YPIE Tour Blog Day Four: Crofts & Assinder

Day four of the tour and today Pavandeep Chahal of Parker Knoll discusses the group’s trip to Crofts & Assinder.

We all arrived at Crofts & Assinder Ltd in the morning for a jam packed day ahead. Alex Croft, CEO, introduced us all to Mike Shaughnessy and Nick Turnball from the procurement team and Zoran Matijevic of the design team, who were going to present various topics throughout the day.

Learning Outcomes

During out visit to Crofts & Assinder Ltd, we covered the following content:

• Overview of international lead and transit times, with a greater understanding of the potential issues that may occur with foreign suppliers (e.g – issues with shipping, customs, and transit from UK ports)
• The importance of forecasting/scheduling for a business
• Brief overview on IP law
• An understanding of all processes that need to be completed in order to manufacture a handle or knob (material dependent)
• How new product designs at Crofts & Assinder Ltd are generated, which was followed by an overview of the prototype process
• We were also given a factory tour and got a real feel for a traditional manufacturing business.

Has the visit changed our perceptions to the sector it operates in?

The visit highlighted that Crofts & Assinder Ltd are clear leaders in innovating new designs for handles and knobs. In addition, we felt that Alex Croft is doing a tremendous job in driving the aspect of quality, which is an important driver for the furnishing industry.

We all agreed that Crofts & Assinder Ltd share a very similar issue of attracting a skilled workforce and likewise new entrants for the future, which is already identified as a major issue within the furnishing industry on a whole.

Overall, we all thought Crofts & Assinder Ltd are very good at what they do, with excellent quality practices implemented throughout their manufacturing process.

The Young Professionals Industry Experience blog will continue when the tour resumes next week.