BKW Instruments

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by BKW Instruments's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from BKW Instruments is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.bkwinstruments.co.uk

35BKW INSTRUMENTS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Paul Baker, company chairman

BKW service team

supporting a customer

BKW was established in 1928 to supply equipment to the

powerhouses of the Manchester cotton mills. Starting

in the 1940s, the company began to diversify into the

growing UK petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical

sectors alongside other process industries. For the last 40

years, the company has specialised in supplying pressure,

temperature and flow instrumentation. Despite their long

history, the business never looks back and is constantly investing

and benchmarking itself against the best instrumentation

companies in the world. Chairman Paul Baker discusses here all

thingsBKW.

Our business has three main divisions, or, as we refer to them, pillars: partnerships,

manufacturing and service. Our partnerships pillar links our customer and suppliers

together to provide fast, local support. The manufacturing pillar allows us to

tailor and adapt the products we supply to suit the special requirements of our

customers. The service pillar enables us to install, support, maintain and calibrate

the products during the entirety of their life cycle.

While a lot of instrument companies have been closing or downsizing their UK

manufacturing capability, we have been expanding our operations. We doubled

the size of both our offices and factory in 2015, with substantial investment into

new technologies and equipment. A key aspect of our manufacturing facility is that

both the customer and our sales administration have the final say on the sequencing

of work within our own factory ahead of the factory manager. This brings with it

unique challenges that require innovative solutions to ensure lean production and

efficiency, an integral part of which is a multi-skilled workforce. This helps to secure

FACTS ABOUT

BKW INSTRUMENTS

»Chairman: Paul Baker

»Established in 1928

»Based in Manchester

»Services: Specialists in the

manufacture of process

instrumentation for the

measurement of pressure,

temperature and flow

»No. of employees: 65

»Turnover: £7.5 million

»One of the most modern

instrumentation factories in

the UK

»Significant investment to

make specialist products and

solutions in days, not weeks

»www.bkwinstruments.co.uk

BKW Instruments

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

36 | BKW INSTRUMENTS

a loyal customer base, one that knows

they can rely on our support, however

challenging their requirements may be.

Research and development

Four years ago, our business contact

at Salford city council introduced us

to two gentlemen from HMRC. They

explained the R&D corporation tax

relief available to us. This meeting

substantially changed our approach

and investment into further research.

As a result, we have rapidly expanded

our scientific and technological

product development, and, last year,

opened a new engineering innovation

department. In 2018, we recruited a

further two mechanical engineering

graduates to supplement the

existingteam.

In one example of the team’s work,

we utilised our expertise in the

containment of hazardous chemicals

alongside our expertise in working

with tunnel drilling machines. With this

combination of experience, we were

then able to produce a new solution

for subsea pressure measurement

for oil exploration and drilling. The

new product was highly reliable

and provided the kind of critical

environmental containment that is

essential in today’s oil exploration

sector. We are currently working on

other subsea applications and projects

that will function at depths of up to

3,000 metres.

Not all the teams’ projects are quite as

high profile, but, nonetheless, they do

consistently perform to client needs.

We often only have days to solve a

customer’s technical problem, design

a solution and then manufacture the

finished product in our factory. This

R&D initiative is a great example of

co-operation between government

and industry. It has helped to secure

our status as a successful and dynamic

home-grown engineering business.

QuickBuild

There are many companies throughout

the EU that can supply instrumentation

products off the shelf to their

customers. Generally, however, where

they all fall short is possessing the

ability to quickly tailor a product to

an application, or solve a challenging

measurement problem in a timely

manner. It is in most cases typical to

wait at least three to five weeks for

an appropriately engineered solution.

At BKW, we have been working to

produce a new trading platform called

QuickBuild that can reduce the design,

manufacture, calibration and supply

time from three to five weeks to just a

few days.

Machining special

solutions quickly

New production equipment

for QuickBuild

BKW’s

expertise and

resources

mean we can

say ‘yes’ to

solving even

the most

challenging of

applications

“

37BKW INSTRUMENTS |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

The first stage of the process was to

treble the size of our IT department

and introduce new digital processes

which could manage the orders

more efficiently through both

the manufacturing and logistics

departments. We then designed and

built new production equipment

and technologies, using our own

engineering expertise to boost our

output flexibility and capacity. Finally,

we have boosted our component and

instrument stocks. In our second year

since launching the QuickBuild service,

we now see 20 per cent of all BKW

business go through this new platform.

This innovation has been well received

by the UK process industries we serve

as it assists them to keep their plants

running efficiently, altogether providing

us with a significant lead over other

suppliers in the marketplace.

Brexit strategy

After the referendum decision, we

were immediately concerned about

the impact our business would see,

recognising that the uncertainty

surrounding Brexit would continue

for many years beyond the vote. We

have since devised what we term

our “Brexit immune strategy” – this

involved looking at all UK customers

and assessing their exposure to Brexit

and European trading.

The outcome of our analysis was a

move away from all clients that were

experiencing European uncertainty,

and a focus instead on companies

that were and would be less affected

by Brexit. While it was a painful move

at first, this strategy has meant we

can fully concentrate on growing

the business without worrying about

British negotiations with Europe.

The removal of this uncertainty

was considered essential for BKW’s

continued development and growth.

Future

Our three-pillar strategy has the

potential to scale up geographically,

but, to expand beyond the UK, we do

need a seamless trading relationship

with Europe. Expanding our business

model further afield is not presently

a financially viable option. A good

resolution with the EU would, in the

short term, mean we could focus less

on our “Brexit immune strategy”.

This would enable us to expand our

business even faster, and also help

to increase our European export

potential. We expect to continue to

increase our R&D investment with the

beneficial corporation tax support from

the government, and look forward to

the challenges that the next 90 years

will bring.

BKW’s

QuickBuild

manufacturing

platform cuts

delivery times

from weeks to

days, and is

essential

support to the

UK process

industries

“

Coded welding of exotic

materials

BKW problem solving in

action

www.bkwinstruments.co.uk

This article was sponsored by BKW Instruments. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy