Nov 2019 - 20: ETG awakens ‘sleeping giant’

In August, the Engineering Technology Group or ETG acquired HK Technologies.

Group Managing Director Martin Doyle immediately installed Gareth Jones as the new Managing Director to head up HK Technologies.

The astute move to bring the Warwickshire-based business under the ETG umbrella will create countless synergies and opportunities for both companies.

MTD magazine attended the recent ETG Open House to speak to Gareth Jones to get a better understanding about what the marketplace can expect.

For those that may not know, the seven principals of HK Technologies are Mitsubishi EDM, MarkForged, 3D Systems, Balance Systems, Thielenhaus, OPS Ingersoll and Kapp Niles.

Some of these brands may not be household names with UK manufacturers and this is a point that the new MD is aiming to get across.

So, what are the target markets that will create a synergy with the ETG brands?

The 3D Systems portfolio is primarily 3D printing in the prototyping arena and HK will have the injection moulding market as its target audience.

This contrast with the MarkForged brand, which has the cost effective MetalX metal printing machine among others in the range – offering endless potential.

The Thielenhaus portfolio comprises machine tools, attachment devices, tools, processes and technologies for the Micro finish/Super finish precision machining of work pieces and OPS Ingersoll is a manufacturer of EDM and high-speed machining centres.

Kapp Niles is a world leader in the niche segment of profile grinding and gear processing machines and Mitsubishi EDM is well known as an industry innovator in the EDM market.

Rounding-off the portfolio of HK Technologies products is the Balance Systems brand of manual, semi-automatic and automatic balancing machines.

This measures the unbalance of rotating parts and corrects accordingly.

We put a few questions to Gareth Jones, to find out a bit more about him and what lies ahead for HK Technologies…

We began by asking, what was the driving factor that persuaded him to leave Academia for Industry after 11 years – and what have been the differences?

Jones says “I had been at In-Comm Training for 11 years and, in that time, I worked my way up from being a trainer and assessor in Management and Health and Safety to joint Managing Director with my sister Bekki Phillips.

From my first day there, I was thrown into a large engineering company making parts for nuclear energy plants in Birmingham and, from that day, I fell in love with engineering and manufacturing.

I have a passion to grow the sector as a whole and a real desire to unlock the potential of the underdog, like the S-M-E market for example.

“I want to help them muster the strength to grow, be sustainable and develop bigger business and that is what has driven me on for the last 11 years.

At In-Comm, I had amazing people, programmes and relationships with industry, but, at first, we didn’t have facilities that could deliver the depth of training and courses we wanted to.

During my time as joint Managing Director, we developed a unique model where we created industry-leading training facilities with state-of-the-art equipment for learners to grasp next generation technology and give them a grounding for a life in engineering.

The Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology or M-C-M-T in Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury are two best-in-class examples.”

So how has Gareth spent his first two months at HK?

“I certainly think that HK is a sleeping giant in the industry and there is huge potential to really shout about the manufacturing technologies and support we can provide.

With this in mind, we have been re-structuring the business, re-writing job roles and identifying gaps where we need additional skills.

We have already rebranded, written a new marketing strategy and are currently working on a 5-year business strategy that will deliver an increase in sales.

We want the strategy to be aligned to the market offering of each of the seven principal companies.

I’ve already met each of them individually and started to get to know their businesses and what differentiates our partnerships from the competition.

“We have taken the immediate step of moving our operation to E-T-G’s HQ in Wellesbourne to maximise efficiencies and to create a dedicated showroom for some of our products.

The laser marking section has over 300 machines out in the field and also delivers a subcon service which is going to move over to Hyfore.

We are also going to research the opportunities to bring back lasers as a product offering in the UK.

Gareth then went on to explain what he'd elarnt from academia that could be implemented in industry to benefit HK Technologies and E-T-G?

“First off, the importance of intellectual property and the skill base of the organisation.

It’s fair to say that HK staff have a lot of competences.

We have some staff that are like ‘Jedi’s’ in their field; this is both a benefit and a risk to the business.

We need to be backing these ‘Jedi’s’ up by educating other members of staff, allowing us to grow from a firm foundation.

A lot of other things we can implement revolves around quality systems and processes.

“Also, from my previous life, I want to get exposure for all product ranges.

This includes getting to discuss opportunities with O-E-Ms and Tier 1 suppliers right down to the very small businesses.

I have a very healthy network and I want to expose them to the opportunities we have via the HK and ETG brands.

It’s often about identifying where the synergies lie between the two companies and the potential benefits of working together.”

We then asked him, how as the new MD of HK Technologies, he will be working to integrate HK into the E-T-G structure and create synergies between the two brands?

“Previously at HK, the push was primarily on the additive manufacturing arena. HK Technologies offers so much more.

Staff here are quickly realising that I have no allegiance to one brand or department in the business and we have to be proactive to make every brand a success.

We are working on an ‘all-inclusive’ strategy that targets the promotion of all brands and this will integrate with the E-T-G portfolio, the E-T-G staff and its business strategy.

This integration will be streamlined by realising where and how we can work together.”

Gareth then went on to explain what he sees as the opportunities for each of the HK Technology brands by being under the ETG banner.

“Within our organisation, we have to service customers with world class application engineers, world class sales engineers and engineering applications.

The key growth area is to create opportunities, and this starts with service and servicing existing customers even better.

It was quickly recognised that HK and E-T-G are culturally aligned; we want the best experience for our customers through building close and long lasting relationships delivering excellence.

We also want to exploit the true turnkey solutions that HK and E-T-G are offering.

One example is a company that has purchased a new Naka-mura MX-100 could use HK’s 3D printing technology to develop jaws, vices and workholding very quickly, easily reducing both costs and lead times in the process.

“The other point is market awareness and branding.

The HK brand needs to be at the forefront and known for its strength and quality.

So, internally we are restructuring, as externally, the market doesn’t necessarily know that much about HK Technologies and what we can do.

There are a raft of opportunities and if you look at our principals, we have almost as many as E-T-G.

“However, these names haven’t been exposed to the UK market.

That is a huge opportunity in itself. There is also some integration work to be done with CRM, operations, strategic systems and this will also create further opportunities and exposure for all brands.

“We have already held internal product awareness days, exposing all staff to our brands.

This has really helped to cross fertilise the knowledge of what we can offer between both companies.

We want to ensure that all representatives of both organisations are able to identify opportunities to work with our customers and refer the project to the right business unit with the right expertise.”

We challenged Gareth over the fact that 3D printing, which is till considered in its relative infancy, is in a very competitive market in the UK.

We asked where he sees the growth potential of the HK Technologies products to achieve sales growth?

“I personally feel that industrial 3D printing has initially taken a hit because when it first arrived, it was all about being a domestic product you can have at home.

That hasn’t happened and it has knocked its credibility in a production environment.

With the two O-E-Ms we work with which are MarkForged and 3D Systems, these are production pieces of kit that are perfect for industry.

There is huge potential for turnkey solutions, combining the respective strengths of E-T-G and HK Technologies. This is all about real, live engineering projects that we can work on.

“3D Printing is all about applications.

It’s not a mature market and that’s why it’s competitive at the moment and hence why there needs to be a lot of R&D work to tap into the potential for all of these applications to be realised.

“What we have to do is take one niche application and drive targeted marketing and sales activities against that niche before developing others.

So, MarkForged is definitely a potential collaborator with E-T-G and Hyfore.

This fits perfectly with jigs, fixtures, soft jaws, robotic grippers and bespoke workholding solutions and this will be our first point of attack.

We are already working on a live project with Hyfore to reduce workholding costs and efficiencies for one of its closest client partners.

“We are already developing our internal applications person and we are about to employ another,.

They need to work with other industry sectors to develop new niches for us to attack from a sales and marketing point of view.

“The MarkForged machines have excellent material selection and processing times.

The price point is also a major plus point as we can supply a metal additive machine for something in the region of a quarter of our competitor’s price.

Additionally, the MarkForged machines are desktop machines with a very small footprint, so there are huge opportunities for this brand.

“MarkForged also has impressive new software whereby you can input your CAD file and the software will calculate your return on investment.

It will look at how much material you would use to make the product or a quantity of parts, and how quickly you can make them and what your payback period is.

So, in terms of ROI we can offer clarity at the start of the process.

“In terms of the Figure 4 machine from 3D Systems, that is all about speed.

Ideal for rapid prototyping, the standalone machine is a production machine, which is perfect for injection moulding companies.

It’s called a modular unit because it can stand alone, but you can also bolt-on additional units to run batches of parts.

“For the injection mould market, this machine is perfect.

You can have it running-off parts while your injection mould tools are being manufactured or while the process is being set up.

Additionally, if you have parts lost in transit, missing or damaged, you can rapidly run-off extra parts on the Figure 4 rather than going through the long process of resetting your injection mould operation.”

Next we asked What he sees as the obstacles to growth in the 3D print market and how will he overcome these obstacles to achieve growth?

“One of the main obstacles is getting people to engage with the technology. That is all about education.

People are either not aware of the capabilities or, despite the technology being around for over 30 years, there still isn’t widespread awareness and trust in it.

Engineers have worked with C-N-C technologies and trust it implicitly, but 3D printing is still a relatively unknown quantity to a lot of manufacturers,.

I feel that is the biggest barrier we have to break down – it’s just a lack of education.

One of our key strategies is to make sure we integrate our marketing strategies from an educational point of view.

We either want engineers to come and try out and test the additive kit or we’ll take it to them.

This is where our application engineers have to be really strong and talented, to drive education and adoption.

“We’ll be having demo days, writing white papers, e-shots and even training people on the kit to demonstrate how easy it is to use.

Another barrier is the fact that people have bought 3D machines in the past and don’t use them.

That isn’t developing anyone’s products or services and we have to create a relationship with the customer and carry them through the process.

This is from initial enquiry and machine selection to developing the skill set and supporting them to maximise the utilisation and potential of additive technology.”

Finally we asked Gareth what can we expect to see from HK in the next 6-12 months?

“This will all be about integration and the ramping up of intellectual competency in terms of education and service.

The market will start to see a brand developing and we intend to get out there in the marketplace and make sure that the sectors who could really benefit from our offerings understand where we fit within their businesses.

“This company is certainly a ‘sleeping giant’ and, whilst it may sound a bit cheesy, it’s like a phoenix rising.

We are coming into the market; we’re going to push aggressively and I’m really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

“It’s going to be a fast pace of change for the business and we are already seeing the character of the staff and how they are thriving with the challenge.

Come January 2020, I want all the structures in place to really drive the business forward.”