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• London and the South Eastern region has been traditionally short of all kinds of skilled vehicle technicians and engineers. In recent years even distributorships have found difficulty in recruiting and retaining the right staff.
Within the area London Transport's vehicle engineering arm has probably been the largest pool of skilled labour. But, till now, this vast resource has been exclusively the province of London Regional Transport.
This has all changed now, as from earlier this month Bus Engineering Ltd (BEL) is in the market for both truck and bus repair/overhaul work. BEL remains a London Regional Transport subsidiary but has to make its own way commercially in the tougher post deregulation world that exists for bus operators.
As part of its move towards profitable operation in this new financial climate, BEL has closed its Aldernam works and incorporated this operation in its Chiswick facility. Some 26 million has been spent at Chiswick to provide a combination of vehicle engineering abilities, probably unrivalled in the UK, or even in Europe.
From being a major loss maker until recently, BEL is also looking for profitability. Staff levels have been cut by some 50%, but even so the Chiswick facility will employ some 1,000 people representing the largest complex of this type available to operators in the country.
As BEL management admits, the move from its previous role working solely for London Transport to competing in outside markets will be difficult. However, from one customer in 1984 BEL has 155 in 1986 indicating progress of the right sort. In addition to its traditional abilities BEL has also taken on new signholdings for Butec, DAF Diesel, Econocruise and Webasto. Also the company has opened a trade counter at Chiswick to allow on the spot purchase of all kinds of new and reconditioned units.
Initially BEL will concentrate its out
activities in the bus market, offering its vast range of reconditioned electrical and mechanical units to NBC subsidiaries and other bus companies. BEL handles all types of mechanical overhaul work and offers a wide range of reconditioned units from small electrical items through to fuel injection systems, engines and drive train components.
The company has comprehensive test and inspection facilities and its reconditioned units will be offered with full warranty cover.
As part of its new role BEL has become the first company to achieve BSI registration under the BS 5750 part 2 quality assessment schedule. This re lates to the modification, repair and main tenance of internal combustion engin driven vehicles. Initially the registratio applies to vehicle overhaul, accident re pairs and the manufacture of seats, blind and body parts. Additional work is als being carried out to bring the rest c BEL's business in line with BSI require ments.
According to Tony Fishwick, BEL's pro duction director, the Chiswick facility in it current single-shift operation has th capacity for some 35 complete drivelin overhauls a week. This is in addition to massive range of other repair an overhaul facilities available from the eiglhectares (20-acre) Chiswick site.
Fishwick reckons that there is not a area of vehicle engineer repair c overhaul that the company cannot tacIde Skills which are at a premium in the Sout East, or throughout the country, are i abundance at Chiswick. For instance, BE is able to repair iron and aluminium caw ings. The company has also compreher sive copper repair, stove enamelling an metal spraying facilities.
Much of BEL's outside work is e) pected to initially come from vehicl painting. During the remainder of th year and into 1987 BEL has anticipate the painting of some 120/130 truck pail jobs. The Chiswick plant has gained a ne 2250,000 Spraybake drive-through pail facility able to handle two large vehicles ; a time. Ultra-violet drying facilities az available and respray time for a doubli decker is said to be only four hours.
Obviously the bulk of successfi paintwork is in the preparation. Thus massive area at Chiswick is devoted to vehicle pre-paint preparation.
With such a large operation it is of vital importance that progress of items through the works is closely monitored. To enable this sort of control to be carried out, a major part of the investment being made at Chiswick is being spent on management systems.
When installation is completed shortly BEL will have computerised production control, sales-order processing and quality management systems.
For the foreseeable future London Regional Transport work will provide the bulk of BEL's business. However, this work will only be gained through competitive tender. And LRT work is tending to decline in volume — through reduction in route mileages and the change from vehicles of the sort requiring a regular overhaul programme. As a result of these changes BEL has seen its LRT business decline from £37 million in 1984/5 to 232.6 million in 1985/6 with £23.8 million forecast for 1986/7.
BEL's management reckons that the company needs an initial annual turnover of around 225 million a year to be profitable. With a continuing decline in LRT business foreseeable, the efforts of BEL to obtain outside work is understandable.
A large part of the company's activities is currently devoted to unit overhaul. This is operated on a production-line basis with separate areas for cleaning, stripping, inspection, repair and reassembly. Surprisingly BEL is still reconditioning small items like shock absorbers — which it reckons is an economic proposition. Electrical, fuel system, and all items of running gear are dealt with at Chiswick, On the engine reconditioning side, BEL is highly expert with Leyland, AEC and Gardner units. Similarly it is fully equipped to overhaul SCG, Voith and other types of manual and automatic transmissions. As part of its transmission facility BEL has developed a superior diagnostic test unit which enables transmission control panels to be checked fast and accurately.
BEL's four engine test-beds have been recently upgraded and now have computerised control systems. If the company's efforts to get more truck work are successful the power capability of the beds will have to be further improved to cope with more than the 224kW (300hp) they are currently limited. However, Tony Fishwick does not foresee any problem if this move is required.
All reconditioned engines produced by BEL are bench tested for around an hour and a quarter.
Although BEL's current activities are naturally still strongly linked to the bus business, the company appears to be genuine in its efforts to diversify. The adoption of working practices and systems to meet BS 5750 Pt 2 has allowed it to obtain some military engine overhaul business. For this type of work, with its potentially huge volumes of similar units, BEL facilities are ideal.
Much of BEL's new found flexibility has been made possible only as a result of changes in attitude by its engineering staff. According to Bill Fairhall, BEL's managing director, the trade unions involved have been extremely co-operative. Quality assurance briefings have been carried out and a system of team briefings as advised by the Industrial Society is now used.
Certainly with such a large number of skilled vehicle engineers, BEL is in a strong position to obtain a great deal of work in the South East. "We hope to be a central supplier to the PSV industry," comments Bill Fairhall. This is probably a strong possibility given BEL's experience in this market.
However, Paul Bertin, BEL's marketing manager, has a wider responsibility which includes the increase of non-bus business. "We are already talking to a number of large truck operators with workshop facilities with the aim of taking over the vehicle repair/maintenance responsibilities allowing them to close their own workshops," remarks Paul Bertin.
A separate 1,600m2 (15,000sqft) workshop on BEL's Chiswick site has
been devoted to truck repair. Current1) this is used for the Bedforcl/Ford/Leylant truck fleet operated by LRT's distributior company.
The taking on of Butec, Econocruise, DAF Diesel and Webasto sign holdings will also play a large part in boostirq BEL's truck business potential.
Eby Phil Reed