UK-based steam steriliser and laboratory equipment manufacturer LTE Scientific has expanded its nation-wide services with extra field-based engineers, a new training centre, bespoke training courses and enhanced customer support systems.
LTE’s core activities are the design, manufacturing and installation of equipment for medical, commercial laboratory, dental and veterinary sectors.
Products include autoclaves, washer disinfectors, medical solution and blanket-warming cabinets, sterilisers, ovens, incubators, drying cabinets, environmental rooms and freeze dryers.
In the health sector, LTE works on hospital and dental sterilisation equipment such as autoclaves and disinfectors. For the scientific sector, clients include testing laboratories serving sectors such as food, packaging, agriculture, beverages and water.
LTE’s complementary range of engineering, training and customer support services has grown significantly and now accounts for around one-third of turnover.
Its team of field engineers are fully-trained to service, validate and repair most makes and types of medical and scientific laboratory equipment. Services are accredited to UKAS (ISO 17025) covering temperature, pressure and time.
We currently have a network of 14 field-based engineers across the UK, from Scotland to the south of England. We’ve expanded and invested in this team by recruiting two new engineers in the past 12 months and now we’re expanding further by recruiting another two engineers. Our services for hospitals include testing autoclaves and disinfector equipment for compliance with government Health Technical Memoranda (HTM). This type of work has expanded significantly, and we have grown our services by recruiting skilled engineers with experience on equipment made by other manufacturers. This means LTE engineers can service our own equipment along with equipment made by other manufacturers. We use a field-based service management system which ensures efficient response, repair and sign-off for clients. In addition, our Technical Support Manager, Lee Kershaw, is available to travel across the UK to support field-engineers and customers on-site. So expert engineering advice is always available. Furthermore, LTE differs from many other service providers because we also manufacture equipment and components. So, we can utilise our manufacturing department’s skills and facilities, including our design and IT software engineering teams, to support our service engineers. We ensure our engineers carry comprehensive spares, so they can fix equipment whenever possible. And when we take on a new service contract, we ensure we can get support from any competitor manufacturers, if required, or source the equivalent from elsewhere. We do not install used, second-hand parts.
Kim Copper, Finance and Service Director, LTE
In addition to its growing engineering support, LTE has enhanced its administration team and IT system which logs all customer-calls and stores the service-histories of all equipment.
To complement the service expansion, LTE has developed a training centre at its Greater Manchester manufacturing site. This is fitted with a range of equipment operated and configurated in realistic operational environments.
LTE customers can receive bespoke training courses at the centre. Courses include first-line maintenance for estates staff, user-operations, efficient use of machinery, such as best practise for loading; and equipment-testing.
It is very important for clients to understand our test results and reports, so they can interpret reports correctly. Our tailored courses serve a range of customer needs and can be done at our own training centre or on-location at the customer’s site.
Kim Copper, Finance and Service Director, LTE