UK Ambulance manufacturer, Venari Group, is the first of its kind to become fully self-sufficient, now carrying out all aspects of its production process in house.
The move will allow Venari to increase the quantity, efficiency, and safety of its range, whilst also increasing its capacity and decreasing lead times.
2020 saw massive demand for the NHS’ ambulance trusts, as well as the lockdown-induced breakdown of many essential component production lines. Because of this, we have seen many companies develop new supply lines that prove more resilient to boarder shutdowns.
Mitigating the risk of a third party is part of the equation but, more than this, the efficiencies gained from internalising a company’s processes cannot be overstated. Speaking of the company’s transition to self-sufficiency, Wes Linton (O&H Vehicle Technical Director) said:
“To reach the world-class industry standard which we aspire to achieve every day, we must drive quality from the front, in-house. Now, we are in control of our own destiny and with the most passionate team in the industry, that is only a great thing for our NHS ambulance trust customers.”
Venari recently saw the commissioning of a new £800,000 component production centre, alongside the introduction of additional jobs at its headquarters. The company’s aim of driving improvement through investment in internal departments seems to be paying off.
This looks to be a trend in the emerging post-Covid business world: businesses internalising functions to build resilience and efficiencies. This is, however, somewhat juxtaposed by the concurrent trend towards business process outsourcing – one similarly compounded by lockdown-induced technological change.
Of course, in today’s world nothing is binary. Businesses are free to pick and choose systems and processes to best suit their specific needs, and the pool of options available has never been deeper.
“When assessing our performance in 2020, we asked ourselves how we could drive improvement into 2021 which ultimately led to the creation of a highly skilled and technologically exceptional department, dedicated to the construction of what is arguably the most important aspect of any ambulance build.
