Walsall plant developments

Full steam ahead…

Earlier this year we published some news about growth plans at Joseph Ash Walsall. The plant is being extended in order to add extra services for customers, escalate work capacity, improve the working environment for employees, and increase health and safety at the plant.

You can read the full article here.

We’ve been steaming ahead with our plans since the article was published, so here are a few photos so that you can see how far we’re getting. You can also view the full album here.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on all the progress at our Walsall plant.

Don’t forget that if you’d like to visit the plant and see it in action, please contact us.

Have you ever wanted to see what goes on behind the scenes at a galvanizing plant? Would you like to know what happens to your steel fabrications once they arrive at our plants? Would you like the chance to network with fellow fabricators and colleagues from the steel industry?

If so, please join us at our Chesterfield plant Open Day on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 October 2016.

During the event we will provide tours of our facilities. Not only will you be able to see the galvanizing process in action, but you’ll also be shown the following:

Container loading facilities
Fork lift fleet
Local overnight facilities and changing facilities for truck drivers
Factory space and offices

The Joseph Ash technical team will also be on hand to answer any questions about galvanizing, or preparing steel for the hot dip galvanizing process, plus lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the day.

Joseph Ash Chesterfield has undergone some major developments and improvements since December 2014 (read more here) and we are excited to showcase these at the event.

If you are a fabricator, a user of galvanized products, or a supplier to the worldwide steel industry, then this is the event for you. Come along!

On Thursday 27 October, the event will last a full day. On Friday 28 October, the event will last for the morning. (Exact timings will be released shortly.)

RSVP today to register your attendance.

Joseph Ash Bridgend has been going through some changes in recent months with a new Divisional Manager, a happier workforce, and most importantly for our customers, transportation improvements and a new 48 hour project turnaround service.

New Divisional Manager

Terry Rogers joined Joseph Ash Bridgend earlier this year. As well as holding management roles in a number of industries including pre-cast concrete products, domestic radiators, and ground maintenance, he also used to be the Production Manager for a company called Duct & Access, in Wales, who used to send 80-100 tonnes of steel to Joseph Ash Bridgend every week for hot dip galvanizing.

Since joining Joseph Ash Bridgend he has put in place a number of initiatives that are helping the plant to improve every day. Find out more below…

Transportation benefits for customers

With many customers and a large fleet of trucks, the team at Joseph Ash Bridgend wanted to improve the utilisation of transport at the same time as improving the service for customers. In order to do this they now operate a ‘Milk Run’ to the following areas on the following days:

Week Days	Areas
Mondays and Wednesdays	Monmouthshire and surrounding areas
Mondays and Wednesdays	Bristol to Swindon and the M4 corridor
Mondays and Wednesdays	Carmarthen
Tuesdays and Thursdays	Pembrokeshire
Tuesdays and Thursdays	Neath, Port Talbot and Swansea areas
Tuesdays and Thursdays	Ceredigion
Fridays	Local runs and larger full loads

The enhancements to transportation utilisation are great because customers now know where Bridgend’s trucks will be on what days, which helps them to plan for deliveries and collections.

A faster service

For customers who need steel finishing projects turned around quickly, Joseph Ash Bridgend has also started to offer a 48 hour turnaround service. This began in April and is going well. Contact Joseph Ash Bridgend today if you’ve got a project that needs completing fast!

Employees at Joseph Ash Bridgend

In other news… There has been a change of roles for Graham Bairstow, who was the Production Manager at Joseph Ash Bridgend and is now the Transport/Yard Manager. Kevin Williams also moved from his position as Yard Supervisor to Production Manager. We wish Graham and Kevin well in their new roles. With all the improvements that have been taking place at Joseph Ash Bridgend, and a new management team that cares a great deal about employee welfare, the team at Joseph Ash Bridgend have become – in Terry’s words – “a much happier bunch!”. They have also become more customer focused and more efficient, and we look forward to this continuing. If you’d like to talk to the team at Joseph Ash Bridgend, or perhaps you’d like to visit the plant to see how the hot dip galvanizing process works, please contact us.

Initiatives to benefit customers and employees alike.

Joseph Ash Walsall is being extended as part of some redevelopment plans to add extra services for customers, escalate work capacity, improve the working environment for employees, and increase health and safety at the plant.

Extra services for customers…

As part of the extension plans, Joseph Ash Walsall will increase its factory floor space by a huge 25%. Not only will this enable the plant to further automate the crane system in order to increase work capacity and weekly output, but it will also allow the team to carry out additional post-galvanizing processes for customers. These extra processes include special packing (which is often required), and additional fettling for powder coated materials. The extra floor space will also allow for additional storage of customer orders.

A better environment for employees…

Excellent customer service and quality of finish is at the core of everything we do at Joseph Ash Galvanizing. In order to provide a great service however, it’s also important to look after the people who work at our company. With this in mind we have started to improve the working environment at the Walsall plant by adding extra office space, a new canteen, and new changing rooms for team members working the factory floor.

Health and safety initiatives…

The health and safety of our team members is just as vital as providing a great working environment, so as well as building extra space for additional customer services, we have also created a much larger floor space within the factory to permit the use of fixed jig stands. Fixed jig stands are important as they will prevent the need for Joseph Ash team members to work underneath the jigs suspended by the crane.

As the work on the Walsall plant progresses we’ll keep you updated.

If you would like to visit the plant and see it in action at any point, please contact Joseph Ash Walsall.

Changes have been afoot at Joseph Ash Medway in recent months, with both building works and ‘green’ initiatives taking place.

Building works

Not only have we started the build on a new office block for our administrative and sales teams, but we have also incorporated new changing facilities for our operations team, and a new hardstanding bay for trucks.

The new office block will enable the administrative/sales teams to work in a new temperature controlled modern environment in order to improve their working lives. The offices will also enable us to have somewhere suitable to meet and greet any visitors to the Medway plant.

The operations teams have not been left out as we’ve also built new changing rooms so that the teams have somewhere to store their belongings whilst working in the plant, as well as somewhere to get cleaned up after a hard day’s work operating the heavy-duty galvanizing, shot blasting and powder coating equipment.

Finally, we have also built a new hardstanding area for vehicles wishing to load and unload steel fabrications, which has the added benefit of making access to the plant, and parking, easier.

We haven’t stopped there though…

‘Green’ interceptors

Joseph Ash Galvanizing is environmentally aware and employees try hard to minimise damage to the environment as a result of plant activities. In recent years our ‘green’ initiatives at Joseph Ash Medway alone have included improvements to energy management systems, the installation of zinc reclamation facilities, new and improved gas burners for the powder coating oven, and the replacement of motors for the bagging plant and extraction facility resulting in a 21% saving in electricity.

As a company we are constantly trying to improve our environmental credentials and we do not like to stand still, so we have also recently installed new interceptors into the new hardstanding bay.

Interceptors act as a filtration system to prevent oils and other vehicular contaminants (from the trailers and trucks using the hardstanding area) from entering the storm water drainage system on site:

The new drainage system on the the yard will collect all the rainwater that falls on the area and run it through a 20m x 10m attenuation (filtration) system which removes any heavy solid particulates.
The filtered water will then flow into the new interceptor (designed in accordance with BS EN 858-1) where any oil or petrol will be separated out.
From here the remaining water will flow into the main foul water system, which incorporates another interceptor before the water leaves the site.

All good ‘green’ fun!

If you would like to visit us at Joseph Ash Medway, to meet the team, see the plant in action, and see the new building works, please get in touch.

We’re pleased to announce that Joseph Ash Galvanizing’s Chesterfield and Medway plants have recently met the bronze level requirements of the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme.

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary scheme that covers all aspects of vehicle emissions, fuel efficiency, economical operations and safety.

It provides peace of mind to vehicle operators that legislative requirements are being met. It also enables vehicle operators to know they are helping to increase efficiency, win work, and reduce costs.

Finally, it enables operators to know they are becoming safer and greener.

As of 15 February 2016 Joseph Ash Galvanizing was awarded the bronze accreditation for FORS.

Thank you to the FORS for assessing us. Thank you also to the team at Joseph Ash Galvanizing who worked hard to receive the award.

A new acquisition.

We are delighted to have acquired Premier Galvanizing Hull and Corby, an excellent company with a wonderful reputation for offering high quality and superb service to areas of England where Joseph Ash was not previously present. The business will run independently and none of either companies’ factory facilities will be affected – customers will continue to have absolute choice over the point of service.

Medway Galvanising Company changes its trading style to Joseph Ash Medway.

In May 2013 Joseph Ash Galvanizing acquired Medway Galvanising Company Ltd in Kent, in order to expand the customer base into the South East. Medway Galvanising Company Ltd (also known as MGC) was a natural fit for Joseph Ash Galvanizing’s acquisition plans due to the location, and the shared values of product quality and customer service.

For the last two years, Medway Galvanising Company Ltd has kept its trading style but we feel that the name is slightly inaccurate given the other services and products that it offers (Powder Coating, Shot Blasting and the much respected Mono Hinge playground gates), and that, given also the large number of former Joseph Ash London customers that it currently services, we might as well bring it into line with our other plants. It is now therefore trading as Joseph Ash Medway.*

This will allow a more joined-up approach to our marketing for both companies, but will not affect customers’ relationship with the company in any way. We hope customers approve of this minor change.

(*Please note this is purely a trading style change, not a legal change to the Medway Galvanising Company Ltd name.)

Ambitious improvement works almost complete!

In December 2014 we announced some exciting new plans and improvements for the Joseph Ash Chesterfield plant. The works included adding another large hardstanding bay to the plant – an area that can house up to 100 trailers – as well as an area where customers can trial erect their fabrications before taking them off-site and delivering them to the end user.

The plans also included the addition of an extra crane gantry area, providing customers with the ability to load their own containers or carry out pre-site assembly or other processes. The gantry area also provides us with the ability to load several customers’ vehicles or containers at a time.

As well as the above developments, we also planned the following:

Extension of the fork-lift fleet
Container loading facilities
MPI crack detection (by prior arrangement)
Local overnight facilities and changing facilities for truck drivers
Factory space and offices (up to 1200m2 currently available) suitable for fabrication or assembly
Offices and telecoms for customer use.

These were ambitious plans, but 10 months on and we are very pleased to report that we’re almost finished with our improvements!

Here are some photos to prove it!

To see the full photo album visit our Facebook or Flickr pages.

If you’d like to visit and see the facilities at Joseph Ash Chesterfield, or if you would like to know more please feel free to contact David Carling – the Chesterfield Divisional Manager on 01246 854650.

Joseph Ash Walsall also receives health and safety certification.

In April 2015 Joseph Ash Bilston was awarded OHSAS 18001, the health and safety accreditation from the British Assessment Bureau. This was in recognition of hard work to continually improve health and safety at the Bilston plant.

In May 2015, Joseph Ash Chesterfield followed suit, and was also awarded OHSAS 18001.

Health and safety has always been of the upmost importance to Joseph Ash Galvanizing, and the aim is for all plants to receive OHSAS 18001.

OHSAS 18001 is important for the following reasons:

It reduces workplace hazards and boosts employee morale
It provides a safe environment in which to conduct operations and business
It is a framework for an occupational health and safety management system
It minimises the risk of production delays.

We’re pleased to say that the latest plant to receive this excellent accreditation is Joseph Ash Walsall.

Well done to the team at Walsall for this achievement!

Watch this space for OHSAS 18001 at the remaining Joseph Ash Galvanizing plants.

Walsall plant developments

In this section

Book your steel into one of our plants

Do more with Joseph Ash