Burnside Eurocyl
Ireland based hydraulic cylinder manufacturer Burnside Eurocyl is battling off competition with an unrivalled approach to product quality, customer service and innovation
Rising up
Ireland based hydraulic cylinder manufacturer Burnside Eurocyl is battling off competition with an unrivalled approach to product quality, customer service and innovation
Burnside Eurocyl is a manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders serving a range of markets and industries across the world. Founded in 1974 by Anthony and Tom Byrne in Carlow, Ireland, the company has grown to include 200 highly trained employees and produces 250,000 cylinders every year. Eurocyl is one of four plants in Carlow under the Burnside group of companies that collectively produces around 750,000 cylinders a year. “Our main clients are OEMs in the construction, automotive and agricultural sectors,” begins Joint Managing Director Anthony Byrne. “We supply some of the best known manufacturers in the world such as Volvo, Komatsu, JCB, Thwaites Dumpers, Nifylift, Kubota, Neuson, Caterpillar and the Wirtgen group. Whilst Germany is our biggest market, we supply companies right across Europe, the US and Canada, India and Korea.”
Being part of the Burnside group brings with it a number of competitive advantages, especially when considering the volume of manufacturing undertaken at the plant. “We can harness the purchasing power of the complete group and can therefore source our raw materials at a very competitive price,” says Anthony. “We are also able to employ the very latest technologies in the production processes, including robots and a large selection of specially built machines, which we build ourselves to meet our specific manufacturing requirements.”
However, the strengths of Burnside Eurocyl are not exclusive to being part of the Burnside group and it is the company’s unfaltering focus on service, flexibility and value that has awarded it with the global reputation it enjoys today. The names in its client portfolio are known for placing quality product and customer service as paramount to doing business with suppliers, which only serves to illustrate the level of service offered to its customers by the Irish company.
One particular area where its service excels is in its highly flexible and bespoke manufacturing capabilities. “One of the biggest advantages wehave over our competitors is the extremely strong emphasis we place on working with our customers at the initial design stage to deliver according to the specific demands and requirements of the customer’s individual machines,” highlights Anthony. “As such, 90 per cent of all our cylinders are designed in-house by our engineers who work closely with our customers at all times.” With such knowledge and experience behind it, Burnside Eurocyl is thus able to stock a range of standard products as well as offer a highly competitive customisable service to the broad range of applications demanded by its markets. Alongside this, quality and on-time delivery remain crucial to completing a cycle of unparalleled service.
In order to operate in such a flexible and customer-focusedmanner, the company has established a suitable production facility with a keen focus on efficiency cost-effectiveness. Anthony explains: “With great flexibility in mind, we operate a just-in-time system with cellularmanufacturing. Therefore, we have our production divided into eight production lines, which allow us to be very flexible and handle both small and large quantities easily. This also allows us to produce cylinders within very short lead times.” To accommodate the challenges posed by such a varied and demanding operation the company assigns members of the production team to communicate directly with its customers to ensure that the requirements are met and strong relationships are maintained.
The ability to put this responsibility in the hands of its employees is a very valuable asset for any company and Burnside Eurocyl’s approach toits workforce is exemplary in this respect. “We are proud of the fact that we have a very highly skilled and dedicated workforce with very low levels of staff turnover,” explains Anthony. “We place great emphasis on team work, a can do attitude and spend a lot of time on quality awareness and training for a number of opportunities. We also have a very flat management system, which we believe helps to keep costs under control and also ensures that everyone can keep in touch with the really important issues of customer service and productivity.”
Despite such a strong service supporting a growing company, there are a number of challenges currently facing the industry. “I see the ever increasing competition from suppliers in Eastern Europe and China as an ongoing problem, especially as the present demands of customers to cut costs in order to offer better prices to their markets, continue to grow,” outlines Anthony. “This is then exacerbated by the increasing demands put upon us for increased quality levels.” With this in mind, Burnside Eurocyl’s traditionally strong commitment to innovation is more important than ever.
“We see innovation as being of crucial importance in the battle to stay competitive in the market places,” he continues. “This is both to find better ways of manufacturing and to ensure increased levels of quality performance. To make sure we maintain this we have a fully resourced R&D division where we are constantly finding new ways of improving set up and manufacturing methods that are necessary to stay ahead of the game.”
With this in mind it is no surprise then that the company is experiencing a strong level of growth at the moment with a number of large contracts recently awarded to the company by new customers. As such Burnside Eurocyl is looking to invest in expanding its facilities. “Our biggest focus over the next year will be the completion of another extension to the manufacturing area, which will add another 2000 square metres to the current 200,000 square metres currently operated in. This will allow us to put in some extra robotic machines and allow us to increase production by another 20 per cent.”
The success so far achieved by Eurocyl can be attributed toa high level of innovation but also the high level of service and customer-focused quality that it prides itself on delivering and these factors are visible in the company’s future outlook. “Our medium term policy is to grow the company by 15 per cent every year with a particular strategy in place to increase our market share in the US and Canada,” concludes Anthony. “We also plan to move into the market segment for larger cylinders and especially into the sector of intelligent cylinders that are fitted with sensor and feedback devices, where demand is really growing.”
Burnside Eurocyl
Services: Hydraulic cylinder manufacturer