It seems a strange sight in this modern age to see real people making real objects.
But that’s exactly what’s happening over at Bosal‘s UK base in Lancashire, where CAT editor Peter Lawton and I found ourselves this morning.
After a chat with sales and marketing director Robin Evans, we were given a tour of the warehouse and manufacturing floors.
Perhaps naively, I always thought that seeing any sort of production these days would just involve robots. I thought I’d see steel going in one end of a machine, and exhausts coming out the other.
Imagine my surprise then to see people on the production line, not just checking for quality but making parts as well. Sure enough machines do most of the heavy moulding and welding, but the final touching up is done by people on the warehouse floor. It was a gratifying site to see this manufacturing machine at work.
Evans explained that Bosal’s quality manufacturing comes from being an OE supplier – indeed, it’s currently making exhausts for the Range Rover Evoque.
He says that OE quality means that only the best can leave the warehouse. Perhaps that philosophy explains why most of the exhausts in the rejected parts bin seem to have nothing wrong with them. One specimen we inspect has a small surface dent in its casing, barely visible to the naked eye.
That may be alright for some aftermarket manufacturers, says Evans, but definitely not for Bosal.
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