Even though we are celebrating 54 Years of Service, we cannot deny that the pandemic has created challenges for WH Kemp.
Yet, the company has not missed a day of cable harness production or fallen short on its exceptional delivery and quality record. WH Kemp’s claim to be the longest serving continuous cable harness manufacturer remains intact!
Celebrating 54 Years of Service; Not without its Challenges!
The first issue for the company was to ensure its employee’s safety. Our QSHE manager, Claire Borovac, was immediately on the case and a “WH Kemp Covid Specific Risk Assessment” was documented within 48 hours following the release of Government guidelines. The Risk Assessment continues to be monitored, updated and communicated through our daily stand-up meetings.
New safety procedures were swiftly put in place, and thanks to our large factory and office area we were able to change our production processes and factory layout quickly to ensure social distancing from the outset of the pandemic in addition to making space for sanitising units throughout the factory.
The next challenge was to understand customer requirements. Order patterns changed dramatically at times, with some customers pushing back orders by weeks and others requesting a step increase in orders on short notice, such as those manufacturing vital medical, food, gas, electric and water processing machinery.
Dealing with our customer contacts, many of whom had started to work from home also created certain challenges for our customer service team, all of whom remained office based in Westbury. Yet, our strong customer relationships and knowledge of their businesses, helped us coordinate order requirements in line with customer requirements.
Some disappointments were experienced; we had been hoping to work with our customer Dyson on their Ventilator programme and some other project delays meant that some of our staff were placed on furlough.
Our Buyer, Ben Pothecary, has been constantly on the ball with our supply chain partners – again with many of our contacts working from home. Yet, to their credit, Ben working alongside our suppliers have largely ensured we’ve had the necessary materials delivered on time with little disruption to service.
In all cases, in celebrating 54 years of service WH Kemp has not dropped the ball. WH Kemp’s flexible working practises, motivated and engaged staff have meant that all of our customers’ requests have been met. Our team at WH Kemp have every reason to be proud of our continuous service record.
