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On Monday 18th. March, the Thames Valley Centre visited The JCB Factory at Rocester near Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.

Seven members had booked the morning tour with lunch which started at 10 o’clock. Chris Nickless sensibly proposed we avoided the uncertainty of the M40 and M42 on a Monday morning by booking in to the local Premier Inn. This was taken up by all and we had a very convivial dinner on Sunday night followed by going through the card for the ‘Full English’ breakfast option in the morning.‍

Crew in a bucket

The tour commenced with introductory and HSE videos followed by a tour of the visitor’s centre and gift shop. I could have spent more time here, there was a lot to see. No photography was allowed in the factory so we took a few here and outside. The site is massive and includes landscaped grounds with lakes, a golf academy and country club. Old man Bamford must have been a canny investor buying up acres of surrounding farmland.

The factory tour went from the parts receiving bay, through cutting the steel sheet on CNC oxy-acetylene and laser machines, manual tacking of the components in jigs, extensive automatic welding machines, stress relieving, shot blasting and painting in automated booths, all the way to putting the stickers on and testing. The scale of the factory has to be seen to be believed, we saw two moving production lines, one for backhoes and one for telehandlers and dumper trucks, all assembling a mix of machines being built to customer specifications. We even saw some that weren’t yellow! They operate an extensive Just-In-Time operation, we were told that even their fastener stocks are maintained by outside suppliers and not purchased by JCB until removed from the bins!

Outside the factory

JCB have several factories in the UK and Worldwide, they now make their own engines and are developing a hydrogen version. Considering this is a family company started in the mid 40’s by the current chairman’s father making farm trailers out of old Anderson shelters, the growth is impressive and a great British success story.

After the tour we had lunch prepared by the in-house chef from the JCB farm produce. The meatballs were certainly superior to Ikea’s!

Flying the flag

A great trip, well recommended if you are ever in the area.

Chris Beck