It's 1,000 and counting for IWM
03 September 2010
Industrial Washing Machines (IWM) is celebrating the completion of its 1,000th machine since they moved to their present premises, almost 14 years ago
And the very first machine supplied by the company from these premises – serial number 0001 – is still performing to specification and is still in daily use. The 1,000th machine, a T200 traywasher, is destined to wash distribution crates for a grocery supply company in Lancashire.
“Right from the outset, delivering quality and value for money have always been a key objective for us,” said Carl Hollier, MD of IWM, “and I believe the longevity of Machine 0001 is an excellent demonstration that we’re meeting these objectives. The machine has a hard life – it’s a tray washer in a chicken hatchery; day in, day out it has to clean trays that are heavily soiled with chicken droppings.”
“Despite this, the machine has proved to be consistently reliable and it’s still working well. This is, however, a typical example of longevity among our products. In fact, the vast majority of the thousand machines we’ve supplied over the last 14 years are still in service today, and those that aren’t have generally been retired because the user’s requirements have changed rather than because of any falling off in performance.”
Supplying 1,000 machines over the last 14 years equates to an average production rate of six machines per month, every single month. The company is justly proud of this achievement, especially as the period covered includes more than a year of the present deep recession, which left most UK manufacturers struggling for orders.
The company reports that, while six machines a month is its historical average, its current production rate is substantially higher and estimate that machine 2,000 will be delivered in 2017. In addition to the reputation it has established for the quality and durability of its products, it is also committed to innovation. It has, for example, recently introduced machines that save energy by washing with cold water, and heat pumps that recycle energy that would otherwise be wasted in hot-wash machines.
“We listen to our customers and work hard to give them what they want,” said Carl Hollier, “and this approach is clearly working for us. Not only is our thousandth machine already on its way to the end user – we have orders for many more on our books from companies operating in all industries around the world.”
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