Continuous improvement – the TML way

Plymouth-based injection-molder and long-term WITTMANN UK customer, Thornbury Manufacturing Limited (TML), continues to thrive. 

Although 2025 saw difficult trading headwinds - and uncertain UK Government commitment to manufacturers – TML has kept pace with investment and ‘sharpening the saw’. 

Under founder and owner Dick Walsh – now assisted by his son Michael - TML has grown into a valued 2nd tier supplier for many industries – with medical/healthcare applications taking the current lion’s share at some 44% of company turnover. 

Dick says that “the core of our business remains a hard-working and very well-trained work force: The performance of our shop floor is the best advert for all our customers and we work to keep it so.”

TML therefore loses no opportunity to upskill its operators wherever possible. For example, these personnel now batch weigh production of insert moldings by the machine - both as a quality and inventory check. This saves further operations, cost and labour in the stores and despatch area. 

Automation is another area where the TML business is a recent convert, and is now fully committed to the process. Dick says that “when investing in WITTMANN molding machines it is now essential for us to include WITTMANN automation as part of the package: Not only do we get machine-machine synergy from source we are also enabled to Plug & Produce from start up.”

Thanks to some detailed assistance and automation build from WITTMANN UK’s Tyler Abraham, TML’s first foray into automation has now resulted in a doubling of productivity from its SmartPower production cell. 

This recent service work was entirely in keeping with TML’s second key business protocol which – according to Dick - is “never let a customer down” – thus subjecting WITTMANN UK to the same discipline.

The most recent TML machine orders – watch this space – prove that both companies are in lock step. According to TML Director and Mold Shop Manager, Gary Tillyer  – “the repeatability in the new WITTMANN IMMs is so good that any variation whatsoever - on part dimension, for example, can be attributed to operator-error rather than machine variation. The machine performance is extremely high – with low maintenance, very low energy cost and hassle free.”

On the basis of ‘set and forget’ moulding together with the benefits of automation the prospects for the WITTMANN/TML partnership look very healthy for the coming future.