Neil (L) and Paul (R)

Ginho has made two appointments in its quality assurance team as the business embarks on an ambitious growth plan across new and existing markets. Neil Cranmer joins as European quality manager with Paul Gibney the company’s new European quality engineer.

Neil Cranmer brings over 30 years’ experience of the international original equipment market and has been a quality assurance pioneer across numerous automotive and commercial vehicle manufacturers and component specialists. His expertise covers injection moulding, precision machining of aluminium and grey cast iron, pressure and gravity die casting, precision turned parts, plastic and stamped parts.

Neil’s starting point is always understanding individual customers’ specific priorities and his key achievements include the introduction of quality systems across many global businesses and also being the lead auditor on various accreditations – including IATF 16949 and VDA standards.

Paul Gibney’s passion for precision manufacturing began during semester breaks from his university studies when he worked as a machine operator at a manufacturing engineering factory that specialised in cast iron and steel rocker arm assemblies for automotive and off-highway customers.

Following completion of his BSc degree in Outdoor Environmental Education, and independent travel in South America, Paul began an eight-year stint at a global Italian component group, where he progressed through various roles within the quality function.

Undertaking a number of placements in the US, India and Europe along the way, Paul’s career developed to oversee the quality management system, production part approval process, and project management in prototype-to-production projects, to quality co-ordinator of the UK site. Paul also has public sector experience in the recycling industry and is keen to achieve zero waste to landfill and make improvements to processes’ carbon footprints.

Neil says: “It is a very exciting time to be joining Ginho as the company expands its global reach and looks to achieve the next level of growth. My focus will be very much on keeping quality at the heart of everything we do as the business develops, and looking to be proactive whenever possible around further improvements or changes in legislation and upcoming trends”.

Paul is very motivated about joining the global business, and added: “Ginho’s international aspirations are really impressive, and while I am looking forward to implementing some of the skills I have learned to date. I am also eager to explore new markets”.

Shaun Gray, Ginho’s European managing director, is delighted to have Neil and Paul on board, commenting: “Having someone of Neil’s calibre as part of the team is great news for both the company and our customers. He has an awesome track record and is very, very knowledgeable across all our core sectors.” Regarding Paul’s appointment, Shaun added: “We are hugely impressed with Paul’s quality and project management skills alongside his customer service focus, and he has already immersed himself in our business”.

In his spare time, Neil enjoys travelling and dog walking with his wife Paulina. While Paul has relocated to Burton from Oxford, and outside work enjoys triathlons, motorcycling, and the outdoors.

This new customer was experiencing supply issues because of poor performance from an existing supplier. Ginho was able to reach a mutually agreeable commercial level for a cast exhaust cone. Importantly we were able to validate samples very quickly and ramp up high volume serial production within a few weeks.
An agile approach and attitude within our Group allowed Ginho to dedicate key team members and resources to overcome critical timing and quality constraints.

With our UK based stocking facility, we were able to minimise the risk to our customer and keep the OEM’s production line operational. From this warehouse, the lead time to the customer’s door in Europe was only 3 to 4 days.
The costs for OEM line stoppage are significant, and Ginho’s support allowed our customer to completely avoid an immediate issue. We have since secured several additional projects with this customer, and our partnership is developing very well in Europe, China, and South America too.

The European customer started a project with a pressed and welded cone assembly involving several components and welds. Following issues in the field and failures with the original design, Ginho successfully secured the business for a singular cast cone, which is now in high volume serial production. In addition to this removing welds and resulting in a more robust component, the customer benefits from only having to source and verify a single component instead of several.

This improved supply chain traceability and minimised risk factors related to vibration within the assembly, and ultimately within the engine. This casting is now also being shipped to our customer’s factory in South America too, so this truly has developed into a key global collaboration. Our customer very much values our support in relation to this project, and we are now working to develop similar opportunities, and reducing risk factors in some of their other programs too.

Ginho have been able to support a UK based customer in the domestic boiler sector who were originally sourcing a secondary supplier for a stainless steel hydroformed tubular component, because of capacity issues with the current source. We produced high-quality sample parts which were approved, Ginho invested in new equipment to support the customer with their demands and installed a dedicated production line.

We have since developed into their number one supplier with the majority share of the business. As Ginho Europe is situated locally to the customer’s factory, our customer service and stocking facility were also critical factors in developing this partnership.