BEC剑桥英语高级真题4 Test 1-Part 3-Gras

In a tough climate for UK manufacturers, Malcolm Drake thinks he has hit on a way for his company, Grasmere, to succeed: by becoming a bespoke manufacturer. This involves working very closely with customers to produce precisely what they want. As a result, Grasmere has become indispensable to its big customers, which are based around Europe. Grasmere makes a range of small metal items that are tailored to fit into much larger products, and its customers include big electronics and electrical goods manufacturers. "When we start talking to customers about an order; they often have only a rough idea what they want," says Drake."We assist them in identifying and specifying their need, and we advise them on the best way to manufacture the product. Then we fulfil the order, which could involve making anything between 40 and one billion parts in a year."

在英国制造商处于艰难的环境下，Malcom Drake认为，通过成为一家定制制造商，他为自己的公司Grasmere找到了一条成功之路。这包括与客户密切合作，精确的生产出他们想要的产品。结果Grasmere已经成为遍布欧洲的大客户必不可少的的供应商。Grasmere生产一系列小的金属产品，这些产品都是为更大的产品量身定制的，包括大的电子产品和电子产品生产商。 “当我们开始和客户谈论一个订单，他们经常只有一个初步的他们想要的东西的大概的想法。“Drake说。”我们坚持帮助他们确认和明确他们的需求，同时我们建议他们最好的生产产品的方法，然后我们完成订单，这可能涉及到每年生产10-40亿个产品。“

Grasmere's main tools are press machines that stamp out metal items in its Birmingham premises. The company was started by Drakes's great-grandfather in 1903, when its' best-selling products were pen nibs, and the company prides itself on never having fallen below the exacting standards which it set then. While today's range has moved a long way from those pen nibs, some of the original machinery stands in the reception area, as a memento of the company's roots. Only in the last year has the company relocated from the cramped and grimy workshop it moved to in 1910, to a more modern and open-plan building on the outskirts of Birmingham, an operation that involved a major logistical exercise to move the machinery. The new site has allowed Grasmere to make itself more efficient. The company has cut staff from 150 to 125 by shedding low-skilled employees without reducing turnover.

Grasmere的主要工具是位于伯明翰工厂里用来冲压金属工具的冲压机。该公司由Drake的曾祖父于1903年创立，当时最畅销的产品是钢笔尖，并且公司以从未降低过当时设定的严格的标准而自豪。虽然今天生产的范围已经从钢笔尖延伸到很多产品，一些刚开始使用的机器被陈列在了公司前台，以纪念该公司的起源。直到去年，公司才从1910年搬进的狭窄，满是灰尘的车间，搬到了伯明翰郊区一座更加现代，开放式的建筑里。新的厂区使得Grasmere的生产更加高效。公司在不降低销售额的情况，把低技术含量人员从150人减少到了125人。

Malcom Drake says that 18 of Grasmere's customers each contribute revenues of more than 100,000 a year, with half of all turnover coming from three of them."It sin't the usual supplier-customer relationship," he explains. "We are very open with them and provide them with a lot of internal information about costs. But we select them as much as they select us. If we are asked to do something that is too difficult or expensive, we say"no",We educate the customer as to what is possible. If you allow yourself to be dictated to, that's not a partnership-it's grovelling.""

Malcome Drake表示，在Grasmere 18家骨科护理，每个客户每年的销售额都超过10万英镑，其中一半的营业额来自三家客户。"这不仅仅是普通的供应商和客户之间的关系，" 他解释道:"我们对他们非常开放，并向他们提供许多内部的关于成本的信息。但是我们选择他们就像他们选择我们一样。如果我们被要求做一些非常困难和昂贵的东西，我们说"不"。我们教育客户什么是可能的事，如果你听命欲人，那就不是合作伙伴，而是卑躬屈膝."

Grasmere's business has spread more widely to other parts of Europe in the past few years, though not because of any deliberate strategy to push up exports. As Drake points out, if a company such as his is keen to yoke itself to successful companies that think strategically, inevitably this will mean more overseas sales to relatively far-flung divisions of these businesses, to meet their own demand for the components Grasmere can produce.

在过去的一些年里， Grasmere的生意已经更广泛的扩展到了欧洲其他地区，尽管这并不是他们蓄意增加出口量的战略。正如Drake指出的那样，"如果像他这样的公司热衷于把自己束缚在具有战略思考能力的成功公司，不可避免的意味着更多的海外业务将流向这些业务中较远的部门，以满足Grasmere能够生产零部件的需求."

The company depends on having technically literate people who can talk intelligently to customers. Hence 90 of Grasmere's employees are engineers employed in a range of jobs including making products, sales, marketing and purchasing. While about 100 of the staff are directly involved in shop-floor production work, they frequently also have an outward-facing role, such as talking to customers about design or manufacturing.

公司依靠的事有技术知识的人，他们能聪明的跟客户交谈。因此，Grasmere的90名员工都是工程师，从事各种工作，包括制造产品，销售，营销和采购。尽管约有100名员工直接参与车间的生产工作，但他们也经常扮演外向的角色，比如与客户讨论设计和生产。

Malcolm Drake sums up his company's strengths as offering five attributes that customers want quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and low costs. As a result, the company is flourishing.

Malcolm Drake总结了公司的优势，为客户希望的质量，速度，可靠性，灵活性和低成本五个方面的需求。最后，公司将蓬勃发展。