Hydraulics & Pneumatics January/February 2023

www.hpmag.co.uk HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS January/February 2023 17 situation, material costs and inflation have been challenging. Moreover, although Webtec focused on forward buying to buffer issues as well as looking at engineering alternative parts, it still experienced some issues. “Our lead times increased to 16 weeks at the end of 2021 because of supply chain issues, but today we are back to pre-COVID lead times of six weeks,” explains Cuthbert. “So, from that point of view the Webtec team has done a great job in mitigating and building supply chain relationships. We have reviewed where our raw material suppliers are located geographically. “We already source over 80% from UK and near Europe, however we are always looking to improve. For example, in the past we may have sourced a die cast box from China but now we look to the UK for the tooling and die cast. This makes more sense for a couple of reasons. We have greater control over the supply chain. After all, how do you explain to your customer that you can’t deliver because the lower price material has been delayed on a boat for three months? Also, it helps reduce our scope 3 emissions, which is part of our goal as we head towards net zero.” Supply chain challenges Steve Sands, head of product management & marketing, Festo, considers that change has been the only reliable constant in 2022. “The supply chain challenges, particularly around semi-conductor chips, has plagued virtually all automation manufacturers,” he says. “We all require many different chip devices to be assembled into a whole host of intelligent devices from sensors to controllers and communication devices. Supplies have consistently been late or only partially delivered and the costs have rocketed. Purchasing have worked tirelessly trying to globally procure the parts needed; and in the more severe cases, significant development engineering time has been invested to redesign existing PCBs. “A good example of this is Festo updating our servo drives to reduce the number of variants from 21 to 6 by using a multi-protocol approach which increases availability. There are some signs of stabilisation and even increased delivery reliability: however, in many cases quantities are still restricted and are disrupting production. It will take the whole industry well into 2023 to recover to the point of ample, smooth and predictable supplies.” Sands believes the invasion of Ukraine further exacerbated the supply situation, globally jittering energy prices and frightening a lot of the European population and industry dependant on Russian energy supplies. “These shockwaves have created an ever-greater need for agility and resilience,” he maintains. “Festo already had plans underway which have mitigated some of these affects, e.g. our extensive plans to reduce energy consumption in line with our sustainability objective of carbon neutral production and main offices by the end of 2023.” Price volatility Klaus Loeffler, marketing executive, Jubilee Clips, makes the point that during 2022 the high level of volatility within the metals marketplace was a major issue. “As a company whose products are reliant on the supply of metals, it was difficult for us to know precisely how to react to the fluctuations in prices when they were sometimes doubling or even tripling overnight,” he says. “However, most of our customers understood the situation and knew that we needed to reflect this situation in how we priced our products. “Fortunately, prices have since levelled off to a large extent, so we can now forecast and estimate costs rising with inflation more accurately. Of course, prices might go up again in the near future, but I don’t think we will have to endure the same type of highly volatile situation that we did during February and March last year.” Loeffler adds that because of COVID, lead times for delivery of metals and other materials were extended during 2020 and 2021. “Because of this, customers were stocking a lot of products in order for them to be able to supply goods to their end-users within a short timeframe,” he says. “Now, fortunately, the lead times have returned to a more reasonable level, so customers are de- stocking to a large extent, which is good in terms of our company being able to get back to supplying more regular orders.” In terms of specific sectors, Loeffler explains that a large part of Jubilee Clips’ customer base was automotive, but this has now changed mainly to the automotive aftermarket. “This is because only high-performance cars tend still to have the requirement for hose clips,” he says. “The rest tend to rely on quick-fit, cheaper materials involving spring clips or glued parts. If, on the other hand, vehicles in the aftermarket need replacement parts, garages understandably want to source standard traditional hose clips. So, that remains a strong sector for us. Also, new technologies related to renewable energy sources are turning into a growing market segment for Jubilee Clips.” Market share Neil Anderton, hydraulics & industrial director, Slack & Parr, explains that the company manufactures all its solutions in-house at its Derbyshire factory and, as a result, its supply chain is relatively short. “So, while some materials – for example 316 stainless steel for our corrosion resistant products – have been slightly slower to arrive, we haven’t experienced the negative impact of global geopolitical issues on the way we do business,” he explains. “In fact, in the past 12 months we’ve expanded our share of the UK market because we’ve been able to fulfil orders more quickly than some of our overseas competitors.” Colin Mander, strategic business line director and Northern Europe compressor lead, Ingersoll Rand, considers there is no question that the current energy crisis has brought the cost and efficiency of compressed air systems into sharp focus for all Ingersoll Rand customers. “At our recent distributor conference, the energy consumption (and the associated cost) of compressed air energy was the most talked about issue and we discussed the numerous ways that compressor sales and services teams can help mitigate for these risks,” he says. Mander explains that, in particular, Ingersoll Rand continues to support the BCAS 10% Taskforce campaign and is encouraging customers to look at all the cost-efficient and simple ways to reduce their compressed air system energy consumption. “Whether it’s implementing heat recovery systems, investing in variable speed technologies or investing in energy efficient downstream equipment, there are numerous ways to improve energy consumption, often with rapid payback on investment,” he says. “For many years, the industry has used a formula to calculate compressed air cost Neil Anderton, Slack & Parr. Chris Butcher, BFPA.