Cummins’ honour as Duke checks out site
Oct 9 2008 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette
ENGINEERING giant Cummins has had the Royal seal of approval for its manufacturing skills.
The Duke of Kent visited the Darlington firm yesterday to take a closer look at work on the site, which earned a Queen’s Award for Enterprise earlier this year for outstanding export sales in 2007.
Mike McCabe, Cummins Darlington acting plant manager, said the company was “extremely honoured” by the visit. “He was very positive about the efforts made by our company to promote UK business around the globe and recognised our success in attaining the Queen’s award. He commented that it was a great achievement, as it was a tough challenge even to meet the award application requirements.”
Mr McCabe said the Duke of Kent showed particular interest in recent investments in a new computer system to manage product through the assembly process and the use of vision systems for automated quality inspection. The Royal visit was a boost for staff, who last week were told that 111 temporary jobs would be lost at the site. The company said up to 86 more full-time jobs could be hit as order books shrink.
Steven Nendick, Cummins’ European communications director, said negotiations were continuing with unions to minimise the losses.
