Power conversion specialists Converteam have taken top honours at an awards ceremony which recognised their work in the wind turbine field.
The UK-based company, which makes a leading range of drives, including the MV3000, widely used in the most advanced wind turbines, came first in the World Class Manufacturing category at the Manufacturer 2008 Live awards.
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Ten members of the team were at London’s ExCel arena to receive the prize in front of an audience of 400 industry executives.
The award recognised the business development and productivity improvements the company has made at its Kidsgrove site. Converteam’s entire approach to manufacturing came under close scrutiny from the judges, including its monitoring and analysis of lead times, customer returns, work content, labour minutes per unit, inventory levels and cycle times.
Stephen Beattie, General Manager at Kidsgrove who received the award on behalf of Converteam said, “Winning this award is a great achievement against stiff opposition and shows what can be achieved when we work together as a team. We have weathered the downturn experienced by traditional industries to emerge as the UK’s biggest supplier of wind turbine converters.
“Due to the combination of innovative design and lean manufacturing methods, this 300 strong site has shipped nearly four Giga-watts of power converters in the last three years alone, making it a key player in the global renewable revolution.”
Converteam develops and provides solutions built around three core components: rotating machines, drives and process automation. It serves specialised sectors as well as core markets in marine, oil and gas and offshore, energy and industry, and its 4,600 staff members provide power conversion solutions worldwide. At year-end 07, the Converteam sales totalled €875,000,000
