Questions About Working With Duke

Duke Control Systems is based in Birmingham, UK at 2 Fournier House, 8 Tenby Street, Birmingham B1 3AJ. Birmingham places us at the centre of UK manufacturing, with straightforward access to the automotive corridor running through the West Midlands, the logistics and warehousing belt across the East Midlands, and FMCG and life sciences facilities throughout the North and South.

We work nationally across the UK and have delivered projects internationally. Our team, workshop and office are all Birmingham-based.

The West Midlands is the heart of UK manufacturing. Major automotive OEMs and their supply chains, logistics operators, food and drink producers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are all within a manageable radius. That means our engineers can be on site quickly, travel costs are kept reasonable, and we have built long-term relationships with the kinds of facilities we work in regularly.

It also means we understand the pressures and working patterns of production facilities in this region, which matters when you are planning work around a live line.

Duke was founded by three engineers with a combined total of more than 50 years of industrial automation experience across PLC and SCADA programming, electrical design, robot programming, and large-scale project delivery. The founding team has worked on programmes ranging from single-machine upgrades to full production line installations at some of the most demanding manufacturing facilities in the UK and internationally, including major EV manufacturers and global automotive OEMs.

Importantly, the founders remain technically active. Clients work directly with experienced engineers, not account managers passing work down a chain.

A few things come up consistently. The founding team does not sit in an office managing others — we are technically active engineers who work directly on client projects. The full scope of controls and automation delivery is covered in-house: electrical design, panel manufacture, PLC and robot programming, installation and commissioning. That removes the coordination overhead of managing multiple contractors.

We also work honestly. If a project is not the right fit for Duke, or if expectations need resetting, we say so early. Clients find that refreshing compared to integrators who take on work and manage problems later.

Yes. While the majority of our work is UK-based, we have delivered projects internationally including in the United States. Our engineers are experienced working within different regulatory frameworks and across international client teams. Duke remains a Birmingham-based business and all project management and engineering resource is UK-operated.

Yes. Fixed price works well when the scope is clearly defined and stable. We agree a full scope of works, produce a functional design specification, and price against that document. Any changes outside the agreed scope are managed through a formal change control process so there are no surprises on either side.

For projects where the scope is less well defined at the outset, we will say so and propose the appropriate commercial model. We do not pad fixed price quotes with excessive contingency — we price accurately and manage scope properly instead.

Flexible engineering resource means supplying experienced engineers on a day rate basis to work within your team, on your site, for as long as you need them. It suits situations where you have a programme underway but not enough internal resource to deliver it, where you need a specific skill set for a defined period, or where you want experienced engineers embedded alongside your own team.

Duke can typically mobilise within a short lead time. Engagements range from a few weeks to several months. Our engineers work to your processes and reporting structure while bringing the technical depth of an experienced automation specialist. For more detail see our flexible engineering resource page.

Not necessarily. A significant amount of design, panel manufacture, programming and testing can be completed off-site before any engineer sets foot on your production floor. When site work is required, we plan interventions carefully around your production schedule, whether that is planned shutdown windows, nights, weekends or phased delivery around a live line.

We have delivered large-scale programmes on critical production facilities without unplanned downtime. The key is detailed preparation before each site intervention, not hoping for the best on the day.

For flexible resource requirements, we can often mobilise within one to two weeks depending on the discipline required. For project work, mobilisation follows completion of the scoping and design phase. If you have an urgent requirement, call us directly on 0121 798 9063 and we will give you an honest answer on what is achievable.

A contractor supplies an individual engineer on a time and materials basis. You manage them, direct their work and carry the project risk. A system integrator takes responsibility for delivering a defined scope, managing the programme, and producing a result that meets an agreed specification. Duke operates as both depending on what suits the client best.

For complex programmes with defined outcomes, Duke acts as a system integrator taking full delivery responsibility. For situations where you need additional technical resource within your own team, Duke supplies experienced engineers on a flexible basis.

Our engineers are experienced across the major platforms used in UK manufacturing: Siemens S7 and TIA Portal, Rockwell Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix, Beckhoff TwinCAT, Mitsubishi, Omron, and Schneider Modicon. We also work with SCADA platforms including Wonderware, Ignition and Siemens WinCC.

If your facility runs a platform not listed here, get in touch and we will confirm whether we can support it.

Yes, and this is often the right approach. Not every project requires a full replacement. We regularly work on existing control systems to add functionality, fix recurring faults, improve diagnostics or modify logic for a process change.

Before recommending a full replacement, we will assess whether the existing hardware and software can be extended cost-effectively. Sometimes it can. When it cannot, we will explain why clearly.

We program robots from the major industrial brands including ABB, FANUC and KUKA. Our robot programmers have experience across a range of applications including material handling, palletising, welding and assembly. For more information see our robot programming page.

The most obvious signs are spares becoming difficult to source, vendor support ending, and engineers with knowledge of the original platform becoming harder to find. Many PLCs installed in the 1990s and early 2000s are in this position now — Siemens S5, older Modicon hardware and legacy Allen-Bradley platforms are common examples.

If you are starting to hold larger spare stock to compensate for lead times, or if you have experienced failures that took longer than acceptable to resolve, those are practical indicators that a migration programme is worth planning. The right time to start that conversation is before a critical failure, not after one.

Our primary sectors are automotive and EV, FMCG and food production, logistics and warehousing, and life sciences. Each sector has its own technical standards, regulatory requirements and operational pressures, and our engineers have direct experience across all four. We also work in process industries and general manufacturing where the application fits our capabilities.

It varies considerably by scope. A single machine PLC upgrade with good existing documentation might be completed in two to four weeks. A multi-cell robotic installation or full-line controls modernisation typically runs three to twelve months. The most significant variable is usually the site commissioning phase, which is heavily influenced by production access and how well the off-site preparation was done.

We give realistic programme estimates at the scoping stage and do not compress timelines to win work and manage problems later.

A free line review is an introductory consultation where a Duke engineer walks your process with you, either on site or remotely, to understand what you are trying to achieve and give you an honest assessment of the scope, risk and realistic cost involved. There is no commitment attached and no sales pressure.

Most clients find it clarifies both what is possible and what the right priority order is for their investment. To book one, visit our free line review page or call us directly.

You do not need a fully formed brief to start a conversation. A general description of what you are trying to achieve, the sector and type of facility you operate, and a rough sense of timescale is enough for a useful first conversation. We are used to working with clients at early stages of thinking and helping them develop a scope from scratch.

If you do have existing documentation, drawings or a specification, bring it along — it will help us give you more precise feedback faster. But it is not a prerequisite.