You can have the best, most advanced machinery in the world at your disposal, but at the end of the day, a company is only as good as its people.
That’s why, alongside investing in the latest fabrication equipment, White Cross Ring invests heavily in its team – finding the right people for the right jobs and proving them with the support and training to help them achieve their goals and fulfil their potential – for themselves, the business, and WCR’s customers.
Managing Director Tom Horner shares the secret behind the WCR team’s success and how their unique set of skills and positive approach enable them to take on any client project.
“I’ve always found you need to make sure you have the right people doing the right jobs. I know that sounds so obvious, but some people try to do everything themselves. Different people are experts at certain things, and you have to be able to trust your team.
At White Cross Ring, if a client needs something doing, we all club together and get it done. That’s the level of care and commitment you get with a family business.
There are 27 staff on the books, including my mother and father. My sister, Rebecca, is our quality manager and drives our ISO9001 quality management system. I’ve got a dad with his two sons working for us, and two brothers working on the shopfloor. This is a family business through and through, and that filters down in the care we show our clients and the quality of the work we produce. What we do matters to every team member – and they’re a good bunch as well.
Seasoned experts; rising talent
We’ve got our Estimator, Anthony, and floor manager, Lewis, who are both nearly 30 years’ working with us; John’s our operations manager, he’s at 20, and we’ve got another lad who’s gone 25 years this month. People say there’s no loyalty in business, but I don’t believe that.
At the other end of the scale when it comes to training, we don’t ask for qualifications. The biggest things for us are attendance, punctuality and attitude. If you’ve got those things, the rest comes. I think people sometimes need the opportunity. If they can show that they’re willing to learn, then they’re worth training. We recently had a young lad of 18 join us. He wasn’t thriving in education, but he’s very technically minded. Now he’s a tube bender, running the fully electric machines – and he’s fantastic! I think he’s found his vocation.
It’s important we train young people up, so we stay current. Technology – that’s where the youth is today. There’s no apprenticeship for ring rolling or tube bending, but they are skilled jobs, regardless. It takes years of experience to master it. Even now, some jobs will come into the workshop that have operators with 10 years’ experience scratching their heads, because every material is different.
We use a training matrix that gives us an overview of all the skills that we have on the shopfloor from the basics of using a tape measure to the technicalities of operating big machinery. It’s a scale that shows the standards we expect from the team and the levels everybody is at. It helps us make sure we always have the right mix of skills on the shopfloor and shows us where team members need more training to progress to the next level.
The team’s expertise has developed over time. Currently we have our two Inspector ring rollers – Steve, who’s worked for us for nearly 35 years now. He’s a fantastic ring roller and does an amazing job, and Mark Phelps who was one of our welders, now our full-time driver.
We’ve also got one lead welder, Arvind Lal, who signs off jobs and makes sure things are done correctly, as the welding bay can be the last chance to catch any errors before dispatch.
Measurable customer satisfaction
Since taking on the new BLMs, we’ve been focused on building our tube bending expertise. There’s not a lot of cross pollination with the tube bending and ring rolling, because each is quite an art in its own right, but we do try to provide crossover where possible to make sure people don’t get pigeonholed.
This is especially important for the next generation of apprentices – plus, it’s good to have that flexibility within the team. It gives us better lead times and better quality, and makes sure we have all things covered for our clients. If someone’s off sick or on holiday, we still get the job done! We know the importance of getting things out of the door and the importance of keeping the customers happy.
Measuring customer satisfaction is a big part of our ISO 90001 quality management system, which has been big factor in our success over the last 8 years as a whole.
We publish feedback from our quality control questionnaire on the noticeboard each month to make sure the team knows what’s going on and any improvements are made where necessary. There’s normally a logical reason for what’s happened if somethings been flagged up, and we always share positive feedback with the team, too, of which there is plenty!
As well as training and teamwork, we invest in supporting personal development too. Key team members, like Lewis, John, and Anthony, have been a massive part of the company’s growth over the last few years and I’ve been able to lean on their experience when I’ve needed to. From working on the shopfloor, John took a management course; now he’s an integral part of the business. Lewis and Anthony too have both stepped up and taken on difficult positions. They’re a massive part of White Cross’ success.
Cost-effective, timesaving, innovative solutions
Having a range of in-house equipment and expertise means we’re able to save our customers a lot of expense and running around when it comes to multi-skilled jobs. If you think you’re buying your rings from one company, your fabrication from another company, and even more components from another company, everyone’s going to put their mark-up on each of those points or processes.
By completing the whole job in-house, we’re able to offer very competitive prices on jobs where there is crossover between rolling and bending. The new BLM machinery we’ve invested in bends and rolls at the same time; it’s a unique selling point of ours. We also work closely with our customers to ensure we produce what they need in the most cost-effective way.
Having the mix of skills that we do, and the new technology on the shopfloor, also lets us take on some really challenging jobs. If it’s something we’ve not done before, the whole team puts our heads together to figure out how we’re going to do it.
That open-minded approach means we get all sorts of requests! One client came to us asking if we could roll coiled reinforced bar for pouring concrete. These were 7.5m lengths of reinforced bar but only 300mm in diameter, and they required a specific pitch, which is the distance between each bar as the coil goes around, so we had to figure out a way to achieve all that!
We used the knowledge and experience of different team members and consulted with the client. In the end, we had to adapt the tube-bending machine by welding something onto it. Doing that job absolutely destroyed the tooling – but we achieved the desired result for the customer – and we learned something in the process that we can now apply somewhere else. If you don’t mind sparing a bit of material, we’re always willing to try these things to see if we can find a way to make it work. Whatever you need – we always say: “bring it to us at White Cross and we’ll have a go!”
Meet some key members of the WCR Team!
Thomas Horner, Managing Director
Years with WCR: 18 years not including sweeping and scrapping out at 16!!!
Experience and expertise: Overall running of the business from production, sales, procurement and accounts.
Specialises in: helping clients achieve the outcome they want, no matter how weird or wonderful the request.
Most likely to say: “No job is too small or too ‘out-there’ – just ask!”
Anthony Richmond, Estimator
Years with WCR: 29 years
Experience and expertise: customer relations, material procurement
Specialises in: ensuring good relationships for my customers and making sure the product is right and delivered on time
Most likely to say: “I can’t do it that quick, but I’ll try push it through!”
John Baggaley, Senior Engineer
Years with WCR: 20 YEARS
Experience and expertise: Tube bending, welding & fabrication, procurement
Specialises in: helping clients understand the limitations in tube bending, enabling them to create a product that is both feasible and cost effective
Most likely to say: “Let me find out and come back to you.”
Lewis Wood, Works Manager
Years with WCR: 30
Experience and expertise: Expert in ring rolling and running of the shopfloor.
Specialise in: delivering customer expectations as specified and on time. Most likely to say: “Yes” to any job!
