DEMAND for automation and robotics is expanding rapidly to meet the challenges of the modern world, but one Dundee-based company is this year marking no fewer than 40 years of automation innovation.
SP Automation & Robotics has been designing and manufacturing bespoke, automated machines since the company was founded in 1984.
The firm has just secured its largest single machine order ever – a £2.4 million assembly system for complex sensors – which gives some indication of the skills and capabilities of the business’ 36-strong workforce comprised of mechanical design, electrical design, manufacturing and software engineers.
No two projects are ever the same and SP Automation & Robotics prides itself on a long-standing ability to create unique concepts that help customers to overcome hurdles in a wide range of sectors from packaging and pharmaceutical through to automotive and food/drink.
Systems designed and built over the years have been used for a variety of applications including to print golf balls, slice chicken, remove blood spots from salmon fillets, and plumbing fittings to electronic sensor devices and complex medical device assemblies. While most projects are one-offs, the firm has produced 38 machines for one large contact lens specialist and is currently in the process of designing and developing an R&D machine for the next generation of contact lenses.
Remarkably, not one project has been failed in 40 years.
Today, the company is run by directors Roy Henderson and Lee Nixon, who completed a management buyout almost eight years ago. Roy was the firm’s first ever apprentice in 1986, while Lee has been with the business for nearly 24 years. They told Packaging Scotland about the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ that go into every project, and the extraordinary innovation underpinning four decades of success.
“In-house we do all the design, manufacture, development, software, control systems, build, and installs,” Roy said. “The diversity of projects means we can be working on very small projects or very large ones. Customers will come to us with a problem, and we come up with a concept. Us doing standard machines wouldn’t work; that’s not what our passion is. We’re about solving problems.
“Our USP is how we come up with the concepts. Because they’re completely bespoke machines, nothing’s ever the same, so you’ve got that benefit of (being used to) thinking outside the box. Even during final discussions with the customer, things get thrown in. If you’ve got a standard approach, you’ve got no flexibility.”
SP Automation & Robotics relocated to its current purpose-built premises in Camperdown Industrial Park in 2000. While the company has grown steadily since then, culture remains of critical importance and Roy and Lee have worked hard to maintain a family feel. Clients can pick up the phone and speak to senior figures to get quick decisions, while high level internal communication between teams is paramount.
The impressive factory boasts a workshop and engineering tool room to facilitate a full turnkey service. At the time of interview, the business was on a recruitment drive, however the uniqueness of what it does means it can be a challenge to find jobseekers with the right skills.
Lee explained, “You don’t get someone with the right skillsets to fulfil a job when you come in here because it is so niche. First and foremost, we look for someone who will fit in. As long as they’ve got the base skills, they can pick up the rest.”
A key milestone came several years ago with the launch of SP Elements, which started as a division focused on collaborative robots. The company is the sole distributor in Scotland for Universal Robots. Roy added, “On the back of that, we decided to develop our own packaging palletising system because we saw a shortfall in the market due to safety, performance and price. We invested about £50,000 developing a palletising system which has now allowed us to provide end of line palletising systems for anything from drinks to cleaning products to butter.
“From SP Automation & Robotics’ point of view, we have invested over £100,000 over the last year on an R&D platform which allows us to take on new technologies and look at how we’re doing things, and then develop new processes.”
The company has been heavily involved with colleges and universities across Scotland, helping to bring automation to the curriculum. Since SP Elements was founded, around 40% of the collaborative robots sold have gone into the education sector, where they are being utilised to help train the next generation of engineers in automation.
While SP Automation & Robotics has carried out projects in America and Europe, the vast majority of work is in the UK and Ireland, with the Scottish market increasingly embracing the technology as companies grapple with the challenges of labour shortages and the fact workers don’t want to do repetitive jobs.
The company is currently involved in £2 million worth of projects within a three-mile radius of its Dundee HQ. In total, eight Scottish projects are ongoing.
“We probably do anywhere between 10 and 20 projects in a year,” Lee revealed. “To get £5 million of turnover, we have to quote somewhere in the ballpark of £30-40 million worth of projects, and we probably turn down another £10 million at the very outset. 60 weeks is probably the longest we’ve spent on a project, with 6-10 weeks being the shortest.”
One myth Roy and Lee are keen to dispel is that automation is all about making people redundant. They told of one company where the workers nicknamed a large automation system introduced to the factory as P45! That particular customer not only retained all its staff, it upskilled them and employed more.
Roy explained, “Automation is about doing jobs that are dangerous, dirty and people don’t want to do. A good example is a company that does kitchen designs and bedroom furniture. Their turnover of staff from manual operations was horrendous. We quoted a system ten years ago that was going to be £250,000, which was well beyond their budget. When we started SP Elements with collaborative robots, we showed how simple they were to programme and did a demonstration. The MD took it on board and said he was going to sell it to the people. He told the operatives he was going to install robots and their faces dropped.”
The workers’ mood quickly changed when they learned how to programme the cobot and work with it rather than against it. Their wages were increased as a result of being given extra responsibility, and they no longer went home at night with sore backs.
Describing the automation and robotics sector as ‘very competitive’, Roy and Lee revealed they are often competing against very large companies for contracts. As one of the longest established machine builders in the UK, experience is a key selling point, along with the firm’s reputation for safety and ensuring that every machine that leaves the factory is correctly CE marked and fully documented.
Looking to the future, sustainability is considered more important than substantial growth.
Roy concluded, “The company culture is very important to us. The size we are allows for a great team ethic and this spills over into how we work with our customers. Of course there are always ups and downs, but how the team pulls each other back up at these times is testimony to the whole team.
“We’ve seen so many automation companies setting very high growth strategies, but saw how quality and passion disappears into a number-only business model.”
Poignant words, and the commitment to quality and invention that is obvious when you walk around the site leaves the company well positioned to look forward to another 40 years of groundbreaking innovations.
