Chris Jones, Managing Director, said Abbey’s main problems were that its systems and processes were disconnected.
“We’ve been doing a lot right,” he said. “We had a great team doing brilliant work using the best technology, but as our capabilities increased so did the demands on programming, scheduling and quoting.
“We could not monitor parameters from several different types of machines built by a number of manufacturers. We had no oversight and could only capture information once a job had been completed, at which point, it is too late to address variations.
“It meant keeping on top of cost control – which is imperative – was very difficult.”
Abbey realised that if it was to survive, let alone grow, it had to make some brave and bold choices.