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Godwin Pumps Factory Expansion
After more than 100 years on the same site and nearly 30 years in the same factory space, Godwin Pumps Limited (GPL) in Gloucestershire, England, has received a major makeover that includes a 1421 m2 expansion. Not only has the expansion enabled the factory to be more flexible and efficient, but Godwin Pumps® officials say it will also benefit end-users by providing quicker deliveries and better product availability. "By adding to our original factory, we gave ourselves the ability to provide faster, more flexible deliveries to our customer base," said John Miller, GPL managing director. Godwin Pumps, the worldwide manufacturer of the original Dri-Prime® automatic self-priming pump, has been manufacturing pumpsets at the UK facility since the end of the 19th century. It supplies a range of pumpsets for the construction, municipal, oil and gas, petrochemical and industrial markets through a worldwide distributor base. In addition, Godwin Pumps also manufacturers a range of fire pumps, to both LPCB and FM specifications, which are sold to many countries around the world. In the late 1970s, shortly after a change of ownership, the company sustained a major fire that destroyed the entire factory. That same year, a new factory was built to accommodate the growing company. But after more than 25 years, Godwin Pumps officials found that they had outgrown their existing manufacturing facility and needed to expand in a way that would keep them on the cutting edge for years to come. In August 2005, construction began on an expansion that includes a new fitting shop assembly area, office space and storage area. "With the new offices and new engineering department, it gives us the capability to do more design, development, research and value engineering of the product," Mr. Miller said. "Pumping applications are not all the same, so we have to be as flexible as possible in our approach to the ever-changing worldwide markets." Godwin Pumps workers began using much of the new area in September 2006. The final phase of the construction was completed last month. A majority of the space has been used to enlarge the factory area. Before the expansion, Godwin Pumps workers assembled components into bare shaft pumpends and then fitted them onto an engine and base assembly all in the same fitting shop. But with the added space, John Miller said they were able to split the production assembly area. Today, the original factory floor is used only for building bare shaft pumpends, which are then moved to the new workspace and mounted to the engine and base assembly to make a complete pumpset. There are a total of eight new fitting assembly bays in the expansion area. Along with a new service area and electrical department, Godwin Pumps has added a new test facility as part of its expansion. "All pumpsets are given a full wet running test before they're dispatched," Mr. Miller said. The fully acoustic area enables workers to test flow rates up to 2800 m3/h, pressures up to 25 bar (370 psi) and powers up to 600 hp. The two-story office portion of the expansion houses the design and engineering department, purchasing and production control departments, as well as the offices for the production and materials directors. The top floor is devoted to the design and engineering department, which includes seven computer-aided design (CAD) stations, project engineers and the service management and quality assurance departments. The lower floor houses the purchasing department, new production control room, offices for the production and materials directors and a new canteen. "Adding the office space enabled us to bring together purchase and production functions that were previously split around the whole facility," John Miller said. Revamping the storage area was another major component of the Gloucestershire manufacturing facility's makeover, Mr. Miller said. The old storage area was completely ripped out and two carousel storage systems - each capable of holding up to 30 t - were installed. This improvement enabled workers to move smaller components from shelves onto the new carousel system, creating more storage space. A new racking system was also installed to accommodate Euro-style pallets. "We've doubled our storage space from about 600-pallet spaces to 1200-pallet spaces by increasing the ceiling height and laying out the storage area differently," John Miller said. In addition to the new factory building and offices, Mr. Miller said an area adjacent to the building was paved and partially covered. Today, the area serves as storage for engines, canopies and base plates, but that could change in the next few years. "It will give us the extra room to expand again as we've been doing over the last 10 years," he said. "That area will allow us to expand by probably another 30% from where we are today." Godwin Pumps has built its reputation on reliability. Its parts and service are available to meet customers' pumping emergencies whenever and wherever they occur. The company's parts inventory includes a full range of replacement parts for each of the pumps it sells. In addition, it stocks a variety of suction and discharge hoses and couplings to complete customers' pumping application needs. Support includes 24/7 on-site access to service/repair and engineering specialists to tailor pumping solutions specifically to customers' needs. The company also has a comprehensive parts and service facility. Serving customers worldwide, Godwin Pumps is the manufacturer of portable rental pumps with a fleet of more than 5000 rental units, U.S. rental branch offices, a worldwide distributor network of more than 100 locations and manufacturing facilities on two continents. Godwin Pumps also offers customized sales and service training to its distributors.
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