Pursuit of perfection

Honeywell Control Systems is the division of Honeywell International which produces sensing and control equipment and components.

In the UK it operates from its factory in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, manufacturing a wide range of products, from electromechanical switches to vehicle controls to electronic sensors for measurement of oxygen, liquid level and pressure, among other things.

Honeywell Control Systems as a division has been supplying the aerospace, defence and avionics sectors for more than 55 years, and is responsible for such past brand names as Sperry, Microswitch and Elmwood – key names in the industry.

The firm has been able to provide for major customers within this sector – including aircraft OEMs and government agencies – thanks to its global footprint of specialised facilities and its capability to build full platform solutions such as flight control panels and Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensors.

These advanced technologies can be designed to accommodate clients’ specific requirements in order to add value to the end product, which may mean adding housing or wiring to a certain component, or even developing full integrated systems.

Indeed, managing director of the Motherwell plant James Bryson is also working directly with suppliers and partners in developing relationships and consequently improved efficiency and services.

The focus on technological resource and service offering is also part of Honeywell Control Systems’ “pursuit of perfection”. Its quality policy demonstrates its efforts to achieve operational excellence through implementation of best practice and global processes; a systematic performance review to isolate and eliminate productivity shortfalls; a focus on customer needs; and the utilisation of six sigma plus to achieve premier lean enterprise status.

All of the Sensing and Control manufacturing facilities hold quality standard certificates, forming a sturdy foundation on which to build the firm’s quality deliverables. The Motherwell plant itself is registered to ISO 9001, ISO 9001:2000 AS9100 and TS 16949 standard.

Yet again, the company’s focus on the customer becomes evident, as it hopes the registrations will save on product evaluation time and costs. “You can be confident that we will strive for continuous improvement as part of our ongoing commitment to helping our customer compete,” says the website.

Honeywell is also in keen pursuit of environmental stewardship and looks to emerging and developing technologies to make “the world safer, more secure, more comfortable, more energy efficient, more innovative and more productive.”

“We are committed to manage health, safety and environment as a core business value to ensure compliance with all applicable government standards and regulations,” the company says.

And with an 11 per cent growth in sales and net income increase of 22 per cent for Q1 2008, it looks like that all-encompassing business commitment is paying dividends for the Honeywell group.