Telford-based manufacturer, and Made in the Midlands member, Acoustafoam held the penultimate Best Practice networking event of the year today, welcoming both existing, and new members to both their factory and Shifnal Town F.C Social Club.
Acoustafoam specialises in the manufacturing of foam, rubber and plastic components for a wide variety of sectors including the automotive, construction, marine – including boards, military, machinery enclosures, and both public – including rail – transport.
This best practice event provided members of Made in the Midlands with an insight into Acoustafoam’s manufacturing of foam, rubber and plastic components.
Starting at 9 am, the event began at Shifnal Town F.C Social Club, where Acoustafoam are sponsors. During the breakfast period, where tea, coffee, and hot breakfast was served, over 30 members, including several recent new joiners – who marked this as their first Best Practice event – networked.
After the traditional 60-second pitch, where all the members introduced themselves, there was a short presentation where Acoustafoam talked about some of their best practice methods.
During the presentation, it was stated that the first reason for their longevity, of 40 years, and one of their key Best Practices was being family-run and undertaking a family mentality. It was stated that this is a Best Practice because it ensures you keep people employed in your company for years, citing the between 20 and 40 years of employment of senior management. At the same time, it was also explained that this family mentality allows you to not only ask the important questions but also the daft ones as well.
A second-best practice method employed by the company was communication. Presented with a company structure, from top to bottom, it was stated that, “The key with communication is that with our company, it’s not downwards but instead comes across from the shop floor to the office and top management.”
Regarding communication, the ambition of the company and a Best Practice method for selling was not selling a product, but selling a solution brought to them by customers.
“In a company, we work with both the engineers and the buying department. Engineers love to over-engineer something, usually costing a lot of money, whilst the buying team doesn’t want to pay for it. At Acoustafoam we sit ourselves in that communication.”
After the presentation, members were then shuttled to their factory, located approximately 3 miles from the social club, for a tour of the Acoustafoam factory.
Throughout the tour, members were taken on a tour of their facilities seeing the live process including how the components are processed from blocks, sheet and rolls of materials using a broad range of machinery including band saws, CNC machines, and water jets to achieve their customer’s specification.
In the case of the tour that our members were taken on, they saw the original material foam – as it is when it arrives at the factory – to the cutting process, and even the final product, which in one example they saw was the headrests used within minibuses. However, this also includes floor mats, armrests, seating, trim and headliners.
If you wish to benefit from working with Acoustafoam Limited, then you can e-mail your details to [email protected].