Daventry revs up for era of growth

If anyone is perfectly placed to chart the evolution of Cummins’ engine and power generator manufacturing centre in Daventry, England, it’s Roy Free. Born and raised in the local area and starting work with Cummins as a 16-year old trainee in 1988, Roy is now in charge of the plant. 

“This place is a part of my DNA,” said Roy, who always impresses his colleagues in China when he reveals he started at Cummins on August 8th, 1988 – the eighth of the eighth, eighty-eight.

“In China, eight is considered the luckiest number. It’s associated with wealth, prosperity and success, and I do consider myself extremely lucky to be running this plant at such an exciting time for Daventry and for Cummins.”

Thirty-eight years after starting out under the old Youth Training Scheme, Roy now presides over a plant that has overcome a number of major hurdles in its 53-year history to become a core element of the Cummins global manufacturing network. 

Completely off-grid 

Daventry produces high-horsepower engines and generator sets with power outputs ranging from 750KW to 3000KW. 

We meet on a day of celebration at Daventry: the completion of the plant’s 10,000th generator set, a mighty QSK95 series model in trademark green destined for a European data centre. It is also a day the plant is operating completely off the UK power grid, supplied by energy generated by its massive adjacent solar farm, which generates around two megawatt hours each year. 

“I can see a time in the next 10 years when this place is a self-contained microgrid and a future plant manager can be brave and pull the plug,” said Roy. 

“What better way to showcase Cummins’ power generation capabilities than to have one of its most important facilities and a massive consumer of energy running completely off-grid.” But back to the here and now, and Roy is keen to talk about a series of upgrades to the plant which represents a massive vote of confidence from Cummins HQ in Columbus, Indiana. 

Taken together, those upgrades, which will take place over the next 18 months or so, will come in at several million dollars and will include engine block machining and assembly lines that feature advanced computer-controlled machinery. The investment will facilitate a serious uplift in the production of the QSK78 (78-litre) engine and the start of QSK95 manufacturing. 

Today, those 95-litre engines are shipped to Daventry from Cummins’ Seymour plant in Indiana ready to be integrated into the massive generator sets favoured by top-end players in the data centre business. 

QSK95 production at Daventry is slated to begin in early 2027. “The key to everything we're doing here is flexibility,” said Roy Free. “It's one of our watchwords”.

We are setting aside a number of slots per week to build 78s, 95s, or a combination of both. With all the investment going into our global business, I believe Cummins will be well placed to meet the demands of industry, particularly data centres, certainly up to 2030.” 

Other changes taking place at Daventry include a new assembly line with seven new stages added to the existing 14-stage process to boost TAC (Time Allowed to Complete) performance; improvements to the test, trim and genset areas; new offices; and a campus site for the Applied Mechanics and Engineering teams currently based about one mile away in rented offices. 

Roy shows me a blueprint of the Daventry site with the changes taking place over the next two years shaded in pink. Roughly 40 per cent of the floor space will have been subjected to change by the time the work is done.

“We are constantly looking at ways we can improve our output. It’s how we’ve managed to exist all these years; never standing still. The changes can be a bit of nuisance in the short term but the team here are great: they just get on with it. 

“My predecessor as plant manager Dave Barker summed it up nicely when he said change and adapting to change was ingrained in the culture here at Daventry. 

“And the more complexity we face, the better it is for us as a business because nowhere else can do what we do here.” Roy was part of the team that successfully lobbied for the enormous Cummins UK Logistics Centre (UKLC) to be located just a mile or so away from the Daventry plant. The mammoth 435,000sq ft (40,413 sqm) facility opened in June 2021. 

Everything that’s needed on the Daventry production line arrives just in time, with 50 inbound deliveries each day

Safety and smiles key for Roy

There’s a sign Roy Free keeps in his office ready to produce when conversations turn to output from his Daventry plant. The sign says ‘JUST ONE MORE’ and it’s meant to sum up the natural state of mind at Daventry: the willingness and determination to satisfy the demand for its engines and generator sets over and above what’s in the production plan. 

But for all its focus on the metal, Roy is keen to stress it’s not the only measurement of the success of his tenure in the Daventry hot seat. 

When he took over the reins from Dave Barker in 2023, having served as his deputy and Operations Manager for the previous eight years, Roy knew exactly where he wanted to focus his energies, and he made safety and staff welfare his main priorities.

“Daventry has always been a great place to work,” said Roy, “but I felt we had lost our way a little bit after Covid and we needed as a leadership team to get back in touch with the shop floor.” 

Roy wanted to start with reinforcing the message on safety, and he swiftly introduced a system where anybody had the power to call an immediate halt to proceedings if they saw something around the plant that looked like it could be dangerous. “We call it our Ace system: it’s a card that carries our five golden rules on safety, and it empowers you to stop and request the process or task is reviewed before work carries on. 

“So if anyone spots anything or has a strong feeling that something isn’t right, they can play their ace and raise the issue. Production may be king, but the ace trumps it every time.”

Roy revealed the safety ace had been produced on a number of occasions, halting the process in question until everyone was satisfied whatever issue had been flagged was resolved. One of those instances involved a concern that when it was raining, generator sets being moved outside down a gentle slope could slide away – that’s 15 or 20 tonnes of genset not under control. 

“We commissioned the building of an enclosure to keep the gensets dry and everyone safe from any potential harm.” On the staff welfare side, a number of initiatives were launched or reintroduced aimed at building team spirit. We introduced staff recognition reward vouchers, brought back our coach outings, which were always popular, and we created a new line of workwear for our female colleagues.” 

Cummins is the biggest employer in Daventry, and around 60% of the Daventry plant’s workforce comes from the town. Last year, Cummins employees contributed more than 8,780 hours to local community projects.

“In recent times, colleagues have helped on a pumping system for a local reservoir, built benches and planters for local schools and volunteer centres, and cleared litter from towpaths on the nearby Grand Union Canal,” said Roy. 

“One of my favourite projects was us working on a library bus for a local primary school, an old London double-decker. “Our team overhauled it mechanically and refurbished the interior, and then our friends up the road at Amazon provided the books. It was very satisfying.”