With a client list of major names in Saudi Arabia, from aerospace and air conditioning industries to the largest dairy producers, one could be forgiven for thinking that Riyadh-based Micron Parts & Precision Engineering had already achieved their business objectives, but Khaled Al Salem, the managing director, has a much wider vision.

Micron was born in 1997 when there was a manual machine shop on almost every corner of the city. Indeed the management team at Micron came from just such a background.

Determined to offer a better service, Khaled has teamed up with Jeff Perry, an applications engineer with many years experience at the quality end of the business and invested heavily in the very latest computer-controlled precision and volume production, turning and machining equipment.

For the last seven years, the company has acquired and commissioned state-of-the-art equipment and a team of dedicated and professional operators.

The company is now geared to produce almost anything from the 'one-off' precision-machined part that will keep a customer's factory operating up to volume parts manufactured to feed a production line.

Current manufactured parts are in aerospace alloys and steels to plastics, ranging in complexity from couplings for agricultural line shaft vertical turbine irrigation pumps (a product the company now produces in sufficient quantities to supply all the needs of the Gulf region) to any parts individually designed for a specific purpose. Regularly called upon to provide machine parts for industrial maintenance, Micron has saved many an industrial factory from expensive downtime.

The extensive experience of the team is reflected not just in the parts they produce but in the range of machines they operate. Some of the CNC machinery employed is arranged to be able to produce single and lower volume precision parts in all types of materials, with capacities up to 2 m with bar feeds and Cad/Cam and backed up with test and inspection facilities.

On the volume production side, one of the new machines, installed recently, is an Italian "Mori-Say" multi-spindle, allowing Micron to compete, as a sub-contractor of volume quality machined parts with similar suppliers from Europe and the Far East.

Unusually in this part of the world, both Jeff and Khalid are concerned to be as loyal to their staff as they expect them to be loyal to the company. "A good team spirit breeds good working practice, and that's proven with our quality record," says Jeff.

"The expertise of the management, the dedication of the staff and the range of the equipment employed are surely unmatched anywhere in the Gulf.

"The competitively priced service has brought in business from some of the toughest negotiators in the business and with approval certificates from many industry sectors, Micron will continue to expand its ability to service as a 'sub contractor' to the growing manufacturing sector both in the Kingdom and in the Gulf region as a whole."