, making a positive contribution to business success.  We achieve this by following our 5 step Asset  Management Excellence Journey.

Step 1 is where many clients start, often described as the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach.  Maintenance is ignored until an item breaks, when a fix is then organised.  The consequences of this approach are unexpected failures, poor reliability, safety issues, and unpredictable output availability.  Whilst this may sound (and be) and undesirable state of affairs, many businesses have become accustomed to this as the status quo, and are unaware of the opportunity to move to a better approach.  In our next blogs, we will cover the remaining steps, but if you can’t wait, you can read more and download our White Paper or call us on 01886 358025.