Factory
This short film clip shows the different machines, work areas and production processes in the Brompton Bicycle factory.
Who Does What?
This film introduces the range of jobs in the Brompton Bicycle factory, where there are 70 staff on the factory floor building and making parts for the bicycles and 40 support staff. The jobs highlighted in the film include the technical support manager, lean manufacturing manager, design manager, quality engineer, production manager, managing director, marketing executive and HR manager.
Design
Will Carleysmith, senior designer at Brompton Bicycle, describes how designers need an understanding of materials and manufacturing processes are essential in his role. He explains how mathematics and CAD are used in the design process, as well as rapid prototyping techniques.
The Brompton Fold
This short clip shows the stages of folding a Brompton bicycle.
Materials
This video looks at the different grades of steel used in the frame design of a Brompton bicycle, typically steel tube and steel sheet. Designers consider several criteria when choosing materials for a folding bicycle, including strength, weight and durability. Due to the manufacturing process, Brompton does not use aluminium for its frames as it has to be welded and not brazed. The fatigue life and cost of steel and aluminium are also compared. The film also looks at the materials used for other parts of the bicycle, such as tyres, handle bars and pedals. Titanium is used in some models. This is lighter but significantly increases the unit cost. The film explains how a new part was designed using CAD and then produced by rapid prototyping.
Machines
This film looks at why automated machines, such as a CNC machine, are used in the production of Brompton bicycles. The need for space has resulted in the manufacture of some parts being sub-contracted, which can create quality control issues.
Lean Manufacturing
This film looks at how Brompton Bicycle introduced a system of lean manufacturing to manage production. This enables them to eliminate the waste by looking at every aspect of the design from the customer’s point of view and also reducing lead times. The film also explores the steps the company is taking to even out seasonality in the production process.
Quality Control
Terry Blackman, Quality Engineer at Brompton Bicycle, explains the process of quality control and quality assurance. They test the tensile strength of the materials and make sure the brakes function in the wet as well as the dry. He explains why braziers mark every part they manufacture for traceability. They also undertake fatigue testing of critical parts as well as checking the dimensions of parts like the frame. An Eddy tester is used to check for flaws in components such as hinges.
Managing Costs
This film, from Brompton Bicycle, looks at how standard costing is used to keep track of where money is being spent during the production process. This is the ideal re-determined costs that the company ought to incur for an operation. The film describes three manufacturing cost elements: direct materials, direct labour and factory overheads, and these can be used to identify a standard cost per unit. The company can then compare actual volumes and real costs can be compared to the standard cost.
Import Export
In this film the managing director of Brompton Bicycle explains the advantages and disadvantages of exports and why they need to import about 40% of the parts from abroad. He describes the different tiers of suppliers and how this can have implications for quality control.