Every link in the chain is vital

Behind those engines – which disappear beneath tractor bonnets and truck cabs – sits a supply chain that is global in reach, local in impact, and increasingly central to how smaller firms grow and how people in the North East build long-term careers.

For Nick, who is instrumental to those relationships as supply chain leader, getting the strategy right is no longer just a matter of cost and continuity. It’s about competitiveness for Darlington, resilience for UK manufacturing, and opportunity for hundreds of businesses and employees.

‘We see ourselves as part of one shared system. Our success depends on our suppliers succeeding, and together we win for our customers,’ he tells me in a meeting room at the expansive Darlington Campus.

'Together we win for our customers' (Image: Cummins)

‘If this site remains cost-competitive, maintains an excellent safety record, and continues to produce high-quality products, it will help create more business opportunities for the campus.’

The role Darlington plays in Cummins’ global network has evolved significantly in the dozen years Nick has been on site, with the plant now supporting a broader customer base and a more varied range of applications than ever before.

‘Darlington’s customer profile has changed significantly since I started, and that is what makes this such an exciting time for the site. Today, we support a much wider customer base around the world, with greater product proliferation and a broader range of applications for our engines.’

Each new customer application brings its own requirements, creating greater variety in design, configuration and the components needed to build and support each engine.

‘That naturally creates significant product variety,’ Nick continues.

‘We manage a significant number of active parts every day, making sure the right stock is available in the right place at the right time to support every customer engine on the line. It is a formidable daily task, but it is also what makes supply chain such an exciting and important part of the business.’

Behind that complexity is a simple customer promise: every part must arrive in the right place, at the right time and at the right quality level, so Cummins can deliver reliable products and dependable service to customers around the world.

Managing that proliferation – deciding which parts are best supported through global suppliers and where local capability can add value – is where supply chain strategy starts to become a lever for growth.

‘From a Darlington perspective, supporting engine production means managing components and base engines from an international supplier base,’ Nick says.

The result is what he describes as ‘a truly global supply chain’, with components sourced from around the world feeding into a single line in Darlington. That global footprint brings obvious advantages in terms of capability and scale. But it also means the plant – and the smaller firms that depend on its business – must be aware of currency movements, freight costs, tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty.

Over the past few years, those pressures have forced a more nuanced view of supply chain strategy. Price still matters, of course, but Cummins is moving beyond a purely cost-driven approach and taking a broader view of total supply chain value.

‘Given today’s global uncertainty, tariffs and unpredictable shipping times, the case for a more balanced supply chain is stronger than ever. The exciting part is that we are not simply moving from global to local; we are making smarter sourcing decisions based on value, quality, risk, capability and what our customers need,’ he tells me.

‘Every new product follows a rigorous introduction process, where we review every aspect of the engine and what the supply base must provide to support it. We are applying that approach now to our engine development, assessing the components and suppliers needed.’

Sometimes the case for local sourcing is driven as much by volume and flow as by precision engineering.

Overseas suppliers often require high minimum order quantities and long lead times, leaving plants with high levels of stock that take up space and tie up cash. For lower-volume, high-variety lines, that creates a real challenge.

In some cases, local suppliers can work to tighter, more responsive schedules, while in others the best answer may remain with established global suppliers who offer specialist capability, scale or proven quality.

‘Take packaging, for example. Where it makes sense, we can work with local suppliers to support more responsive flows,’ Nick says. ‘That can reduce the need to hold larger volumes on site and supports a more flexible approach to supply. Those factors are all considered in our sourcing strategy when we set up supply for our components.’

It’s just one part of a vast operation, but it illustrates an important point for the North East economy: local capability matters most when it complements Cummins’ wider global supply base and helps deliver the right balance of responsiveness, resilience, quality and value for customers.

For many of the companies in Cummins’ supply chain, the relationship with Darlington is central to their business model and employment base. That gives supply chain decisions a weight that goes beyond cost per part.

‘It’s quite a responsibility,’ he acknowledges.

‘Many firms rely on their Cummins business, so the decisions we make here affect far more than our own operation. They can impact businesses across the country. We know we are in it together, and we only succeed when our suppliers succeed, so we have to win together.’

Now, as Cummins continues to broaden the customer base served from Darlington, the opportunity for regional suppliers is growing. For firms prepared to invest, it offers a chance to become part of a global market.

Every time Darlington wins manufacturing, more engines move down the single line on Yarm Road. Keeping up from a supply chain perspective requires a full range of components and logistics services. In a region where industrial supply chains underpin thousands of jobs, those flows are the difference between stalling and driving forward, and where supply chains grow, jobs grow as well.

‘Within my supply chain planning team alone, we have a strong mix of experienced colleagues, graduates and placement students, with several people continuing to develop their skills through further learning and university courses.

‘We are continually recruiting to support our manufacturing operations and the wider business functions across the campus. Cummins is always looking for new talent, and this is a fantastic place for people to build a career.’

The supply chain is central to that recruitment story. As the plant invests in efficiency, from solar panels on their new warehouse roof to new equipment technology, Darlington becomes more cost-competitive. That helps secure more volume and, in turn, creates more roles.

‘We work closely with our apprentice, graduate and placement programme to bring new talent into the business and give people a real sense of what it is like to work for Cummins. We are also committed to upskilling our colleagues, working with local colleges and universities to help them fulfil their potential.’

One challenge is that the Cummins brand – often hidden behind vehicle shells and customers’ own branded badges – is not always front-of-mind for potential applicants. So how does the site make those roles attractive to people looking for work?

Nick says: ‘We want people to understand that this is a state-of-the-art facility with a diverse workforce and roles across every business function, not just manufacturing. We need to reach a wider audience because there are many talented people who may not know what we do at Cummins – or may not have heard of us at all.’

That visibility challenge is not always straightforward. Cummins products can sit behind customers’ own brands, applications and vehicle designs, so the company has to work harder to explain what is made in Darlington and where its technology is used.

‘We put a lot of thought into how we present the Cummins story,’ Nick says.

‘Some products carry the Cummins identity very visibly, while others are integrated into customers’ own branded equipment. That means we need to be clear and confident in telling people about the breadth of what we do, the markets we support and the opportunities that exist here.’

The supply chain is the invisible enabler behind that wider story. Whether the end product carries a Cummins badge or sits within a customer’s own brand, it depends on thousands of co-ordinated supplier relationships, from high-end machining through to the everyday materials and logistics flows that keep production moving.

For Nick, making that story clearer – to potential recruits, to local businesses, to policymakers – is part of strengthening the system.

Part of the answer lies in the supply chain itself.

As Cummins builds a broader portfolio – not just diesel engines but battery systems, fuel cells and hydrogen technology through Accelera by Cummins – the skills it needs change. That broader technology mix also widens the skills required, making the business more attractive to people looking for varied, future-facing careers.

The supply chain sits at the intersection of those changes. On one side, traditional disciplines: logistics, procurement, scheduling, inventory. On the other, data-driven optimisation, AI-led forecasting, new technologies and sustainability. For young people weighing up whether to stay in the region and build a career, that combination matters.

‘The markets we serve still have real longevity and strong prospects ahead,’ says Nick.

‘The future will not be defined by one technology alone. Diesel, batteries and hydrogen will each have a role to play depending on the application, duty cycle and customer need.

‘That is what makes it so energising to be part of Cummins right now. We are investing in future-proof technology while continuing to develop a campus that matters so much to the town and the wider region.’

That investment is visible on the ground. The Darlington site now incorporates the emissions solutions business as well as the European technical operations alongside the engine plant, and a new warehouse is under construction.

The site is being configured as a campus rather than a standalone factory, with a broader mix of functions and technologies sharing space.

‘The vision has always been to create a campus that brings the full Cummins team together on one site, making it easier to have face-to-face conversations, solve problems quickly and collectively drive better solutions for our customers.’

For the supply chain, that campus model raises the stakes. More business units, more technologies and more routes to market mean broader supplier bases, more complex inbound and outbound flows and more opportunities for local firms to plug in if they can meet Cummins’ standards.

Nick’s perspective is that, whatever technologies and applications shape the plant’s future, Darlington will still depend on the skills of the people who manage and support it.

‘Ultimately, it is about developing our people, broadening their skills and helping them fulfil their potential as the campus evolves,’ he says.

‘The products may change, but the infrastructure, people and skills will remain. That creates more career opportunities.’

Ask him to summarise why supply chain strategy matters to Darlington and the wider North East, and the answer he keeps returning to is shared success.

‘We know we are all part of one connected system – our suppliers, our employees and our customers – and lasting success only comes when we succeed together,’ he says again.

For customers, that supply chain strength translates into quality, reliability and confidence; knowing that Cummins can support their needs today while preparing for the technologies and applications of tomorrow.

Getting the strategy right – balancing global and local sourcing to meet the increasingly varied needs of customers – is what keeps costs under control and manufacturing at Darlington. Those sourcing decisions are guided by value, quality, risk, capability and customer requirements, while also creating space for SMEs to grow into specialist roles where they can add real strength to the system.

As new product programmes come to fruition, the opportunity expands. Each new engine family requires a fresh look at who can supply what, from where and at what quality.

Nick is clear that this is the moment for UK firms to demonstrate capabilities and for regional giants like Cummins to support them.

On the people side, that same strategy opens up pathways for young people to stay in the region, build careers and move across functions as the technology mix evolves. Darlington’s campus model, the investment in energy efficiency and future‑proof technology, the graduate and student placements, are all part of a deliberate effort to tie supply chain strength to personal opportunity.

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The engines themselves may change colour, engineering and configuration over the coming decades, but if the supply chain continues to bring more work to Darlington and more firms into its orbit, the underlying story – of shared growth, shared responsibility and shared careers – will look much the same.

‘You only have to look at the scale of investment in the plant, from manufacturing capability to future-proofing the site,’ Nick says.

‘There is significant work under way to modernise the site and improve efficiency, from harnessing solar energy to reusing power from the test cells to support the plant.

‘For me, that is really exciting because it shows Cummins is investing in Darlington for the long term.’

Cummins Darlington is going from strength to strength, focused on improving efficiency, becoming more cost-competitive, winning new business and making this a great place to work, now and in the future.

In a town where staying and progressing in manufacturing still matters for many families, that is a factor that many people will build their careers around.