Dura develops revolutionary workshops for multi-million pound institute facility operating across a wide range of market sectors, including automotive, leisure, manufacturing, mobile telecoms, rail, retail and technology, multi-national company Unipart has become recognised worldwide for offering a unique breadth of different services. From third party logistics to expert consultancy work, Unipart now employ over 10,000 personnel, becoming one of the largest developers in the UK market.
Part of Unipart's unique offering to the manufacturing industry is that they've consistently invested in degree level graduates. Working with a number of prestigious engineering Universities across the country, Unipart have continued to invest in the technicians of tomorrow, bridging the gap between newly qualified graduates and the working world. One particular alliance that has proved particularly successful is that formed with the University of Coventry. It was from this partnership that the decision was made to develop a state-of-the-art institute for advanced manufacturing and engineering (AME) that Unipart and Coventry University could utilise to train and develop the next crop of engineers.
As part of this facility, Unipart chose to develop three multi-function workshops that would form the core of the training facility, allowing the centres leading team members to train new technicians on key aspects of the AME course. In creating their state-of-the-art facility, Dura were chosen to meet their storage and workspace requirements.
Working hand in hand with Unipart and Coventry University, Dura started with the fit out of the main technician's room. Measuring 6.6m wide by 7.5m deep, this workshop was formed around a corner solution at the far end of the main room that provided each technician with a single work bay and plenty of tool storage. In addition to this, Dura created two mobile workstation islands in the middle of the workshop that could be re-configured at will, allowing students to transport key parts to the adjacent machines when necessary.
For the Joint Preparation Lab, Dura created two columns of low-level bulk storage cabinets and bridging units to provide enough worktop assembly space for each class. As Unipart wanted to from the core of the Preparation Lab around specially selected technicians' machines, which required Dura to develop deeper worktops to integrate all of the necessary equipment. The back of the room was then finished with a 4.2m storage section along with a single centralised wash station, allowing them to clean up between tasks.
For the final Metrology Laboratory Dura integrated a series of 1200mm wide, four drawer deep tool storage cabinets along the left-hand wall, interspersing them with 900mm wide bridging units to create a series of low-level work stations. Due to the need for efficient record keeping, Dura then installed two double-door, 1200mm wide shelving cabinets on the opposite side of the workshop to utilise the remaining space available.
Once completed, each of the three workshops created an efficient, productive and perfectly styled teaching facility for the range of students that pass through the centre, mirroring the innovative aspirations that both Unipart and the University of Coventry originally had.
If you would like to hear more about this or any of the other projects in Dura's case studies section then please call 01280 706050 or email info@duraworkshops.co.uk.
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