My review of 2020 reflected that 2020 had been the most extraordinary year that I could recall – surely 2021 would be better with Covid receding and the world getting back to normal?
It certainly didn’t start that way and on 4th January England went into our third national lockdown. On 5th Jan 2021, the UK recorded 60,000 Covid cases in 24 hours and GCSE and A Level examination were cancelled for the second year running.
The other major theme of the year became product shortages and logistics issues. We have all heard of the microchip shortage which is severely restricting the production of new cars, “chipageddon” as someone called it, but these issues are not limited to the automotive industry. We have seen some micros’ go from £6 to £60 cost while others go from 10 weeks to 50 weeks delivery and there seems to be counterfeit products on the market. Sometimes we are having to redesign our product, to some extent, to match the parts that we can buy.
The problem is not even restricted to microchips; no product that we source is free from threat of supply disruption.
Despite all of this, there have been numerous highlights which I will cover month by month.
January
We learned that our Christmas raffle in aid of Katharine House Hospice raised an amazing £934 – the highest ever. This was despite having no roving ticket sellers due to social distancing measures.
This was our first month outside of the EU and, much as we had prepared, we knew that we must expect the unexpected. Something that we perhaps should have expected, but really didn’t, was that Northern Ireland is now the equivalent to an export market from a shipping and logistics viewpoint.
One of our weekly briefings reported “we are in danger of parts shortages if things don’t improve soon”. They didn’t improve and still haven’t.
February
We were expecting two large new machine tools to arrive mid-month and to be working early March. These were ordered, in part, in the expectation of a big order later in the year – see October.
Our annual careers evening which promotes careers in the engineering industry and is used as a tool to recruit our annual intake of apprentices went on-line for the first time. This seems to be a success and we finished the event confident of being able to fill our apprentice vacancies.
At the other end of their careers, we said goodbye to two very long-standing employees, Mark W and Neal H, with a combined 87 years of service.
March
The group of which Norbar is a part held their annual “rapid continuous improvement” conference as a virtual event with 21 presentations from around world. We came away with a Chairman’s Trophy for operational improvement.
The search was on for temporary torque wrench assemblers to meet huge demand.
April
Another long serving employee retires – Paul C. with 52 years of service.
Our BSI energy audit concluded “high-level knowledge and understanding within the business of energy usage “.
5S became 6S: sort, set, shine, standardise, sustain and safety (safety being the new ‘s’). This principle was quickly put into use in our repairs area rapid continuous improvement project.
May/June
A new spark erosion machine was ordered with technology to reduce cycle times by up to 70%.
Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a global safety certification company, ran a compliance audit on our EBT cordless torque tool range. There were no non-conformities so we now have the right to use the UL mark on these products.
In June we attended Rail Live, the largest outdoor rail event in Europe. This was the first public sales event since February 2020 and was a great success.
Rail Live, June 2021
July
July 19th, England removed most Covid related restrictions in a day that the press dubbed “freedom-day”. On the same day, the US advised Americans not to travel to the UK and raised the risk level to “very high”.
Norbar decided to retain all Covid measures including mask wearing, hand hygiene and social distancing.
Deliveries started of our new ProTronic® range of electronic torque wrenches, our biggest product launch of the year.
ProTronic® Plus family of electronic torque wrenches
Two of our apprentices, Tom J and Tom R, took part in The Warriner School work experience week. They organised various hands-on activities for the children aimed at promoting engineering as a career. We received this feedback for the organising staff member: “I cannot speak more highly of them both. They were truly outstanding and did Norbar proud.”
“Pingdemic” hit industry hard, including Norbar, with so many staff isolating that it started to impact our ability to function.
August
We launched our new-look website aiming for a more attractive and modern appearance and elevated user experience.
The two apprentices mentioned above in July were finalists in the Engineering Trust’s “Apprentice of the Year” competition.
September
With electric cars starting to appear in the carpark, we installed two car charging points. We will monitor demand and add to these as necessary.
We received EAC conformity certification for our EBT cordless torque tool meaning that we can sell the range in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) which includes Russia and Kazakhstan.
Our “know consignor” audit which allows us to airfreight goods with the minimum of additional security checks was passed with “flying colours”.
October
We won one of our largest orders, connected to the Jansz project, a subsea gas project 220km off the coast of Western Australia. The average depth of the project is 1,350m and that is where the tools will be used.
November
We started to receive international visitors again with visits from customers in France, Italy and Norway. We received some lovely feedback; “well equipped machine shop – clean, well-organised and the team know what they are doing”.
We received the news that up to the end of September we were one of the safest sites in our group with 0.34 incidents in 200,000 hours worked. We are going in the right direction.
We exhibited at the ADIPEC exhibition in Abu Dhabi as part of the EIC’s UK Pavilion. It was a well organised and well attended event and we were very happy with the outcome. This was our first international exhibition in nearly two years and it felt great to be there.
ADIPEC Nov 2021
Just as things were beginning to feel like they were getting back to normal, the Omicron variant of Covid hit the headlines on 26th November.
We decided that we would not attend the International Hardware Exhibition in Cologne in March 2022. In the event, the exhibition got postponed to September 2022 just a few days later.
December
We started our Christmas collection of gifts for a local charity, BYHP. On 10th December we deliver three large packing cases of gifts.
Collection of gifts for Banbury charity BYHP
With Covid daily infections the highest that the UK has ever measured, some staff began to work from home again. The year finished without the usual celebrations such as the children’s party and the get-together on the last day to draw the raffle.
Summary
We could almost see light at the end of the Covid tunnel during November. Even although infection rates were rising alarmingly, the illness was mild for most vaccinated people. Then, along came Omicron and changed everything again. There is simply no predicting how 2022 will pan out.
Despite a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges thrown at us, we managed to have a year of many positives. As far as we are aware, we have had no onward transmission of Covid within the building which is perhaps the best news of all.
I enjoy writing these reviews because it obliges me to look at every briefing document of the year to pick out the best and most interesting parts. I sometimes start thinking that there is not much to write about and then find plenty!
However, this will be my last Review as I retire in April. If you are a regular reader – thank you. It will be done differently by someone new next time around, no doubt.
Wishing you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.
Philip Brodey