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AJT Engineering factory

A strong workforce thanks to TAB

David Scalley, managing director of AJT Engineering Limited, credits the strengthening of his workforce to guidance received from TAB.

AJT Engineering Limited is an Aberdeen-based engineering firm that specialises in areas from the repair of oilfield and pressure equipment to new manufacture with in-house machining, project engineering, welding, heat treatments, testing and assembly. The firm also delivers site services where it refurbishes, replaces and reinstalls hydro schemes, gates and valves along with fabrication and service support to treatment and industrial facilities.

The engineering firm has in total 129 employees across its four sites – three in Aberdeen and one in East Kilbride. The facility in East Kilbride, called British Heat Treatments, is an independent business division under the AJT Engineering umbrella, and offers QPQ heat treatments, tufftriding, stress relieving and quench hardening.

The result: better financial management, reporting and people improvement.

David Scalley
AJT Engineering

Aberdeen
100-250 employees
Engineering
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With TAB, getting out of the office and speaking with the board for the 3-4 hours we are together

allows me to think more independently.

The results from joining TAB

A bridge being built in a factory

Inside the AJT Engineering factory where David has been the Managing Director since 2020.

David became the managing director of AJT Engineering in 2020, having previously been chief operating officer. He began his TAB journey in March 2021.

AJT Engineering is a 74-year-old business, and when David became managing director, his first port of call was to review the business and make changes.

He said: “We were very much stuck in the old ways, so now – with the help of TAB – I have taken the time to review the business, sell parts of the business off and modify our strategy to bring in modernisation, digitisation and more accountable reporting.

 

 

“It has also helped me to map out what my expectations are as the managing director and to work closer with my financial director to outline what information they should support me with – this has made our communication clearer and more organised.”

David added: “TAB is an independent thought process, away from the influences and pressures of work. In the day-to-day job, you can get drawn into distractions, you often don’t have time to think and you’re just firefighting problems. However, with TAB, getting out of the office and speaking with the board for the 3-4 hours we are together allows me to think more independently.”

Through group discussions at TAB, David has implemented changes with AJT Engineering’s payroll system from weekly to monthly pay. The firm has also made multiple internal and external hires off the back of retirals to bring in a new dynamic for the organisation.

We were very much stuck in the old ways, so now – with the help of TAB – I have taken the time to review the business, sell parts of the business off and modify our strategy to bring in modernisation, digitisation and more accountable reporting.

David has found the structure of TAB sessions to be informative and motivational. He said: “Regardless of whether you are a small company or a larger company – the problems are all the same. We have all been there and each has different solutions that we can tweak and modify to learn from one another.”

David states that the growth of AJT Engineering has been down to better financial management, reporting and people improvement, influenced by TAB engagement. This has allowed the firm to deliver a stronger, more accountable workforce and more robust systems managing the costs going in and out of the company.

 AJT Engineering is on track to grow £1.8m on last year’s performance and TAB will remain an integral part of its business journey.

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