We aid our customers by developing a concept, from a drawing through to prototyping and onto full production.
The company was founded in 1994. The primary sales focus is MEA´s complete line of linear drainage products. The administration, logistics and sales teams ensure fast, efficient service for customers in England, Scotland and Ireland.
“For many years we have been using Metal Craft Industries for our fabrication solutions. In this time we have found Reg and his team able to supply an excellent service at a competitive price.
The in-house design and development support supplied by the team coupled with their continued policy in purchasing ‘up to date machinery’ has enabled us to ‘deliver and compete’ in a very competitive market and the ‘always prepared to help’ attitude has ensured that our customers are never let down.
We at MEA UK Ltd would highly recommend Metal Craft Industries UK Ltd to any company who is looking for total support and customer service.”
Simon Keech – MD at MEA UK Ltd
We are a company that offers a diverse & unique range of visual merchandise products & a professional & skilful service. Rare Basic has earned an enviable client base & an excellent reputation.
“We have a long relationship with MCI, they’re first class on taking our concepts from the drawing board to reality and delivering on time. They always meet our satisfaction and never compromise design or quality. It is always a pleasure to work with the MCI team.”
Mike, Rare Basics
Case study – Warehouse of a National Document Storage company
“I don’t think you’ll be able to help” said the gentleman on the phone, “I’ve looked all over the internet for someone who can supply some mobile steps for our warehouse but it seems what I need just isn’t available.”
The caller went on to explain that he needed several sets of steps about two metres high to access the top shelves of his document storage warehouse. There were plenty of steps of this height available from a variety of suppliers, but he required steps that would be able to be wheeled around the narrow 90 degree turns at the shelving intersections when being moved from one area of the warehouse to another and all of the steps that he’d seen in his internet search had been too wide to allow this.
He had noticed that we advertised a bespoke design service on our website and asked if we could visit him to look at his problem and take some measurements to see if Metal Craft Industries could come up with a solution for his dilemma. Our Engineering Director duly produced drawings for a Prototype set of steps which were manufactured and delivered to the company to be tria led where they were judged to be perfect for the job. An order for 20 sets of steps was received and these were manufactured in our Wellingborough factory and dispatched within weeks.
Another problem solved – and another success story for Metal Craft Industries!
05/08/2016
Penguin Random House Distribution (Grantham Book Services)
We recently received a phone call from one of our customers, DMA Storage Solutions, who supply Penguin Random House Distribution – one of the UK’s leading third-party book distributors – with a variety of trolleys, shelving and other items for their warehouses. One of these is Grantham Book Services, a 330,000 square foot unit, storing over 17 million books, covering 40,000 titles, for independent publishers where the majority of the storage shelves are accessed by pallet trucks. For small orders, often made up from a number of one’s and two’s of specialist books which are stored in a section of the warehouse with very narrow aisles, the staff were using a little trolley to help them in hand-picking these titles. This trolley (pictured below) was known as a ‘Pram’ and had two wooden platforms, on which they would place Totes or cardboard boxes.
With their narrow corridors in this area being just 880mm wide, this existing ‘Pram’ trolley – being only 430mm wide – was a perfect size to allow staff to pass one another if they were going in opposite directions along an aisle. Having four swivel castors, they were also manoeuvrable enough to turn 90 degrees at the crossroads of the corridors, where the shelves were just 960mm apart.
While these trolleys had served their purpose for many years, some were coming to the end of their working life and one disadvantage was that when they were not being used they took up quite a bit of space as they did not stack in the same way that supermarket trolleys do when they are not being used.
Our customer had scoured the internet looking for a suitable replacement trolley but could find nothing the correct size that would do the job. They approached Metal Craft Industries to see if we could design a trolley that could replace the existing ‘Pram’ but which would also have the following features:
- The new trolleys should be able to stack when not in use, to save warehouse space.
- The staff used labels with an order number and other information included to identify the tote boxes and an administration storage box was required at the rear of the trolley to hold reels of these labels along with other items including scissors and a pen.
- A ‘ticket holder’ was required at the back of the trolley to identify the member of staff using the trolley in case it was left unattended.
We visited the warehouse to see the existing trolleys and following discussions with the staff who used the ‘Pram’, Metal Craft Industries produced a prototype trolley which was tested on-site where a slight modification was suggested. The prototype was changed accordingly, and following final approval, 40 of these trolleys were manufactured and delivered to the warehouse a few weeks later.
Another problem solved – and another success story for Metal Craft Industries!
“I knew it would be hard to find a replacement trolley as I needed it to be a very specific size to go up and down the narrow aisles in our warehouse.”
“Sure enough, there was nothing suitable ‘off the shelf’ but Metal Craft Industries came out to see me and suggested they could design something to solve my problem. A few weeks later they came back with a Prototype which my staff tried out and gave it the thumbs-up, so I placed an order there and then.”
“The trolleys do exactly what they need to do and now that they can be stacked away at the end of each shift, the storage area for these trolleys has more than halved, saving valuable warehouse space.”
Finn Hoggan, Grantham Book Services
“Testimonials Morrison’s believe in MCI’s abilities, creative team, recognising partnership is crucial in delivering quality projects and products, on time. At MCI we spend time on our creative thoughts and ideas, finding inspiration enabling us to turn customer’s concepts and ideas in to production.
We have a long relationship with MCI, they first class on taking our concepts from the drawing board to reality and delivering on time. They always meet our satisfaction and never compromise design or quality. It is always a pleasure to work with MCI team.”
Mike – Rare Basics