Company Establishment and Development:

The History of SEA goes back to June 1984 when Mr Stephen Spencer first established Select Engineering Ltd in Redditch, Worcestershire. From the beginnings of a small repetition turned parts engineering company, Select Engineering grew to become a highly respected manufacturer of quality machined components, supplying to world leading companies in the automotive, aerospace and construction industries.

As demand from customers requiring a wider range of products from one single supply source increased, Stephen set out to develop a new and revolutionary business model in order to meet customer expectations.

SEA was established in April 2001 following several years’ research of South East Asian manufacturing companies. Now able to offer not only quality produced machined parts, but also castings, forgings, pressings, sintered parts, extrusions and plastic moulded parts, customers soon seized the opportunity to purchase from SEA, a supplier with assured quality and reliability that had a heritage going back many years.

The SEA Unique Selling Point; Our Business Advantage:

SEA collaborates with many professional manufacturing companies in South East Asia, combining the skills from each factory with the technical know-how of our experienced technicians and quality personnel. 

Areas of each factory are set aside for the sole production of SEA parts / products and where required SEA’s machinery / equipment is installed and all operatives are then trained to deliver to the high standards that the company demands. SEA technicians remain in direct contact with the manufacturer carrying out comprehensive training programmes and providing advice and back-up support.

As a Lloyds UKAS ISO9001 approved company, SEA ensures that all parts are made in accordance with its strict quality requirements and proven working procedures. SEA’s production supervisors and quality inspectors remain on site at the manufacturing companies throughout the production period from receipt of raw material through to the final packaging and dispatch.

Where it is necessary for the manufacturer to use subcontractors for finishes such as plating or hardening, our quality staff carry out rigorous audits prior to any parts being processed. Further inspection and testing is then carried out on the finished parts to ensure that all parts conform to drawing specifications.

Raw Material Purchasing Options:

All materials can be supplied totally in accordance with the drawing specifications, although the majority of customers prefer to take full advantage of using direct equivalent materials as this substantially reduces cost.

British (BS), German (DIN), American (ASTM), Japanese (JIS / JSA) and other specifications of material not local to the origin of manufacture are all available. However, the use of these materials has no advantage due to the additional importing tax and duties that are applied. Direct equivalent materials are usually commonly available and SEA tests all materials to ensure they conform to the correct specifications. Full certification can be supplied to customers from world-leading and UKAS approved laboratories including; material analysis, mechanical properties, hardness, yield and tensile.

Manufacturing, Quality Control and Supply Chain Management:

SEA has an efficient and effective operations facility that is based in China and which is professionally run by SEA’s Co-Director Ms Ophylia Zhao. All manufacturers together with our technicians, on-site supervisors and quality inspectors, remain in daily contact and any queries are dealt with in real-time.

 SEA’s skilled engineers and technicians from the UK are readily available to travel to manufacturing companies and often work closely with both the manufacturer and SEA Chinese technicians to establish optimum efficiency and reliable quality.

Our operations facility is in direct contact with our customers, processing new enquiries, order progressing, stock-control and advising delivery data. In addition to this we have a very competent research and development department with 3D CAD facility to help customers develop new products.

Our quality department houses the latest in measuring equipment including computerised shadowgraph to CMM. In-house life testing of assemblies, salt-spray testing, ultraviolet light testing and material hardness testing equipment amongst others, are all installed to give customers full confidence in our products.

The Complete Supply Chain Solution:

SEA’s logistic department has more than 10 years experience in shipping and air freighting products to destinations worldwide.  All UK deliveries are delivered direct to the customer or to their designated warehouse. SEA takes total control of delivery so that from the manufacturer to the port of embarkment through to the port of destination each shipment is carefully tracked and monitored. On arrival at the port, SEA clears all Customs duty formalities together with port handling fees and VAT and organises freight transport to the final destination.

The specialised logistics service alleviates any worry or concerns that a customer may experience when importing goods, as well as not having to incur the costs of employing a skilled import manager.