Forces at work

I’d like to be able to tell you much more, and I will do in the very near future, about a new contract that we were awarded here at Magnet Schultz Ltd back in April. We’re close to finishing the project and have already delivered most of the product we manufactured.

What’s different about this work is that it has nothing to do with our celebrated solenoid and electromagnetic development expertise. Instead, our selection by our friends at Kingston-based product design agency Hothouse was all to do with our prototyping skills and medium-volume manufacturing capability. That’s pretty rewarding.

The project involves a collaborative venture between one of the major cellular airtime providers and a key element of the transport infrastructure in London. I can’t tell you any more as it would give the game away and, as is the way with these things, we need to secure approvals before we can give more detail – or mention names.

Suffice to say that the project offers a real and tangible benefit to mobile phone users travelling around our capital city. Our part in this has been to ramp up production fast and organise our engineering capacity to deliver the product within the short timescales and stringent reliability specs required. Nothing new for us there, but it’s good to get customer recognition for our “sound organisational and electromechanical engineering skills”. The result was the timely manufacture of a total of 1,000 units in all.

For us here at Magnet Schultz Ltd, this piece of business indicates the breadth of our engineering skill set. We’re looking forward to the conclusion of the project and the installation of the product we manufactured. Then we’ll tell you all about it – so check this blog from time to time.

If variety is the spice of life, then I think diversity might be the spice behind business life. It’s certainly true here at Magnet Schultz Ltd. Our core products and services typically target a dozen markets sectors, all of which you could generally call ‘industrial’ in their application. Check for yourself on our website. But there’s always an exception. Take for example the theatrical staging and events sector, which is our focus right now.

In a couple of days, we launch our new Electro Kabuki 2 system at an event called Plasa in Earls Court. Plasa is a leading international trade show for event, installation and entertainment technology. It’s a perfect fit for EK2 and sounds like fun, too. By the way, the word Kabuki comes from early 17^th century Japanese dance drama that featured a ‘reveal’, typically some kind of curtain drop. Electro Kabuki… well, the clue’s in the name.

Our original Electro Kabuki was developed 3 year s ago for a special application using our solenoid technology expertise to deliver the reliable, right-first-time drop that event stagers need to prevent the whole show becoming a bit of a flop. Nothing worse than the drape not releasing completely to reveal you smart new supercar, or tech gadget, or circus troupe. You get the idea.

For the guys running these events, it’s all about total confidence in the Kabuki drop system; these dramatic moments have to work flawlessly. Fortunately, the rugged new EK2 offers that and more. It includes all sorts of enhancements and improvements. Find out exactly what at www.electrokabuki.com. But Electro Kabuki 2 is diverse for another reason. It’s one of a number of projects where Magnet Schultz Ltd delivers the whole solution, rather than a solenoid subassembly that’s part of somebody else’s solution.

If you’re around the western outskirts of London from 11^th to 14^th September, why not drop in to Earl’s Court and see Electro Kabuki 2 in action. We’re running live demos of an innovative two-stage drop in Hall 2 on Stand 2-R8. At the very least, it promises to be revealing!

Apologies to aficionados of 1980s cult TV programme The A-Team. George Peppard’s character as A-Team leader John ‘Hannibal’ Smith frequently uttered the line: “I love it when a plan comes together,” with a degree of smug satisfaction, typically at the conclusion of every show as they prevailed over the baddies – which they always did. As I recall, he usually puffed on a big Havana cigar. Which is probably something you couldn’t do on TV now, victorious or not!

Bear with me; the 1980s reference is quite relevant here. On 4^th July this year, I was similarly rewarded with a degree of smug satisfaction as the new bronze statue of former US President Ronald Reagan was unveiled outside the US Embassy in London. 2011 would have been Ronald’s 100^th birthday. The tribute was revealed by a blue drape, which fell away right on cue. In fact, it fell away in two stages, which made the reveal all the more engaging – especially for those of us who knew how it was done.

A couple of weeks earlier, our good friend and regular customer John Quartermaine of Future Events popped in to the Magnet Schultz factory to pick up some more electropermanent magnets. (Type GMP, if you’re interested). These small devices are permanent magnets while unpowered; apply power and they cease to be magnetic.

John and his company were responsible for many aspects of the Reagan London tribute on US Independence Day, including  the complete design, construction and management of the event for the Ronald Reagan Foundation as well as the statue unveiling. He attached our electropermanent magnets to the central hem of a large blue ‘reveal’ cloth draped over the 10-foot-tall presidential tribute. At the right moment, a press or two on a control button and the cloth separated along its centre line, revealing the old cowboy-cum-leader-of-the-free-world in all his bronze smiling glory. A great plan that came together. Great weather for it too. Check out this YouTube link.

Another fine day sharing knowledge

I’m driven to report on a fine organisation called MAS – the Manufacturing Advisory Service. Check them out at www.mas-se.org.uk. We like them and collaborate with them whenever we can. Why? Because it’s good to get an external perspective of our in-house development endeavours and that’s what MAS does.

MAS runs a quarterly Best Practice Club; we hosted one here at Magnet Schultz Ltd in January. Yesterday, about 30 people representing 15 businesses assembled at a company in Dorking. Mostly, the day centres around Lean Manufacturing related to World Class performance. We discuss, comment, try to help each other and generally chuck in our group experience. It’s all very good – and excellent for keeping up to speed and lifting the operation. I also find it keeps the mind open and often prevents the needless reinvention of the wheel.

In my view, progressive companies are confident companies. And confident companies go out and talk about what they’re doing. We certainly do, facilitated by MAS. We like to go out and mix with like-minded people. And we enjoy being part of the leading pack – some might like to use the latest buzzword: ‘Thought Leadership’. But more importantly it’s also Practical Leadership, which makes even more sense in manufacturing. We’re a practical industry, you know!

So the bonus good news from yesterday’s event is that MAS has not been targeted in the forthcoming round of cutbacks. Seems its contribution to manufacturing and the government’s interest is to be continued for another three years at least. This fortunately means that our collaborations with the MAS people and the other initiatives they deliver to us, like staff training, will also continue.

As you can tell, I’m pretty pleased with that. All in all, another good day at the office.

Perhaps time does heal, but a weekend isn’t long enough to
recover from the trauma of using an NEC badge scanner. After all the good
things that happened it feels a little churlish raising it, but I can’t move on
without ‘sharing’.

This was the first year we used badge scanners at IFSEC. At
10:00 on Monday, expectations were running high at all the benefits that would
accrue. By 10.05 the rush to be first with the scanner was subsiding. By 10:30
it was as though the scanner was hitched to a 415 Volt supply. Untouchable. A
vile and pernicious object of derision.

The problem was one of reliability – no amount of varying
the angle, the distance or the (increasing) violence directed at the ‘scan’
button, seemed to make any difference. Bagging the customers’ details required
the patience of Job and the dexterity of a champion weaver.

Now we all know that looking busy on an exhibition stand is
a good thing. But subjecting would-be customers to a lengthy spell locked in a
semi-intimate pose with one of our helpful staff, didn’t mesh too readily with
my idea of sales development.

At an exhibition where scanning technology is taken fairly
seriously, I wonder if we were the only ones who struggled…

A quieter moment where we had time to take a photo

Phew! What a week that was!

IFSEC was a great success for us. It’s no exaggeration to say that at times our stand was mobbed. Yes, we had visitors aplenty interested in our product launches and solenoid assemblies. A few key customers popped by, had a chat, and ate some of our chocolates.

Perhaps best of all is that we were able to selectively preview our newest (and still secret) technology offering. We’ve called it BLOC Technology; it’s essentially a deadlocking shotbolt solution that defies any attempt to forcibly overcome its locked state. That fascinated quite a few people.

For now, BLOC remains under wraps. Its potential applications are about as broad as your imagination. And that’s a curious position to be in: we can’t begin to envisage the myriad of applications that could benefit from BLOC. Anyway, we’ll be officially revealing more about BLOC in the next few weeks. Keep an eye on our website and this blog for more details.

If you visited us at IFSEC, thanks; it was good to see you. If not, you missed a fine show and some great new stuff from us but remember we’re always available to see you. Just get in touch.

All the best from the Magnet Schultz Ltd team.