HOT TOPIC This Island Britain What is the impact of migration on UK manufacturing?
OUT & ABOUT Easy Rider Riding around in the West London world of Brompton
SPECIAL FEATURE Exterminate! Daleks infiltrate a factory in Plympton
MANUFACTURING SERVICES Service, please The possibilities are endless with a service-based business model
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES Advancing cancer diagnosis Ending the postcode lottery for cancer staging In partnership with:
How are manufacturers meeting the demand to grow a green economy?
INTERVIEW Andy Neely Head of the Institute of Manufacturing
www.themanufacturer
.com | October 2015 | Vol 18 Issue 8
een pe
WELCOME
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
S
ince my esteemed leader Callum Bentley is supping lychee martinis in a Lower East Side bar in New York City (which I recommended to him) on a well-deserved holiday, the responsibility of this month’s editor’s letter rests with me.
22
30
32 HOT TOP IC
This Islan What is d Britain the on UK man impact of migr ation ufacturin g?
Easy Ride r Riding arou nd in the London West world of Brompton
SPECIA L FEATUR E Extermin
ate! Daleks infilt in Plymouthrate a factory
MANUFAC SERVICES TURING
Service, please The poss ibiliti a service-b es are end ased busi less with ness mod el
MANUFAC TECHNOLOTURING GIES Adv
ancing cancer Ending diag the post code lottenosis cancer staging ry for In partners hip with:
INTERVIEW
How ar manufae meetin cturers demang the grow a d to economgreen y?
Andy Nee
The conundrum for manufacturers is meeting the dual objectives of a green
Head of ly the Manufac Institute of turing
www.the manufac turer
Foreign conflicts and immigration, which are inextricably linked, have been another perennial theme in the news of late. Unfortunately, a number of irresponsible news outlets have published unfounded headlines, which have elicited wild and hysterical reactions to the immigration discussion. On page 26, examines the benefits of the free movement of labour throughout the EU, as well as, the value in dipping into the skills pool beyond the realms of the European Union. On the brighter side, and something contributed to by skilled, hard-working migrant workers, as well home-grown talent, the UK economy is growing strongly and rebalancing healthily, according to CBI director general, John Cridland. In an address to an audience of business leaders; senior economists; government officials, and politicians at King’s College London last month, the CBI boss offered a general sentiment of positivity, as well as, noting that the nation must raise its game on exports and warning of the possible dangers instigating the National Living Wage could have on UK employment.
OUT & AB OUT
How are manufacturers ensuring their growth is green?
In a quick scope of recent news, several stories have been overwhelmingly prominent. Firstly, the explosion of billionaire Tory donor, Lord Ashcroft’s unofficial David Cameron biography, which caused uproar by making salacious accusations about the PM and a dead pig, now more famously known as “piggate”. Naturally, the Prime Minister said he “will not dignify” such claims by responding to them, however, it now looks as if Lord Ashcroft is set to be dismissed as a Government aide after criticisms, also cited in the inflammatory book, of the PM’s leadership of the military in conflicts in Libya and Syria.
.com | Oct obe
r 2015 |
economy as well as a flourishing one. On page 34, contributing editor, Ruari McCallion investigates how the industry has become more efficient in the last decade in an attempt to meet the target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050, as well as, how manufacturers can capitalise on the opportunities of “ green energy”. In HQ news, the office is bursting with activity in the run up to probably the biggest occasion in the UK manufacturing calendar. Our flagship event, LIVE, is a Birmingham-based two-day event, which brings together the movers and shakers of industry to discuss all things manufacturing. The festivities include: The Manufacturer’s Annual Leaders Conference (TMALC); The Future of Making Things; The Manufacturer Top 100; and The Manufacturer MX Awards. Book your place today www.themanufacturerlive.com. Happy reading!
Victoria Fitzgerald Deputy Editor
Vol 18 Issu e8
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 1
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
The Editorial Advisory Board ’s editorial advisory board provides insight and guidance to the editorial team on a regular basis, helping maintain the relevance and quality of the magazine’s content, both in print and online. The board also provides diverse and expert comment on key industrial developments.
Andrew Churchill Managing Director, JJ Churchill and Top 100 Exemplar 2014
Simon Edmonds Director, the Catapults Programme
Steve Evans
Manufacturing Engineer, FLAADS Manufacturing Engineering, ’s Young Apprentice of the Year 2014
Deirdre Fox
Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability
CEO, the Royal Academy of Engineering and Top 100 2015 judge
Campbell Ferguson Director of Strategic Business Development, Tata Steel
Tony Hague MD, Power Panels Electrical Systems, Chairman of the Midlands Assembly Network and shortlisted member of Top 100 2014
2 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Global Manufacturing Director, Accolade Wines and Top 100 Exemplar 2014
Ben Taylor Assistant CEO, Renishaw Plc
Dave Mooney
Philip Greenish CBE
Beki Davies
Richard Lloyd
GCS&S Operations Team Leader, Spirit Aerosystems (Europe) Ltd and ’s Young Manufacturer of the Year 2014
Hywel Jarman Director of External Affairs, EEF
Managing Director, Drallim Industries and shortlisted member of Top 100 2014
Pamela Petty Managing Director, Ebac Group
Andrew Peters Director, Siemens Congleton Facility
To find out more about our Editorial Advisory Board and the work they do to improve The Manufacturer magazine’s offering to its readers, go to: www.themanufacturer.com
WHEN THE WORLD SHIFTS INTO HIGH GEAR, GET IN THE FAST LANE With governments set to approve the testing of driverless cars, this seemingly futuristic way of getting around is about to become a reality. And by fundamentally changing the way people live, it’s poised to impact all parts of our society – meaning businesses that react the quickest have the most to gain.
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ABOUT US
Meet the team Callum Bentley Editor
Victoria Fitzgerald Deputy Editor
Callum joined Hennik Research in 2013 as editor of ’s sister publication, the Lean Management Journal, before taking over as Editor of in June. He has a background in news for web and print, working for major regional news organisations in Australia. Callum has a passion for the automotive and aerospace sectors. c.bentley@hennikgroup.com
Victoria joined Hennik Research in January 2014 as editor of the Lean Management Journal after spending three years in New York City as a news journalist for an international online news organisation. As ’s deputy editor her focus is on industrial policy and initiatives driving the future of UK manufacturing. As a former teacher, Victoria has a passion for apprenticeships and education. v.fitzgerald@hennikgroup.com
Managing Director Nick Hussey n.hussey@hennikgroup.com
Editorial IT Editor Malcolm Wheatley malcolm@malcolmwheatley.co.uk
Contributing Editor Ruari McCallion r.j.mccallion@btinternet.com
Reporter Fred Tongue
Federico Ercoli Industry Editor
Jonny Williamson Web Editor Jonny joined having spent the past three years working as a print and online features journalist for global media outlets covering manufacturing, commercial aerospace and business leadership. Jonny is responsible for boosting and updating ’s online presence with a strong focus on community engagement. j.williamson@hennikgroup.com
Federico joined Hennik Research after having spent two years working as a producer, presenter and editor for international media outlets’ online and mobile platforms. With a background in international news, business and tech, he is responsible for ’s multimedia production and is passionate about the food and drink industry. f.ercoli@hennikgroup.com
f.tongue@hennikgroup.com
Sales & Marketing Head of Marketing Kate Birinder k.birinder@hennikgroup.com
Sales Manager Sarah Hough s.hough@hennikgroup.com
Telesales Manager Deborah Sowman d.sowman@hennikgroup.com
Henry Anson Sales Director
Tarquin Hussey The Boss
Henry is responsible for Hennik Research’s commerical activities, developing new concepts and products for ’s readership. He has vast international experience having set up offices across the globe and is keen to build a bridge between the manufacturing community and the service sector which supports it. h.anson@hennikgroup.com
Rescued from Battersea Dogs Home, Tarquin has always been part of Hennik. He can often be found asleep in his bed or attempting to raid the bins after lunch! He loves to chase squirrels in his spare time but says his favourite past time is enjoying a cuddle with anyone who happens to be passing. He is well travelled, having been to four countries, and is very much The Boss of the office!! info@hennikgroup.com
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EEF is dedicated to the future of manufacturing. Everything we do is designed to help modern manufacturing businesses evolve, innovate and compete in a fast-changing world. www.eef.org.uk
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It’s Inspiring In a Relationship It’s Complicated
ERP should inspire your business, not complicate it. Update your status. Epicor ERP is built to bring out the best in you and your business. www.epicor.com/uk/compatibility
Questions? Contact us at: Phone 01344 468 468 E-mail ukmarketing@epicor.com Copyright © 2014. Epicor Software Corporation. Epicor, the Epicor logo, and Business Inspired are registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation.
October 2015
CONTENTS
08 News and regular columns
Manufacturing Technologies
A summary of manufacturing news and events with commentary on industrial research and policy 20 Out & About takes a trip to cold-pressed oil manufacturer Phoenix Group in Nottinghamshire, samples a wee drab at Suffolk-based maltings producer Muntons, and takes a ride around Brompton bikes in West London 24 Best of Online What you wanted to read most about ’s September’s website 26 Hot Topic: The Island Britain Victoria Fitzgerald examines the impact of migrant labour on UK manufacturing 30 Special feature: Exterminate! Author Jon McKnight weighs in on the consequence of Daleks invading a factory in Plympton, Devon 34 Sector Focus: How green is my factory? Contributing editor, Ruari McCallion investigates the opportunities in green energy, how Government is supporting such methods and how UK manufacturers can make the most of what’s on offer 38 Interview: At your service Callum Bentley catches up with the new head of the Institute of Manufacturing, Andy Neely, to hear his take of the future of UK manufacturing 42 60 second interview: Keith Morgan, CEO of the British Business bank, reveals the idea behind the organisation, as well as, the ways in which it is advising and supporting business on the journey to growth
56 The kaizen cornerstone: Toyota Material Handling shares the cost saving potential in continuous improvement 58 Making the right connection: PP Electrical Systems’ MD, Tony Hague, elaborates on why the correct interconnectivity is paramount for machinery builders 60 Advancing cancer diagnosis: Jonny Williamson lays out the facts on Endomag, the ground-breaking firm behind a new tool that could drastically speed up cancer diagnosis
PILLAR FEATURES Manufacturing Leadership 44 Learn to lean: LMJ’s brand new commissioning editor, Fred Tongue, dishes up a taste of the new issue 48 An appetite for innovation: Head of mid-sized business at Lloyds Bank, Andrew Connors, comments on the bank’s latest research into the food and drink sector
Workforce & Skills 50 Employee of the Month: Trish Gray, specials team leader at Gripple
Finance & Professional Services 51 Asset Awareness: Legal advisors, DWF, discuss the value in protecting a business’s intellectual property 52 The key component: CEO of Altec Engineering, Alastair Waite, shares how partnering with BGF, allowed the firm to retain control, while accessing the financial support to prosper
Manufacturing Services 53 Community first, commerce second: Thomas Power, MSTLN steering committee member, ponders over the relevance of data and digital connections 54 Service please: Columbus’ Simon Charlton reveals the endless possibilities of a service-based business model
6 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
IT in Manufacturing 64 Working smarter, working faster: IT contributing editor, Malcolm Wheatley discusses ERP as a social collaboration tool 68 Talk of the Industry: Terry Scuoler shines a light on George Osborne’s ambitious plans for attaining £1tn of exports by 2020
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Any property given as security which may include your home, may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or other debts secured on it. All lending is subject to a satisfactory credit assessment. ÂŁ1bn relates to a Lloyds Banking Group lending figure correct as at 31 December 2014. Please note that any data sent via e-mail is not secure and could be read by others. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority under Registration Number 119278. We subscribe to The Lending Code; copies of the Code can be obtained from www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk The Lloyds Banking Group includes companies using brands including Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland and their associated companies. More information on the Lloyds Banking Group can be found at lloydsbankinggroup.com
NEWS
www.themanufacturer.com/news
SPECIAL FOCUS UK ECONOMIC GROWTH
The UK economy is growing strongly and rebalancing healthily, with both investment and productivity rising, according to CBI Director General, John Cridland.
T
he business chief made the comments during his address to an audience of business leaders; senior economists; government officials, and politicians at King’s College London last month. Though he offered a general sentiment of positivity, Cridland noted that the nation must raise its game on exports and warned of the possible dangers instigating the National Living Wage could have on UK employment. He stated that the fiscal recovery to date hasn’t been “over-reliant on consumer spending” and that there has been some “rebalancing of activity” regarding investment.
the distinction between services and manufacturing less and less meaningful. I’m talking about two related trends. One is outsourcing by manufacturing firms of a whole range of activities: design; programming; analytics; marketing, and so on. “The other is the interdependence between manufacturing and services to develop and sell services themselves [servitization] to gain a competitive advantage.” He went on to state that, taking the wider impact of manufacturing into account, the CBI estimates that the sector could account for 19% of the UK economy – almost double that of the widely quoted and commonly accepted figure proclaimed by other organisations.
Manufacturing services
Cridland discussed recent trends in the manufacturing sector and highlighted just how important industry is to the rest of the UK economy. “While some commentators have been looking for a rebalance from the service sector to manufacturing, I believe this is no longer the right way to look at our economy,” he declared. “A transformation currently taking place within the sector is rendering
Productivity
Though often discussed as a “puzzle”, Cridland went on to say that he wouldn’t use such a term to describe the UK’s productivity challenge. “As well as understanding the causes of the productivity stall, we need to be sure we are confident in macroproductivity measures before we jump into policy solutions,” he warned.
the amount of the UK economy the CBI estimates manufacturing could account for
8 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
In our data-driven, knowledge-based economy, where services play a key role, the director general said the quantity of widgets coming off production lines was becoming increasingly less important compared to the quality of customer interactions. “We need productivity data which understands this, helping policy-makers to reach the right conclusions and find the right solution,” he added.
Exports
Describing exports as one of the three biggest issues facing the UK – alongside productivity and raising living standards, Cridland extolled the added value offered by the “Made in Britain” brand. “Middle class consumers in emerging economies want branded goods and services, and the Union Jack flies high here,” he said. Alongside internationally recognised marques such as Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, he also emphasised the importance of the UK’s globally successful creative industries, citing examples such as the music of Adele, the James Bond film franchise and the British architects currently designing the fan roofs of Asia’s airports.
FURTHER INFO: Find out more about servitization and the Manufacturing Services Thought Leadership Network at: www.mstln. com and @MSTLN_UK
MANUFACTURING NEWS
Coveted A award for Azzure IT A Sheffield-based tech company that helps manufacturers work smarter, more efficiently and improve profitability, has been named one of the top four companies in the world in its specialism by computing giant Microsoft.
manager at Microsoft. “Azzure IT has truly impressed Microsoft with its superior ERP knowledge and expertise. As one of our leading UK Gold Certified Partners, it continues to deliver innovative and efficient Microsoft business solutions for customers.” This award win is the latest in a string of successes for the company, which include securing €200,000 from the Regional Growth Fund Grant by the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to part-fund additional staff recruitment and training, and support its growth strategy. In the past three years, Azzure IT has grown from a £450k turnover to £1.7m in 2014 and is on target to exceed a £2.4m target for 2015.
zzure IT beat competition from 2,300 tech firms from 108 countries to be named a finalist in Microsoft’s 2015 Partner of the Year Awards. Listed alongside two US-based companies and a global provider headquartered in Denmark, Azzure IT is one of four Microsoft partners to be named a finalist for the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Global Partner of the Year 2015. “To be a finalist is a huge honour. It’s testament to the Azzure IT team and the strong IT business solutions we provide to customers.” said Craig Such, Azzure IT’s managing director. Azzure IT was congratulated on its win by Phil Newman, UK Dynamics NAV channel
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October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 9
NEWS www.themanufacturer.com/news
The operation of complex, high-value assets such as trains and naval ships will benefit from a national strategy in through-life engineering services
ENGINEERING
Global market for engineering services up for grabs. A consultation paper revealed in Parliament has suggested that engineering companies in the UK can benefit from a global market for engineering services worth an estimated £1tn by 2025. Published by the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-Life Engineering Services, the paper shows that engineering services are strategically important to the UK with a domestic market worth between £30bn and £40bn annually over the coming years. A national initiative to define ways the country can capitalise on this opportunity was debated at the House of Commons, involving some of the UK’s leading engineering organisations including Rolls-Royce; Bombardier Transportation; BAE Systems; Babcock International, and the UK Ministry of Defence. The strategic approach will be co-chaired by Rolls-Royce and the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult, and is expected to be developed by late-2016. bit.ly/EngineeringServices
The new plant is expected to produce enough energy to supply 7% of the UK’s needs, powering around 6m homes (image courtesy of EDF Energy)
ENERGY
Osborne announces £2bn support for Hinkley. The Chancellor has given the green light to the initial government guarantee for Britain’s first nuclear power station in 20 years – Hinkley Point C. Announced while on a five day-tour of China, Osborne’s deal is set to be worth around £2bn and will pave the way for a final investment decision by French energy company, EDF – supported by China General Nuclear Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation – later this year. Though contentious, the construction and operation of Hinkley Point C is expected to create thousands of jobs in Somerset, and more widely in the nuclear industry across the UK, as well as boosting Britain’s energy security. bit.ly/HinkleyPointC
10 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
APPRENTICESHIPS
Bogus training courses come under fire. Dodgy training providers who promise “fake” apprenticeships will face prosecution under new government reforms. In the future, anyone offering false or low-quality apprenticeship training could face the possibility of a fine and prosecution in a Magistrates Court. The reforms demonstrate the Government’s commitment to give apprenticeships similar legal protection afforded to university degrees. Skills Minister, Nick Boles commented that everyone understands what a university degree means, describing it as an “official title”. Those undertaking apprenticeships should receive the “same level of distinction”, he added. bit.ly/ BogusApprenticeships
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability warning for industrial sector. The Manufacturing Commission has delivered a stern warning ahead of its final sustainability inquiry report due in October. The inquiry aims to identify the main obstacles that UK manufacturing needs to overcome in order to ensure long term sustainability – economically, ecologically and socially. Alongside dwindling natural resources and the long-term skills base necessary to achieve growth, preliminary issues include UK companies facing challenges to the future supply of critical materials, which may threaten national security; further devolution of powers could be a barrier to a more sustainable system, and transitioning to a sustainable industrial systems depends on the leadership of UK industrial firms and government. bit.ly/ SustainabilityWarning
MANUFACTURING NEWS
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY NOVEMBER
4-5 The revolutionary inflatable MOM incubator can be quickly flat-packed down and powered for 24-hours from a car battery
TECHNOLOGY
Young entrepreneurs’ technology earmarked for global success. A biodegradable tent; an inflatable incubator for premature babies; a magnetic gas monitor, and a medical device that could revolutionise kidney dialysis have been selected by the Royal Academy of Engineering as four of the most promising future British engineering and technology innovations developed by 16 – 25 yearolds. The visionaries have all been invited to join the Academy’s Enterprise Hub after competing in the nationwide Launchpad Competition. They will receive training and access to a wide network of business connections and angel investors to transform their ideas into leading technology businesses and help drive industrial growth across Britain. bit.ly/YoungEngineersTech
Advanced Engineering UK 2015: Birmingham UK Advanced Engineering UK 2015 taking place at Birmingham’s NEC is an opportunity for the supply chain to meet with visiting engineering and procurement decision makers from OEMs and top tier organisations spanning: Aerospace; Automotive; Motorsport; Marine, Civil Engineering, and more. It is the UK’s largest free-to-attend engineering Conference programme. Whether you are a visitor or an exhibitor, Advanced Engineering will not only provide you with a business forum and supply chain showcase for your own sector, but will also introduce you to new opportunities in industries using related technologies and services. www.advancedengineeringuk.com
9-10
Innovate 2015: London Taking place at Old Billingsgate in East London, Innovate 2015 is a two-day global spotlight on innovation. You will be able to meet inventive and creative companies, explore innovative ideas, discover new export opportunities and hear from original thinkers. Innovate 2015 provides networking opportunities, and a whole host of fresh thinking and expert advice to help accelerate your company’s global growth. It’s the one event that brings together the research base, business, UK and international investors, international buyers from overseas markets and government organisations, to help fund and support your innovative ideas and make a real difference to your company. https://interact.innovateuk.org/events
DECEMBER
8 COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT
BOOST PRODUCTIVITY WITH ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING Join Stratasys, manufacturers of 3D printing equipment and materials, in collaboration with The Manufacturer, on November 10 at 2pm BST for ‘Get a grip in manufacturing’. In this dynamic 45 minute webinar, hear directly from industry experts, who have already discovered the transformational benefits of 3D printing solutions for injection moulding, jigs and fixtures, End of Arm Tools and production parts. Tune in to learn how you can redefine productivity in your business. Discover the benefits of additive manufacturing for your production line today. To find out how, register today for the webinar. bitly.com/getagripwebinar
Metrology for Additive Manufacturing: Coventry Jointly organised by the Manufacturing Metrology Group and the Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Research Group (3DPRG) at the University of Nottingham, this one day meeting will provide background information and a number of technology reviews on developing next-generation of metrology tools for AM. www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/3dprg/ events/events.aspx
FEBRUARY 2016
9-11
Southern Manufacturing 2016 Visit the UK’s largest regional manufacturing technology, electronics and subcontracting exhibition. The event showcases thousands of engineering and electronics solutions on your doorstep and provides a full programme of free technical seminars supported by SMS, MAS-SE, Engineering Solutions and Electronics Sourcing. www.industrysouth.co.uk
24
National Manufacturing Conference 2016: London Join hundreds of manufacturers of all sizes to network and find new business opportunities. The conference will allow you to share practical solutions, discover how to tackle the productivity slowdown, learn how to overcome obstacles to exporting, debate the UK’s future in the EU and the consequences of an EU referendum, vote in interactive sessions and question our panel experts. www.manufacturingconference.co.uk
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 11
FOR THE DIARY
UPCOMING EVENTS REFER TO ‘EVENTS’ ON OUR WEBSITE FOR FULL DETAILS: WWW.THEMANUFACTURER.COM/EVENTS NATIONAL SKILLS CONFERENCE 15-16 OCTOBER 2015, AMTC ANSTY PARK, COVENTRY National Skills Conference in partnership with the MTC will provide a platform to address the skills gap and key topics including workplace flexibility, training and recruitment. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from key decision makers and thought leaders within the skills arena and to network with likeminded professionals at the opening of the AMTC. tmskills.com #TMNSC
FACTORY TOUR: PHILIPS AVENT 22 OCTOBER 2015, SUFFOLK The Philips Avent factory tour is designed to provide a full insight into a company with over 30 years of experience within the manufacturing industry. Learn how you can increase employee engagement, implement automated continuous flow lines and how this can improve production in your own company. Walk through their lean journey and the changes that have resulted in an increase in their productivity. Come along and learn how you can emulate the same success as Philips AVENT into your organisation. themanufacturer.com/factory-tours/ philips-avent #TMFactoryTours
CONNECT ERP 4 NOVEMBER 2015, JAGUAR EXPERIENCE, CASTLE BROMWICH, BIRMINGHAM Choosing the right ERP system is critical to your organisation’s success, get it wrong and the repercussions can be costly. Connect ERP provides a unique opportunity to meet the leading enterprise software providers to help you choose the ERP system that truly meets your business needs. connect-erp.com #ConnectERP
TM ANNUAL LEADERS CONFERENCE 25-26 NOVEMBER 2015, ICC, BIRMINGHAM Adopting a circular economy, where there is no waste and which is resilient by design, gives you the basis to create new business opportunities and strengthen your existing customer relationships. Annual Leaders Conference brings the circular economy to the forefront of the manufacturing industry. Allowing you to discuss with experts and peers the implications, difficulties and rewards of its adoption. Attend this two day event to gain the knowledge to drive you and your company forward in 2016. tmalc.com #TMALC
Connect with our events team on twitter: @YourTMEvents. For general enquiries or to book your place, email events@hennikgroup.com or call us on 020 7401 6033 (opt 3), stating which event you would like to attend and your contact details.
12 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
THE MANUFACTURER MX AWARDS CEREMONY AND GALA DINNER 26 NOVEMBER 2015, ICC, BIRMINGHAM The Manufacturer MX Awards are dedicated to encouraging and promoting competitive manufacturing in the UK, and celebrating the very best in the industry annually. Join us for this black-tie gala event where the winners of The Manufacturer MX Awards 2015 will be revealed. Featuring special guests Levi Roots, Entrepreneur & Founder of Reggae Reggae Sauce and Conor La Grue, Engineering Lead of the BLOODHOUND Project - secure your table and be a part of the biggest celebration of UK manufacturing! themanufacturer.com/themanufacturer-mx-awards #TMMXAwards
CONNECT BI 4 DECEMBER 2015, ROLLS ROYCE, DERBY Business intelligence is a tool that companies have been employing for decades in various formats. However, as we move towards a digitised economy, servitized business model and a business world built on big data, BI is now a necessity for firms to remain competitive. Connect BI, at the Rolls Royce site in Derby, will reveal the best BI practice from leading professions across a range of industries. From how BI and IOT relate, to the need to utilise BI in the customer review process, this will be a day of insight and interest. connect-bi.com #ConnectBI
We’ve been in the safety business for over 130 years. In that time, we’ve learned that it’s not just safety gear. It’s protecting people from injuries, allowing them to continue living life to the full.
arco.co.uk/experts
APPOINTMENTS
IAN CONSTANCE
APC
Ian Constance has been appointed as the new chief executive of the APC. Constance will take up the position in September 2015 for the £1bn programme, which helps turn low carbon propulsion concepts into products
JAMES WYSE
Loughborough University, Ian has worked with Ford in the UK, Germany, Thailand, China and the USA in various leadership roles with a strong focus on new product development and launch.
field. Wyse will lead a team of highly knowledgeable, flexible and practical environmental consultants based throughout England and Wales. Wyse will be responsible for growing the breadth and depth of EEF’s sustainability offering and developing key strategic partnerships
to provide up-to-date and accessible solutions for manufacturers looking to improve their environmental performance and to identify and reduce their future environmental business risks to help ensure sustainable growth.
defence component manufacturer Cobham plc, where he led the company’s Communications and Connectivity division. During a nine-year spell at Cobham, he held a number of other
senior roles including head of strategy, chief technology officer, and leader of the group-wide “Excellence in Delivery” operational transformation programme.
He’ll be responsible for the company’s programme of continuous improvement in manufacturing efficiencies and will introduce new key performance indicators. Wilson will also implement an advanced, ISO 9001 compliant, quality control system. Wilson joins Kelkay from
paving, block paving and concrete paving specialist, Marshalls, where he worked for nine years. During this time he held the positions of production manager and site manager, managed over 200 employees and helped his site win numerous health and safety awards.
EEF
EEF has appointed James Wyse to the newly created role of National Sustainability lead. The move is part of a planned relaunch of EEF’s environmental sustainability service, which provides support for manufacturers looking to improve their performance in this vital
PETE RABY
developed and produced in the UK. Ian Constance, 46, joins the APC from Ford Motor Company in Detroit where he was most recently global chief engineer for Large Cars. Following an engineering degree at Aston University and an MSc at
Morgan Advanced Materials
Pete Raby is the new CEO at global materials technology specialist Morgan Advanced Materials. Raby, 47, has more than 20 years’ industry experience and joins Morgan from aerospace and
JONATHAN WILSON
Kelkay
Kelkay, manufacturer and distributor of aggregates, has appointed Jonathan Wilson to the position of manufacturing manager. Wilson will take day-to-day control of Kelkay’s production facility, ensuring the company’s stringent quantity and quality targets are met.
STEVE ROWLEY, MURRAY BLYTH AND SARA NICHOLS Siemens UK & Ireland To notify The Manufacturer of your company’s appointments, please contact Victoria Fitzgerald at: v.fitzgerald@hennikgroup.com or: 0207 401 6033
14 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Siemens UK & Ireland has enhanced its dedicated food & beverage team with the appointment of 3 new senior executives: Steve Rowley, business development manager; Murray Blyth, account development manager and Sara Nichols, account development manager – F&B. The team, headed by Keith Thornhill and Stephen Hughes, has been expanded in response to a need for increased technological investment to help manufacturers in the sector thrive in a competitive global marketplace and realise the potential of integrated automation.
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On the sick
T
Lisa Gettins, Equity Partner for Employment at BPE Solicitors, advises how businesses can manage longstanding sickness absence more effectively.
he average sick pay cost per employee per annum is £374 giving a total cost across the manufacturing sector of £1bn. According to the EEF Survey, many companies do not have systems in place to deal with long-term absence. Ensuring effective sickness absence policies are in place and establishing a proactive approach to spotting potential absentees before problems occur is essential to keeping costs and absence down. A third of employers told EEF they relied on the NHS alone to manage absence. Whilst the Government’s new Fit for Work Scheme does aim to provide an occupational health assessment and a bespoke return to work plan, so far evidence suggests that, in practice, employers haven’t seen much improvement. Employers, particularly in manufacturing where health and safety is paramount, may wish to incorporate mental health screening into their general employee health screening. With the help of training, to help managers recognise signs of stress related illness, and employee screening, the likelihood of successful early intervention is vastly improved. Data on more than 3,500 employees that used an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in 2013 found the percentage that were struggling with workplace pressures fell from 51% before counselling, to just 5% afterwards. Additionally, the EEF Survey found that access to online counselling, which often comes as part of an EAP was the most significant benefit offered to reduce absence (71%). Overall the take home message from the EEF survey is that all employers, but particularly those in the manufacturing industry, need to become more accustomed to utilising occupational health services, employee assistance programmes and wellbeing health checks to compliment effective internal return to work policies, rather than simply relying on the NHS to get their employees back to work as soon as possible.
16 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
DIGITALLY MADE.
Manufacturing stories
M
’s Digital Strategist Hayden Richards reveals his top tips for better content creation.
anufacturers have an amazing opportunity to tell stories and create compelling content throughout the customer lifecycle. With a well thought out plan, you can promote thought leadership at the personal and corporate level, identify and encourage conversations, showcase your products or quite simply tell a story. To get started, you have to know your target audience. Identifying your audience’s sweet-spot will be critical to building credibility. You can achieve this by using content discovery tools such as BuzzSumo, (@BuzzSumo) a cloud platform that trawls the web for content based on niche queries, and returns interesting data that you can leverage. I have also been testing Right Relevance (@rightrelevance) which is currently still in beta but definitely worth your time. Right Relevance offers large scale topical influence/expertise mining using social data. According to Insideview, B2B firms that blog generate 67% more leads per month than their competitors. 80% of CEO’s/ decision-maker types prefer to get company information via a series of articles, not via advertising mediums or cold calls. In fact, research tells us that potential customers will independently seek out content from various sources. You obviously need to create multiple sources of content for distribution. All of this suggests a need for a data driven approach to content generation. Follow the data-driven journalistic process: Data-Filter-VisualiseStory. In-house your firm will need these technologies: 1. Social media listening 2. Google/content analytics 3. Content marketing platform 4. Marketing automation To tie it all together you will need to constantly test and refine, bearing in mind the best technology still needs creativity to drive it forward. After all, who wants to consume low value content that isn’t stackable and sharable?
Letters to the editor
PRODUCTION LINES
Letters to the Editor James Walton, Director of Manufacturing, Mid-Markets, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking
I
t is well documented that the widening skills gap is a major challenge facing the manufacturing sector and I read with interest the recent article online (Understanding and addressing industry’s skills shortage, 13 Aug) from Jason Saunders, looking at the causes of the shortage. I strongly agree that the industry is experiencing an identity crisis and it is more important than ever that we tackle this together. There is a clear opportunity. Not only is there a paucity of skilled workers, there is a demand among the younger generation for training and different routes to employment. Initiatives such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry will go a long way to addressing this. We’re proud to support the MTC with the Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre, an initiative opening in October, which will develop more than 1,000 new engineering apprentices and trainees. There is clearly still a way to go before the skills shortage is resolved, but the industry is making great strides in the right direction. With a broader demographic of talent entering the workforce, we will be able to ensure a steady pipeline of skilled workers into the sector and support the sustainable growth of the industry.
Deirdre Michie, Chief Executive, Oil & Gas UK I strongly agree that the industry is experiencing an identity crisis and it is more important than ever that we tackle this together
the OGA’s work is crucial to the success of tri-partite approach to maximising recovery of the UK’s oil and gas
W
e welcome the progress made by the new Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) as outlined in its latest report (7 September). The industry is facing challenging times and the OGA’s drive towards co-operation between companies, improved stewardship of Britain’s oil and gas reserves and faster licensing process will help deliver the transformational change that is required to create a sustainable business in a world of lower oil prices. The sector has made a great economic contribution - having delivered 43 billion barrels of oil equivalent of production, paid over £330bn in tax and supported hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs – and huge potential remains with over 20 billion BOE (barrel of oil) remaining to be extracted. Alongside Treasury’s work to restructure the tax regime and the industry’s focus on increasing efficiency and reducing costs, the OGA’s work is crucial to the success of tripartite approach to maximising recovery of the UK’s oil and gas and we welcome the opportunity to work with OGA to help shape the industry’s future.”
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 17
Up to speed
BLOODHOUND shows its shape
H
aving spent seven years delivering the supply chain for the most advanced land vehicle in human history, it’s a pretty good feeling to see all those parts come together for the first time as we do a ‘dry build’ of BLOODHOUND – and in time for my birthday too! We don’t have everything we need yet for a UK runway car yet, but we do have 95% of it. So, having promised we would show the car in an advanced state of completion this summer, we are currently doing a dry build of all the car that we have – that’s over 3,000 bespoke, one-off components coming together for the first time.
Dry build benefits
‘Dry build’ is a technical term that means the car is mechanically all put together, but not with final torques or lubrications – it’s a fit and function exercise, as in “Does it fit and will it function?”! Going through such a process is hugely valuable for any car, aeroplane or space craft build, firstly to celebrate what we have accomplished by putting all the parts together and secondly because of what we learn in the process
18 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
BLOODHOUND’s Conor La Grue shares his excitement as the supercar is mechanically put together.
and the snagging that will help us to put the Car together “for real” over the next few months. This process is particularly useful for BLOODHOUND – it is a unique, handbuilt beast, so we could never assume that, just because it fits together on a CAD screen, it would fit together perfectly first time. Some areas of the car will have had as many as six different designers contributing to the scheme and some have parts produced by as many as 20 different suppliers. So it’s testimony to all of them that we’ve been able to bolt together most of the car successfully. Overall, we are assembling bespoke parts from over 340 companies. The effect on the team is great to watch – it’s incredibly rewarding to see the car come together and for those of us that have been on the team the longest it is affirmation of many years of effort.
Rolling to the next stage
BLOODHOUND
The assembled car not only lets us show off what we have produced so far, but has also been built so it can roll for the first time, which will again be a landmark moment.
The systems guys and girls are also having a field day. For the first time they can see where all the major components go and how they can actually route their looms and mount their control boxes. Doing this at the dry build stage will inevitably mean it will take less time when we do the final assembly. When the Car finally goes together mechanically then the Systems team will transform it from a static mechanical object to a living, breathing, land-speed record car.
The ultimate birthday present
2015 has been a tough year so far, with very long hours and huge personal effort from all involved. But getting to see the car – which has been such a huge chunk of my working life – in such a complete state and looking so amazing, is the best birthday present I’ve ever had. Not only that, but I’m incredibly proud to be part of a team of many thousands of individuals who have contributed and produced something truly special, that is succeeding in its goal to inspire more kids to study science, technology, engineering and maths.
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’s editorial team is out and about at a wide variety of industry conferences, debates and factory tours month in, month out. Let’s get a snapshot of the most interesting trips in September.
A well-oiled machine
B
eing born by the seaside and growing up in the countryside had its perks. In particular, I learnt how to work with many of mother earth’s fruits. Olive picking and pressing season was exhausting, requiring patience and an army of strong hands, but in the end, the process was a rewarding one. These fond memories were all brought back during my trip to Phoenix Group in Redhill, Nottingham. The company, formed in 2004 by Nottinghamshire farming businesses, is the largest cold-pressed seed oil facility in the UK. My nostalgia and sheer curiosity were justified. Phoenix Group’s facilities are buried deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside and as picturesque as the location is, finding it was a cabby’s nightmare. However, once arrived, the lush scenery was blissfully soothing to the eyes of a Londoner. After being warmly greeted by managing director, Ben Guy, he showed me the grounds and enlightened me on his line of work. “The main seed that we press would be rapeseed oil, of which most is going into the culinary market,” he explains.
20 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Federico Ercoli travels to Nottinghamshire to learn more about cold-pressed oil manufacturer Phoenix Group.
I asked him if they press olives and the answer did not surprise me, “No, but we have the capacity to press other seed oils like sunflower or linseed oil. In the main, at the moment, the UK market wants rapeseed oil. Beyond that we also co-pack. Filling or packing services of oils and other products that the market requires.” With facilities allowing for pressing, filling and packaging all on one site, I wondered what the demand for such services is and if Phoenix Group could confirm the food and drink industry is still the number one manufacturing sector in the UK. “The oil market will grow as the retail market for it grows. It has seen significant growth over the last couple of years. Double digits from 2012 but it will steady off as saturation of retailers happens. We anticipated still growth, but perhaps not as fast as it has. Copacking also continues to grow and we’re really happy with how UK retailers, manufacturers and brands look to access our work,” Guy said. In fact, the most recent figures from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) confirm this as a common growing trend in the industry. The sector accounts for almost 16% of the total UK
manufacturing turnover and seems to be on the rise. One of the reasons behind this, is that food manufacturers nowadays no longer simply produce consumer goods, they can also be a service business that operates in and for the industry. “The cold pressed oils that we produce are service-based and the biggest thing for our service clients is that they can see what we are doing. It gives them comfort that we are doing it right and it also means that they give us the trust of managing a full supply chain,” Guy tells me. “All of our quality controls, line startup checks, production step checks, all of our inventory management... has moved on to app-based technology that we have designed. This means clients can now log into a portal and immediately get access to that data and have the comfort that we are doing it right,” he added. Travelling the UK and meeting manufacturers of all sizes, that new technology and servitization are shaping the business of a small and independent manufacturer that makes an almost niche product, left me hopeful that change is being embraced not just by the bold, but also by the passionate.
OUT AND ABOUT
A palette of malt flours and malt extracts used in baking applications.
Federico Ercoli heads to maltings manufacturer Muntons to find out about recent investments and market trends in the industry.
A
s a whisky lover, I planned a trip to Islay many, many years ago. Local and historical distilleries (eight) make Scotland the perfect mecca for peat aficionados that wish to embark on the humblest whiskymage. The intense, earthy aroma of malt and barley is a smell I am well accustomed to, and during my recent trip to Muntons’ headquarters in Stowmarket in Suffolk, I was reminded of that familiar scent. Much like the many distilleries on Islay, Muntons has a history of tradition. “Muntons is 90 years old,” Dr. Nigel Davies, manufacturing and technical director, tells me. “We have been established here on this site since 1948. We’re about the 20th largest maltings in the world, but we are one of the biggest producers of malting ingredients, like malt extract, flour, flakes and a range of
other products that add colour, flavour or texture to baked goods.” With a combined UK production of 175,000 tonnes of malt and over 40,000 tonnes of malted ingredients produced in the Stowmarket site alone for the food and beverage industries, it only seems natural to assume not all of it is for British consumption. So where do malt and its extracts travel to? “Big markets for us are obviously into Scotland but also into Japan. The Japanese market is really, incredibly active at the moment. The reason for that is that years ago one of the key distillers now, came and trained in Scotland. He married a Scottish lady, then they went across to Japan just before the war and set up their own distillery,” Davies explains. No matter how fascinating the story about the Japanese distiller was, I still couldn’t control my curiosity regarding Scottish distilleries. If their whisky is so legendary, it’s not only due to the knowledge acquired throughout the years which allows for refined techniques, it is also due to premium quality barley and malt. So, is it all 100% Scottish pride? “We sell a lot of malt into Scotland because it can’t produce enough of its own barley to make the malt,” Davies told me. Mystery solved.
What is staggering about the Suffolkbased company, is the amount of investment that has gone into its development and innovation. Just last year, Muntons invested £5.4m (partly funded by RBS Invoice Finance) in an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, to be able to treat liquid waste coming from the ingredients business at the Stowmarket facility. “We are not connected to our local sewer, we don’t take water from the local authority, so we have to process everything that is a liquid waste on site, so that it can go into the local river. Without the anaerobic digestion we couldn’t have done that,” Davies says. “When we started five years ago, there was very bad press about AD. People didn’t know whether it worked or not so we had a period of about three years where we actually trialled equipment. Everybody came and said ‘Our equipment will handle malt’, we asked ‘Has it?’ and they replied ‘No’, so we didn’t buy it,” he added. Now, despite the AD plant being “running, commissioning and [officially] opening in September”, Davies was adamant: “I wanted it five years ago,” he tells me. Impatience for innovation. A true manufacturer’s trait. October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 21
F
Easy rider
Federico Ercoli rode over to Brentford to learn more about Brompton’s latest developments and plans for relocation.
inding manufacturers in London is hard. The reason why there aren’t more is because setting up headquarters in the UK capital is prohibitive for most. Regardless of this, there’s one that found its home at the Kew Bridge DC factory in Brentford back in 1998 (when it was still “affordable”): Brompton bicycles. This made it very easy for me to reach out and visit the company that manufactures the iconic foldable bikes, which just turned 40. “First off, have you ever tried one?” asks Nick Charlier, communications executive at Brompton, before starting the factory tour. “Actually, no,” I reply. “Oh well, let’s fix that,” Charlier said. After unfolding one of the bikes in a few seconds, I found myself cruising along the site on the city-sized bicycle. As soon as I hopped off the bike, I started to think about the levels of engineering and design it takes to manufacture something like that and how hard it must have been at the beginning. “When the company started out it was just the idea of our inventor and founder Andrew Ritchie, and the concept was just to design a bike that was useful to get around cities. It was something that Andrew wanted and so in the very early days he was just designing the bike and hoping someone else would manufacture it,” Ross Hawkins, global brand manager at Brompton tells me. “When he found that no one wanted to manufacture it, after going to lots of different bike manufacturers he decided to make it himself. He decided to do some crowdfunding, he went out to his friends and in the early 80s he said ‘I’m going to build a few hundred of these bikes’,” Hawkins adds. Such was the success that Brompton now needs to relocate to
The UK has a long past of creative engineers and people doing interesting stuff and those guys exist, but we need more of them Brompton technician working on the bike’s brazing
22 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Ross Hawkins, Global Brand Manager, Brompton
OUT AND ABOUT
expand its business. As mentioned, the company has its roots firmly in West London and it does not intend to go any farther. In January, Brompton will relocate to almost double sized facilities in Greenford. “We’ve always been based around West London. It really is our home, it’s where Andrew set up the company. We’ve basically outgrown the place we’re currently in. We’ve been here since 1998 and having taken on a newer house down the road and taking on extra storage facilities is due to the fact that we’ve expanded at such a rate that made us need more space,” Hawkins explains. “At the moment we’re constrained. We couldn’t take on any new people to do new stuff but there will be opportunity as we bring out development on the bikes, new products and look to expand into new markets around the world. We’re hoping to grow in the next five years.” After seeing how technical and unscrupulously precise the manufacturing of the bikes is, I wonder if Brompton is a victim of the skills gap too. “The UK has a long past of creative engineers and people doing interesting stuff and those guys exist, but we need more of them, we need more people, particularly young people going into engineering and doing exciting stuff,” Hawkins said. I am told technicians go through months of training before they can be fully operational and to prove their qualitative approach and results, their initials are engraved on the brazing of every single bike they set their hands on. “Two thirds that are on a Brompton are unique to a Brompton. That consequently leads to a lot of technical challenges when we are designing the bike or manufacturing it and making sure everything is right on it,” Hawkins told me. Having seen rejected parts of the bikes and having learnt why those parts have been rejected, I realise the London brand’s success is not only due to its innovative, unique product but also to its uncompromising commitment to excellence. Watch the factory tour here www.themanufacturer.com/videos
Assembly line at Brentford headquarters
When the company started out it was just the idea of our inventor and founder Andrew Ritchie, and the concept was just to design a bike that was useful to get around cities Ross Hawkins, Global Brand Manager, Brompton
If you would like to visit your factory or business, let us know and email the editor at c.bentley@hennikgroup.com October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 23
Tracking your top reads on www.themanufacturer.com last month
http://www.themanufacturer.com
The force is with ANA as Japan’s biggest airliner unveils Star Wars plane
A
ll Nippon Airways (ANA) rolled out the first of its three planes decorated with Star Wars characters, with an R2-D2 ANA Jet (Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner) the first to be unveiled at a weekend launch at Boeing’s wide-body assembly line facility in Everett, Washington. With the Star Wars theme playing in the background and fan favourites C3P0 and droid of the hour R2-D2 watching on, Star Wars fans cheered in approval as the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, painted with the likeness of RD-D2, emerged from its hangar. Watch the video here http://bit.ly/1KVOPTc
24 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Popular blog contributions last month included: How technology can help bridge the productivity gap Kronos, general manager for the UK, explains how businesses with a well-balanced workforce, managed by a fit-for-purpose automated system are realising higher level of engagement and productivity in their workforce.
Are you selecting your energy contract for the right reasons?
All Nippon Airways has unveiled the first of its Star Wars planes a Boeing 787 painted in the likeness of R2D2 image courtesy of ANA
With the next instalment of the Star Wars franchise, ‘The Force Awakens’, set to be released to worldwide fervour in December, Japan’s largest airline has been caught up in Star Wars mania.
BEST OF ONLINE
Rather than choosing your next energy contract with a specific price in mind, it’s important to think about what you require from it and the reasons behind your decision, says Paul Garratt – head of operations for energyTEAM.
ts ing sectoriosanyainl Sgkills e e w TopwaTs the maapnpurofaacctuhring Nat What t the fast MNSC. abouerence #T conf
Supply chain transparency: Modern Slavery Act 2015 The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 introduces a new requirement on businesses for compliance. Shoosmiths LLP partner, Ron Reid explores the issue.
MANUFACTURING, THE NUMBERS
looks at some of the more interesting numbers in the manufacturing news in the past month.
The time it takes for the Porsche Mission E concept car to accelerate from zero to 100km/h
The average amount of savings that SME manufacturers have in the bank, according to research from Hampshire Trust Bank
£326,532 The cost of the University of Sheffield’s new nuclear research facility, Materials for Innovative Disposition from Advanced Separations (MIDAS)
The percentage of manufacturing firms set to face a standing start on gender pay gap reporting after Government enforces new requirements
The percentage of the UK economy made up by manufacturing, according to the CBI The cost reduction expected by the North Sea oil industry by 2016
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 25
This Brita Island in As immigration remains a staple in headline news, Victoria Fitzgerald looks at the impact of migrant workers on the UK manufacturing sector.
Historically, immigration has been a great asset to the UK, but this has not been portrayed in mainstream media.
I
n 2010, David Cameron said “no ifs, no buts” on his promise to slash net immigration to under 100,000 a year. And why? According to a Parliament spokesperson the Prime Minister “thinks it is in the interests of our country, that we will have a better, stronger country, if we have lower net migration.” Really? Unfortunately, it has become somewhat common place throughout the course of history to use migrants as scapegoats for underlying national problems from the economy to education. However, it becomes
26 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
increasingly dangerous when news outlets publish hateful, irresponsible and downright untrue headlines like Immigrants bring more crime or Migrants take all new jobs in Britain, which only seek to sensationalise and incite unfounded fear of the movement of individuals into Britain from the EU and beyond. The very fabric of the UK both past and present is comprised of a history of colonisation from Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the list
Immigration
immigration has been a great asset to the UK, but this has not been portrayed in mainstream media. As EEF CEO Terry Scuoler recently told a gathering of senior industrialists, “There are important principles which we must seek to uphold amid an increasingly frenzied and sometimes overly emotional – not to mention factually inaccurate - debate on immigration in the UK. “Freedom of movement is of enormous benefit to this country and the EU and most businesses do not want Government tinkering with this principle. “That does not in any way prevent the UK from having effective border controls or changing the rules around in and out-of-work benefits, something which I suspect would find favour in other European capitals. The issue has to be about achieving proportionate and fair rules for all. We need to lift the debate on immigration a few levels as the rhetoric is increasingly unpleasant.” In terms of unemployment, according to a Migration Advisory Committee report from July 2014 “The employment rate of UK-born working-age population was practically unchanged by the substantial inflow of EU8 migrants after 2004”. And while the youth labour market remains a cause for concern it is a result of education and training programmes and nothing whatsoever to do with immigration. From 2000-2011, migrant and natives made very similar contributions to the UK fiscal position, Freedom of movement is of enormous furthermore, according the University College benefit to this country and the EU and to London Centre for most businesses do not want Government research and Analysis of Migration, European tinkering with this principle migrants have added almost £5bn more to the Terry Scuoler, EEF, CEO UK economy than they have used in benefits since 2004.
Migration and manufacturing is endless. During the two world wars, hundreds of thousands of men from across the Empire fought for Britain. India alone provided 1.3 million soldiers for the First World War, 138,000 serving on the Western Front. At the end of the Second World War, Government sought out migrant workers to fill the gaps left in the labour market. Historically,
Tim Thomas, head of Employment and Skills Policy at EEF, explains that there are three channels that migrant workers arrive in the UK, “Under the Amsterdam Treaty, citizens of EU member states have the right to live and work in the UK, whether they are highly-skilled or semi-skilled. In terms of the rest of the world, it’s a completely different story. Multi-national companies can action an
HOT TOPIC
intracompany transfer or the employer must demonstrate they need to fill a role, which cannot be filled by the domestic labour market.” In terms of semi-skilled migrants living and working in the UK, the food and drink sector in particular benefits significantly in busy seasons. A representative for the Food & Drink federation said in a statement “In some cases a shortage of available solutions creates opportunities for migrant workers to fulfil a range of roles and make a valuable contribution to the industry”, not only this but Jamie Town, director of logistics firm Clarico, said that without migrant workers, the UK food and drink industry would “fall down as factories would simply not be able to operate”. It’s not just in the food and drink sector, Juergen Zahl, managing director of Brose UK, a family-owned automotive supplier, providing specialist mechatronic systems and electric motors to car manufacturers and suppliers all over the world, explains the great benefit of both immigration and the free movement of labour throughout the EU. He tells , “Our employees reflect the diversity of the Brose Group. Within the company, women and men from 80 countries work together worldwide in global interdisciplinary teams. Brose UK has grown massively in the last three years, going from 200 employees in 2012 to an anticipated 950-strong workforce by the start of 2016. “Out of the current 700 permanent members of staff, 450 are UK nationals, 210 are from the EU and 40 outside the European Union. Given that nearly a third of our current workforce is of non-UK nationality, they obviously play an essential part in our ability to manufacture the volumes we require. “We have invested nearly £3m in developing our own academy so that we can upskill our existing staff and offer structured training to new starters. We are also firmly committed to the next generation of UK engineers and currently employ 16 apprentices, with view to another 10 being recruited this summer.”
Outside the EU
Recruiting beyond the realms of the EU is a different story, particularly if it’s not an intracompany transfer. Thomas elaborates, “You must demonstrate that actually they have a skill that you need October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 27
Immigration
FOR THOSE BELIEVING THAT IMMIGRATION IS BUCKLING THE BENEFITS SYSTEM THESE ARE THE FACTS: According to 2014 data from the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC, the majority of welfare recipients are British.
4.9 million (92.6%) working age benefit claimants were British
131,000 (2.5%)
HOT TOPIC
Our employees reflect the diversity of the Brose Group. Within the company, women and men from 80 countries work together worldwide in global interdisciplinary teams Juergen Zahl, Managing Director, Brose UK
were EU nationals
264,000 (5%)
Number of recipients from outside of the UK — but not from the EU
that cannot be filled by the domestic labour market. Normally that means you have to advertise the position for a certain amount of time in the UK and if the position remains unfilled then you can seek from outside the UK. After this, a visa application must begin for that particular person. “If you have a certain occupation on the Tier 2 shortage occupation list, SOC codes for short, then you are exempt from part of the process, the part which asks whether the resident labour market satisfies that skills need. It’s called the resident labour market test, so you have a little bit of a short cut.” The SOC list sets out an official catalogue of professions that are not currently being necessitated by the UK labour market, and Thomas tells me that “about half of the occupations on the SOC list are in the manufacturing sector. Because we have a skills shortage.” Although the list provides provisions to make filling these vacancies less cumbersome, on 10 June 2015, the Government commissioned the MAC (Migration Advisory Committee) to review the Tier 2 SOC list to address concerns about the rising number of migrants in that route and reliance on them to fill shortages, which is set to be completed by December 2015. Thomas tells , “The Government line on this is that there have been occupations on the SOC list for many years and they would like there to be some sort of sunset provision, where occupations would be placed on the
28 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
list but could only remain on there for X number of years and then come off again.” This is clearly frustrating for Thomas and EEF as a whole, as there is a reason that these roles are on the SOC, “Government believes employers are relying on non-UK labour, instead of trying to skill and train the domestic labour market and just importing the labour from abroad, which from our sector perspective is clearly wrong. We know three quarters of our members already have apprenticeship programmes.” Thomas goes on to anecdotally explain that he spoke with a PhD graduate in a very niche area vital to manufacturing, who was being deported after the completion of their studies. Students have 14 weeks to find a job after they graduate, regulations like this are counter-productive for two reasons; firstly, a student is expected to find a job during a period when they are studying for final exams; and secondly, the employers will have reservations in giving jobs when the results of an applicant’s studies are unknown. This isn’t the only rumoured change going forward. There is apparently a Government provision to impose a levy on employers recruiting outside the EU. “A skills surcharge,” Thomas explains. “We don’t know how much this would be. The idea is that the money would fund apprenticeships for UK and EU workers and de-incentivise people from recruiting non EU workers. We have already spoken out against it, because that’s not true and we are recruiting workers from outside
the UK simply because they are not available in the domestic workforce.”
Intracompany transfers
Although in the past it was much easier to transfer within a global company to work in the UK, this process is also being held under the microscope. As of May 2015, for the first time, the UK breached the 20,800 cap of intracompany transferees. Government is now toying with the idea of elaborating the administrative process involved in the transference, something which Thomas doesn’t think will bode well for manufacturing, particularly in the automotive sector, he explains, “For example, rolling out a new model, you would want the ability to bring in people from outside the EU to help with the new model, if a firm can’t do that, what are the other options? It would be interesting to see what big American manufacturers would say. How would they view the UK if that were to happen?”
Treating the cause not the symptom
UK manufacturing is relying on foreign labour markets out of necessity not choice. If Government focused its attention on supporting and nurturing UK engineering and manufacturing talent in the UK, then perhaps the SOC list would decrease with an aim to be halved in the next two to three decades. As Christopher Nieper, MD fashion manufacturer, David Nieper tells , “Britain has benefited from imported skills for centuries but let’s not forget our own talented young people. A great team culture is important in manufacturing, a good way to achieve this is to recruit bright young people with a great attitude then promote from within and grow from within.”
Enthuse young people to take up vital careers in engineering With not enough young people taking Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at further education, many UK companies are facing a skills shortage. Independent, educational charity, The Smallpeice Trust is passionate about closing this skills gap and enthusing the next generation of engineers. Last year, 17,495 students participated in our university-based residential courses, in-school STEM Days and Clubs. Encouragingly, almost 50% of our students were girls. Working in partnership with some of industry’s leading organisations, we offer students an engaging, hands-on introduction to the rewarding careers available to them. A corporate partnership offers a range of benefits including the chance to:
• Build a future talent pipeline and help you to achieve your HR objectives • Get employees involved to boost job satisfaction, motivation and skill development • Enhance your brand and profile amongst enthusiastic girls and boys, their families and their communities • Bolster your corporate social responsibility agenda • Maximise potential for PR and marketing opportunities • Offset charitable giving against company corporation tax From sponsoring STEM Days and Clubs, to mini competitions and residential courses, there are many ways in which your company can get involved with The Smallpeice Trust. Smallpeice corporate supporters include:
“At Babcock, we are very keen to encourage young people towards a career in engineering and the courses run by The Smallpeice Trust are a fantastic way of demonstrating the variety of options open to them as they start to think about their career choices. The wide choice of courses offered by The Trust gives students the opportunity to broaden their horizons outside of the normal curriculum.” Rosemary Prout, Graduate Training Manager Marine and Technology Division, Babcock International Group To find out more about the benefits of being a Smallpeice Partner, contact our Chief Executive, Dr. Kevin P Stenson on 07899 663 280 or email kevins@smallpeicetrust.org.uk.
ARM, Babcock, BAE Systems, EDF Energy, Google, National Grid, National Nuclear Laboratory, Senergy, Southern Water, Ultra Electronics Controls… and many more.
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Security is being stepped up at a Plymouth factory after a routine risk-assessment revealed its sheetmetal fabrication capabilities could put the planet in peril in the event of an extra-terrestrial invasion. Contributing Editor, Jon McKnight reports.
‘‘W
e’ve always been thorough with our risk-assessments,” said a spokesman for Dura Manufacturing, “but it suddenly struck us that we’d be a sitting duck if Davros, the creator of the Daleks, got hold of our manufacturing facilities and used them to massproduce his killing machines.” The factory in Newnham, Plympton, usually produces designer cabinets for garage interiors as well as streetsweeping machines for Germany and
The Daleks are pretty efficient at exterminating already, so I dread to think what they’d be like if the innovators at Dura were forced at sinkplunger-point to help them improve the design
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more than 100 other products as a sub-contractor, but its obvious suitability as a Dalek production centre is causing concern at the highest level. “You only need to glance at a Dalek to see how easy it would be to produce them here in galaxy-threatening quantities,” said the spokesman. “They’re basically bent-metal enclosures with punched-out adornments and bespoke fittings including weaponry and comms devices - something we could manufacture and assemble here with our eyes closed. “Even worse, this factory could manufacture Daleks to British Standards, as we’ve just been awarded our ISO 9001 accreditation for quality management. “God help the planet if that happened – and I imagine we could say goodbye to our ISO 14001, too, as all the good work we’ve done towards effective environmental management would count for nothing if we were responsible for unleashing legions of British-Standard Daleks on to an unsuspecting universe.”
He estimated that the Dura factory, if commandeered for war work, could churn out Dalek casings at about one a minute and even paint them in platoon colours using its new €800,000 paint plant that allows for fast colour-changes and won it the coveted Service First accreditation from AkzoNobel. “We’ve invested so much in state-of-the-art machinery, including our new £600,000 Amada EMZ punch press, that the Daleks would be built to a higher standard of precision and finish than anything the universe has seen. “As a one-stop shop, we can manufacture, assemble, paint and ship all under one roof, so we could create and build every part of the Dalek - apart from the sink-plunger - and you can get those for a couple of pounds at the plumbers’ merchants just round the corner. “We’re so well set up for our subcontracting work here that machines like the Amada can run unattended right through the night, leading to the nightmare scenario that flat sheets of steel being fed into one end of the production line would be trundling off
Dura Manufacturing
The factory in Newnham, Plympton, usually produces designer cabinets for garage interiors as well as streetsweeping machines for Germany and more than 100 other products as a subcontractor, but its obvious suitability as a Dalek production centre is causing concern at the highest level Spokesman for Dura Manufacturing.
OVERALL TITLE HERE
the other end, minutes later, as fully-finished high-spec Daleks ready to wreak havoc wherever they went.” A Downing Street spokesman declined to comment, other than to state that the “usual authorities” were “monitoring the situation closely”. He refused to confirm whether a “We’re all stories, in the meeting of Cobra end. Just make it a good one, eh_” — The Doctor, would be convened. Season 5, Episode 13 However, a Dalek expert who spoke to us on condition of us to think, of course – the Daleks were anonymity told The Manufacturer: “This actually the brainchild of Davros, the is rather more serious than Whitehall is megalomaniacal dictator of Skaros. prepared to admit to. “The problem is that half the “The problem is that British population don’t even believe Davros manufacturing is so much better than it exists, and the other half mix him up with used to be, and production facilities like the Swiss ski resort where the World Dura Manufacturing are so well-equipped Economic Forum takes place. and efficient that they could be lethal to “Davros needed to produce a shell humanity if they fell into the wrong hands. that would keep the gloopy, vulnerable “It just shows how far we’ve come life-forms safe from almost any attack since the Seventies, when British an exo-skeleton, if you like - so he came manufacturing was in such a state and up with a solution that we here on Earth had such a poor international reputation have learned to fear: a cross between a that Britain was the last place in the Nazi and a tank. universe that the Daleks would have “As anyone who’s studied the chosen to reproduce themselves. documentation on the genesis of the “If they’d managed to find a factory Daleks knows, Davros tried to produce with a workforce that wasn’t either the Dalek shells in huge quantities using asleep or on strike, they’d have ended mass production techniques, but his up with Daleks that went a few yards premises were destroyed in a stillbefore grinding to a halt, overheating, or famous act of sabotage. wobbling about aimlessly until their bits “That’s why we’re so worried about dropped off. the Dura Manufacturing facility in “They’d have been just like the Friday Plymouth. From Davros’s point of view, Teatime-Job cars that made Britain a it’s a dream come true, as he could laughing-stock - cars that were thrown use it to manufacture Daleks in limitless together in a great hurry because it was quantities and make them much more coming to the end of the last shift of the robust than previous models. week and the assembly-line workers “The idea of Daleks being built to wanted to get home for the weekend. Dura’s standards is one of the most “Any Daleks that came off those frightening things imaginable, as they production lines wouldn’t have been much of a threat to a little old lady, never have guys at the factory like Chris Farley, whose experience in CAD mind the galaxy.” design means he’s forever tweaking The expert took issue with the official and improving designs to make them account of the origin of the Daleks, stronger or more efficient. dismissing it as “a myth put about to “The Daleks are pretty efficient at avoid alarming the populace unduly”. exterminating already, so I dread to think “Although the rumour persists that what they’d be like if the innovators at the first Dalek was actually designed Dura were forced at sink-plunger-point by some chap at the BBC - which is to help them improve the design.” exactly what the Establishment wants October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 31
Tata celebrate at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Landsman is providing the keynote at The Manufacturer’s Annual leaders Conference in Birmingham on November 26 2015 in Birmingham.
Executive Director at Tata Limited and Chairman of Tata Europe Network Forum, David Landsman, ponders the bright future of UK manufacturing and steps to be taken to achieve it.
I
may not be the obvious choice to write for The Manufacturer. I’m not an engineer and the view from my office window is not a factory but a garden and a busy London throughfare. But, working with colleagues across Tata’s European businesses, I get something of a bird’s eye view of manufacturing and it’s a very exciting one. Looking from the outside in but with the opportunity to get into the detail, I’m convinced that there’s a great story to tell. But it’s also true that those with an interest in the success of manufacturing need to think harder about how to tell it if the UK is to achieve – and sustain – its potential as a 21st century manufacturing power (or powerhouse). I want to start with a couple of simple but powerful observations. First, that
32 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Working with colleagues across Tata’s European businesses, I get something of a bird’s eye view of manufacturing and it’s a very exciting one
most people probably find it impossible to grasp the unprecedented pace of technological change, so they may not be looking for the future in the right place. The internet, for all its power, can be deceptively “conventional”. If email has essentially been just a quicker form of snail-mail, the next generation of technology is changing what we do (and who, or what, does it) rather than just speeding up how we do it. And secondly, that manufacturing is fast becoming as much about R & D and IT as it is about making things; which means that if Britain wants to excel as a high-tech knowledge economy, manufacturing must be a significant part of our future. What’s the evidence? Estimates suggest that by 2020, 50 billion devices
Tata
will be networked through the Internet of Things (IOT). Manufacturing will be a major beneficiary: smart factories could boost productivity by 30%. But it will also create new demand, not least in the automotive industry. Manufacturers need to seize this opportunity. At Tata, we have for the first time appointed a Group CTO, Dr Gopichand Katragadda, with the mandate to find the next generation of innovations by leveraging the best collaboration between our 100+ companies. His recent comment that “an automobile is now a super computer on wheels” illustrates nicely the way he’s thinking. And it’s having the effect of bringing businesses with very different backgrounds together on the same playing field: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), for example, which has long been in the business of IT-driven business process improvement, now believes that most firms can increase their revenues through the right investments in the IOT. There’s no doubt too that the IOT will have huge social benefits, like the technology being developed by Jaguar Land Rover to allow vehicles to report potholes to the local authorities, contributing to tomorrow’s smart cities. It’s the broader contribution to the economy and society which is why it makes sense for Government to support innovation in IOT. Industry will welcome the announcement of £40m to fund business incubators and research hubs covering healthcare and social care, as well as the separate collaborative pilot study on the potential of IOT in smart cities. Big data is another area with huge potential benefits for manufacturing. For a start, the global market for sensors is expected to reach $95.3bn in 2015, and up to $154.4bn by 2020. Research suggests that cloud-based manufacturing solutions can reduce IT infrastructure, maintenance and lifecycle costs of process improvement projects by 54%. Again, manufacturing must be part of this. TCS is a major player in big data, and many of our “manufacturing” and “engineering” companies are increasingly dependent on big data. Tata has recently established a new entity “Tata IQ” to invest in data collection and advanced analytics, a vital part of realising our ambition to touch 25% of the world’s population by 2025 through improving customer
SPECIAL FEATURE
Landsman says he is a linguist, not an engineer, which is why he is passionate about the vibrant story of the future of UK manufacturing.
If a car is a supercomputer on wheels, then manufacturing is a specialised branch of IT
insight and satisfaction. And, again, the wider benefits for society explain why it makes sense for the UK Government to have announced significant investments in big data research and development. Servitization is another less spectacular but equally important way in which manufacturing today doesn’t look like manufacturing yesterday. Many manufacturers, including Tata companies, earn an increasingly high proportion of revenue from services rather than the direct supply of goods. This creates great opportunities for manufacturers, but considerable difficulties for economists who are at increasing risk of understating the contribution of manufacturing to the economy. As CBI director-general John Cridland explained in his recent thought-provoking CBI 50th Anniversary Lecture, servitization, along with the trend towards outsourcing, means that the real share of GDP created by manufacturing is probably closer to 19% rather than the usually quoted 11%. Great news, but of course no grounds for complacency. If a car is a supercomputer on wheels, then manufacturing is a specialised branch of IT. It is tomorrow’s world, not yesterday’s. And it offers opportunities for tomorrow’s workers. The demand for highlyqualified people in manufacturing, both graduates and technicians, is beyond doubt: by 2020, 800,000 additional workers will be needed in manufacturing. But the supply is
not there: only 25% of engineering and technology graduates work in manufacturing six months after graduation. Young people tend to have a negative perception of manufacturing, with 67% of girls aged 7-11 years indicating that they would not like a job in manufacturing compared with 44% of boys. The growth in apprenticeships, as well as in the number of students taking engineering degrees is welcome. Companies like those in the Tata group are investing as never before in STEM. But the message is not being heard loudly and clearly enough in schools or homes around the country. As technological change transforms manufacturing, the opportunity exists for the UK to be at the centre of making things better, cheaper and greener. But we need the people to do it, and they need the support and encouragement to make the choice. Without that, the technology will all be there, but the jobs and business will be elsewhere than in the UK. And it needn’t be like that. I’m a linguist, not an engineer, so it’s no surprise that I think words matter. To the readers of this publication the words “manufacturing” and “engineer” have only positive connotations. But let’s remember that today’s story is very different – and in many ways far more exciting – than many people outside our industry think when they hear these words. Maybe we – working with Government and wider society – need to get smarter at telling our story, to make sure it stays our story. October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 33
SECTORfocus How green was my factory? Falling oil and energy prices, coupled with the government’s review of alternate energy support do not mean that energy efficiency and ‘green’ manufacturing can be shifted to the back burner. Ruari McCallion casts his eye over the changing landscape.
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G
reen, or alternate energy sources, are still regarded as something of a curiosity - something out of the ordinary, which supplement energy from “proper” sources. In fact, things have been changing, pretty significantly. Wind power may not be totally reliable - it only works when the wind is blowing, obviously - but it is making a significant contribution to even high-intensity manufacturing consumers. The example of Nissan tends to be trotted out when wind power is mentioned – and for a very good reason: the 10 turbines produce up to seven per cent of its Sunderland site’s energy needs and save it around a million pounds a year in electricity costs, as well as reducing its carbon footprint. The three turbines at Ford’s plant at Dagenham, Essex, produce enough electricity to power 2,500 homes and save about 5,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
In May 2015, Nissan submitted a revised planning application to develop 8.7 hectares of land at the Sunderland site into a 19,000 panel, 4.8MW solar farm (its previous application for a much larger facility were rejected in January). Toyota is ahead in that particular field; its UK assembly plant at Burnaston, England, has a 17,000 panel solar array that generates 4.1 MW of electricity, which is claimed to be enough to make approximately 7,000 cars annually and helps to reduce the plant’s carbon footprint by up to 2,500 tonnes of CO2/yr. Its Deeside engine plant in North Wales, near Chester, is comprised of nearly 13,000 panels and has a capacity of up to 3.8MW. It says the power produced by the array will be enough to produce nearly 22,500 car engines and that the plant’s carbon emissions will fall by 1800 tonnes a year, equivalent to the combined weight of 1,260 Auris hatchbacks.
Green Manufacturing
manufacturers have adopted green energy, sources such as wind and solar have been able to achieve benefits of scale and thus become more viable in themselves, in a virtuous circle. According to LES, the UK’s solar photovoltaic capacity experienced a growth of 89% due to the Renewables Obligation, which encouraged a high rate of solar panel deployment.
Just in time viability
The bigger question is: how can UK manufacturing take advantage of the opportunities offered by ‘green energy’?
A degree of real-world commercial viability has probably been achieved only just in time, because the Chancellor’s July Budget announced that subsidy schemes for solar panels and onshore wind farms were to be cut; the Climate Change Levy is also being eliminated. Does this mean that we can go back to good ol’ coal and town gas? Probably not. The current low prices for oil and gas are very welcome but history tells us they will not continue forever. And there is the question of security of supply. Ofgem suggested last year that this winter – 2015/16 – there is a 1:12 chance of power cuts, for various reasons, including troubles in Ukraine and ISIS’ encroachment on Middle East oilfields.
You have two months to comply
Manufacturing: leaner, fitter – and greener?
Manufacturing has not only become leaner, more flexible and more productive in the past decade or so; it has been cleaning up its act, too – which is probably just as well, as the country’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 remains in place. Love Energy Savings (LES), a business energy price comparison website, pointed out that a report from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) included some possibly surprising statistics. Transport is the largest consumer of energy in the country – no surprise there – but domestic usage had the second highest rate, at 27%; industry is now third, with a usage rate of just 17%. It looks like the efforts put in to reduce consumption are now paying off. And it doesn’t stop there; because high energy such as
Changes in ‘green’ subsidies and abolition of the Climate Change Levy do not mean that the government has taken its foot off the legislative accelerator. The ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) Regulations 2014 enact Article 8 of the EU Energy efficiency Directive. If you don’t know what that involves, you should make every effort to find out. It requires that all large businesses in the UK undertake comprehensive assessments of energy use and energy efficiency opportunities at least once every four years. The deadline for the first compliance period is 5 December 2015. What is a large organisation? One that employs at least 250 people or has an annual turnover in excess of €50m (£37.5m) and a balance sheet in excess of €43m (£32.25m). It is the nature of these things that requirements to comply will filter further down to smaller companies in the fullness of time so even if your company is not that big yet, it should be aware of the requirements. To comply, companies will have to appoint a “Lead Energy Assessor”, who will have to conduct and ESOS assessment. It will measure your total
SECTOR FOCUS
energy consumption for buildings, industrial processes and transport; identify areas of significant energy consumption; identify cost-effective energy efficiency recommendations for areas of significant energy consumption; and report compliance to the Environment Agency. Organisations that are covered by ISO50001 may not need to undertake the assessment; the Carbon Trust offers Lead Energy
Manufacturing has not only become leaner, more flexible and more productive in the past decade or so; it has been cleaning up its act, too Assessors and has been working with a number of companies to help them achieve ISO50001. It observes that the point of ESOS is not simply compliance; it is to identify opportunities to reduce energy use and thus cut consumption, emissions and cost. There is currently no statutory requirement to take action but failure to do so will mean that the regular ESOS assessments will be a financial outlay, while investment in the opportunities identified could help to achieve ISO50001 certification. So much for the regulatory and circumstantial framework. The bigger question is: how can UK manufacturing take advantage of the opportunities offered by ‘green energy’? Up till fairly recently, the answer has been: it hasn’t. The alternative energy supply chain was notable for the absence of UK companies. However, efforts by the government, particularly in the shape of GROW:Offshore Wind, have born some fruit, as Dominic Brown explained. See separate story. October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 35
SECTORfocus GROW:OFFSHOREWIND SUPPORTED PROJECTS: John D Hotchkiss Ltd’s new infrared measuring probe improved operational efficiency and quality. AIG Engineering obtained three essential ISOs. Artel Rubber Holdings got a new product to market before rivals could copy the idea. Gobbler Boats received £49k towards the cost of the plugs and moulds for the Gobbler Offshore 290. Blade Dynamics received funding for the development, demonstration and testing of a highly efficient blade tip that could be ‘hybridised’ into existing third party blade designs. BGB Innovation has been able to run bespoke training courses for selected staff, developing skillsets for offshore markets. Wescott Coatings has developed training resources for offshore applications.
GROW:OffshoreWind was set up by the UK government and is delivered by RenewableUK.
The ‘green manufacturing’ supply chain has been notable for its lack of British presence. There have been efforts to change this and its value should be sufficient encouragement to get involved, Ruari McCallion reports.
T
he consensus at the 2013 meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, is that, in terms of energy consumption, there will be the equivalent of two new ‘Europes’ by 2025. The market in the connected area of ‘green’ technology was, at that time, estimated at about €2tn (€2,000,000,000,000) and it is expected to more than double, to
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€4tn – more than the combined GDP of Germany and Turkey. Clearly, this size of market represents a massive business opportunity. Just in the UK, the renewables sector includes wind power, solar and tidal, with plans advancing for a tidal barrage in Swansea Bay and undersea turbines by Scotland’s Island of Islay. While the government has announced that onshore wind farms have effectively reached the end of the road the offshore segment remains very firmly in place. Some of the largest developments in the world will be in the waters around the UK, which already has as much capacity as the rest of the world combined. So it’s a bit surprising that British companies were not heavily involved in the supply chain from outset. “In 2013, offshore wind power projects had less than 10% UK content,” said Dominic Brown, head of GROW:OffshoreWind, which was set up by the UK government and is delivered by RenewableUK, Grant Thornton and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and whose partners include Alstom, Siemens, Areva and DB Wind.
He says that the supply chain is in much better shape and that GROW is working with Tier One suppliers in order to help the supply chain’s understanding of their requirements. “Content has now increased greatly,” he maintains. “Statoil Dudgeon was talking of UK content of up to 50% at the last renewables conference.” While the review of support for renewables is not yet complete, commitments to 10GW of offshore wind capacity remain. The national offshore wind programme consists of over 40 projects with an estimated investment value of £80 – £100bn. Siemens and Associated British Ports recently announced a £310m investment in UK wind farm turbine factories. “We still have business support funding on stream for up to £10,000 per project, at a level of 50%,” said Brown. It may not sound much but £20,000 would enable the employment of an external consultant to help a company understand requirements and, for example, achieve the right ISO certification so that it will be identified as a suitable supplier in online bidding portals, for example. “We have supported over 350 businesses with grant funding since we were established.” Funding is in place to the end of 2015 but has not been confirmed thereafter. Time to get that application in if you want to ensure a share.
Green Manufacturing
A drop of the wet stuff A little of what you fancy…
You don’t need to drown a valley to build a hydro-electric power source.
T
GV Hydro designs and installs micro hydro-electric power supply systems that enable small businesses – including upland farmers – to declare independence from the grid and obtain their own low-cost, reliable electricity supplies. TGV specialises in sub-100kW systems, which need a small weir or a head of water from 20-30 metres up to 140-180. The company is based in Crickhowell, in Mid Wales, and has focused its efforts primarily in Wales itself, although it has recently branched out to supply international customers in England, in Shropshire and the Lake District. The turbine is manufactured by Hydrolite Ltd, of Swansea, and can fit comfortably inside a shed. On a larger, but still human scale, Saunders Energy has just launched PowerFrame, a micro in-stream water turbine that is designed to be installed in rivers or close-to-shore tidal areas. The company was established in 2011 and
the product has been developed and tested with support from Littlehampton Harbour Board. Managing director Alan Saunders said that the company has deliberately focused on creating a small machine that can also be sold in multiples we can satisfy a one-off sale through to large, multi-MW installations.
Bigger is better?
Going much further up the scale, the Swansea Bay Tidal Barrage project was granted planning permission in June this year. It will (upon completion) be the world’s first, man-made, energygenerating lagoon. It will have a 320MW installed capacity and 14 hours of reliable generation every day, based on the Swansea Bay average tidal range during spring tides of 8.5m. The electricity generated by the scheme would power over 155,000 homes and save over 236,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. Not everyone is a fan; fisheries upstream from the Bay are concerned
SECTOR FOCUS
for their livelihoods, for example, but the companies behind the project say that they have prepared conservation, restocking and biodiversity programmes.
Make it better
Packaging manufacturer and supplier Duo UK has launched DuoGreen, which is designed to help companies create sustainable, environmentally low impact, packaging solutions. It is made of Green PE, a polythene that uses sugarcane, rather than oil, as its base substance. Duo says that GreenPE offers the same properties, performance, and versatility of polyethylene from fossil origin.
Cool running
Dearman recently officially opened its new Clean Cold and Power Technology Centre. It now houses the company’s R&D activities, which are focused on the delivery of a range of zeroemission cold and power technologies. Dearman is working on applications of its technology for use in transportation, the built environment and logistics. All of these applications use the Dearman engine, which is powered by the expansion of liquid air to provide clean cooling and power.
Retro hybridisation
Start-up company Vantage Power’s B320 hybrid powertrain retrofits to existing buses and is claimed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by 40%; about £20,000 per year in fuel costs for a double decker bus. Vehicles fitted with the powertrain are significantly quieter than traditional buses and they don’t need to be plugged in at night. No change is required to depot infrastructure or duty cycles.
Packaging manufacturer and supplier Duo UK has launched DuoGreen
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 37
INTERVIEW
Andy Neely, the new Head of the Institute of Manufacturing speaks to ’s Editor Callum Bentley about the shape of the future model of manufacturing.
38 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
C
ambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) outgoing head, Professor Sir Mike Gregory asked the question in last month’s edition of when reflecting on his illustrious career in the sector, “has anything really changed, or has it just become a little more efficient?” Gregory explained that he thought the manufacturing
Andy Neely, Institute of Manufacturing
INTERVIEW
Neely is passionate about changing the parameters of manufacturing business models.
landscape had indeed changed - and quite a lot - referencing automation; increased access to capital finance; and the strengthened ties between industry and education, as examples of positive steps. But it was his enthusiasm for the changing dimensions of manufacturing business models, which drove me to interview his to-be successor at IfM, Professor Andy Neely.
Neely will have taken over from Gregory as of October 1. However, as he jokes, “in practice it feels like it starts about five minutes after it’s announced”. Neely has a longstanding relationship with the IfM, undertaking two stints at Cambridge – once in the early ‘90s and again after returning in 2008 after a period with Cranfield School of Management. How IfM will operate under Neely’s guidance is yet to be seen, however, he assures me his direction reflects that set out by his predecessor. “Mike and I go back a long way,” he says. “We understand each other quite well and we get on very well, so it
should be a relatively smooth transition process. “It’s a very broad church within IfM. But that breadth is also one of the things
The danger is that firms that don’t get involved in that revolution might get locked out
that makes it very unique - the ability to span technology, management and policy. Clearly we want to do world class research, but we also want to make a difference to how manufacturing firms work around the world.” October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 39
INTERVIEW
Service, please
One of the ways Neely intends on making a mark on the UK manufacturing landscape is through his extensive knowledge of service-based business models. In the past 12 months the term “servitization” has become one of the most talked about words within industry.
Clearly we want to do world class research, but we also want to make a difference to how manufacturing firms work around the world Some flinch at the term, claiming it carries an American flavour and could simply become another feeding ground for consultants. Neely on the other hand has dedicated the past few decades of his life to studying the effects that changing focus from product to service could have on manufacturing businesses of all sizes.
He undertook a large percentage of this research while overseeing the Cambridge Service Alliance, another arm of the IfM. “When you think about the outcome that your customer is looking for, or your customer’s customer is looking for, you naturally draw the boundaries of your business slightly differently,” Neely enthuses. “So if you think my job is to provide filters, you get stuck on providing filters. If you think my job is to enable my customer to get clean air or clean water, then you can think more creatively about how you might enable them to achieve this.” There’s no denying it, Neely’s example is simple. But it is one that applies to second or third tier suppliers, a market within the UK supply chain that has so far struggled to fully grasp the concept and adaptation of service-based business models. By now most people within our sector are familiar with the likes of Rolls-Royce Aerospace and its Power by the Hour model. As a giant, tier one supplier, Rolls-Royce is in a somewhat privileged position to be able to adapt its business model towards this service based
approach. It no longer supplies only its engines, but instead, flight hours for its customers. This requires massive amounts of data collation and product innovation to ensure the service it now supplies meets the costs it charges for monitored and predictive maintenance and product efficiency. Again, not something some of the smaller firms can easily attain, but something Neely says is achievable with the right leadership strategy and the intuition to act sooner, rather than later. “With things like Industry 4.0 encouraging more and more connected devices, we’re right on the cusp of a significant revolution in the way manufacturing works,” Neely says. “The danger is that firms that don’t get involved in that revolution might get locked out. If all of your competitors are putting sensors on their equipment that allows them to remotely monitor these products; to gather data; to work out when you’re going to need to repair a spare part for example, the danger is that in five or 10 years when that becomes completely ubiquitous, your product becomes redundant.
Neely maintains that the sector is on the brink of a metamorphosis set to turn existing processes on their head
40 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Andy Neely, Institute of Manufacturing
One of the big economic challenges becomes the fact that then the customer needs to buy fewer products, and yet we currently operate in a society which is effectively consumer driven
INTERVIEW
of other firms can piggy back on to provide their products and services. Of course the people who own the platform are in a really powerful position in industry sectors. As people have got more and more aware of that, more and more people have begun thinking about how they can build the platform and offer other people to offer services. It’s a conversation that’s becoming livelier inside organisations.”
A new model, a new product? “And for the SMEs you get into questions about who pays for that digital infrastructure to allow me to remotely monitor the asset. For small firms, making that investment can be a challenge. There are some quite significant challenges facing small and medium sized manufacturers in how they cope with the digital revolution that’s going on in manufacturing.” A huge influx of startup companies looking to cash in on the big data industry could prove the difference between those SMEs which successfully grasp the service nettle and those that do not. In businesses which, for example, only have the capacity to employ fewer than 100 people, the concept of having a large in-house team dedicated to collecting, collating and then analysing data effectively and efficiently seems a task almost out of reach. “Some SMEs are absolutely getting this sorted. In fact some startups have built very successful business models centring on capturing, collating and analysing data in different ways and providing insights to people,” he says. “They can be quite small teams that are just really good at the analytics and statistics. If you’re a small or medium sized manufacturing company, this is not necessarily a call for you to go and build a big analytics team that sits inside your organisation that will do loads with big data, but you almost certainly want to think about who you should partner with who might have those complimentary capabilities and could do the analytics for you to open up the new market opportunities.”
Keep it together
These new market opportunities Neely speaks of are very likely to evolve in new territories. The service model
is no longer something targeted only by manufacturing companies in established and developed economies. Neely highlights a piece of research involving businesses with manufacturing SIC codes from across the globe, which claim to have a service element to their business model. He has been carrying out this piece of research since early 2006. “What we’ve see is that in many of the developed economies, the level of servitization is reasonably stable with a little bit of growth, but not massive. This is typically in firms with 100 or more employees. “When people started talking a lot about servitization, a lot of the discussion of service innovation in developed economies was as a way to compete with low cost manufacturing in countries like China. Over the 10 years or so since I’ve been doing that study, you see a growth in proportion of Chinese firms taking on service-based models. Originally only about one per cent of Chinese firms claimed also to offer services - now it’s about 20%.” With a massive middle class emerging in developing economies, particularly China, it is little wonder its manufacturers are looking at ways to develop stronger links with their customers through service-based approaches. But there is more to it than that, as Neely explains. “There’s been a big push in China about the importance of the service economy. Both in the current and previous five year plan was the first time they had explicit recognition of the importance of services. “There’s also a lot of interest in platform technologies and organisations such as Ali Baba (bit. ly/1XktyGd), which are creating quite sophisticated platforms that a lot
My discussion with Neely naturally gravitates to the ever increasing global focus on shared services. Companies such as Uber, Zipcar and Airbnb, while extremely convenient, should not only have taxi operators and hotel managers running for the hills, they should also have manufacturers seriously reconsidering their future business models. One aspect of these evolving business models is what Neely describes as “perpetual products”. “The idea a lot of us at IfM are exploring is how you extend the useful operating life of either a product or an asset or a system. There are the technical challenges in terms of designing products to last longer or designing for serviceability; what data sensor type infrastructure you will need to put in place in order to gather data on those individual products, etc. But if you get really good at perpetual products, you could extend the useful operating life of products. “One of the big economic challenges becomes the fact that then the customer needs to buy fewer products, and yet we currently operate in a society which is effectively consumer driven. The economic model we’re operating under means you buy things, you use them and at the end of their useful life they disappear and you go and buy some more. If you can make things last longer, potentially you’ve used that opportunity to sell new products.” The challenge then for business is how you come up with a business model which means you can still capture value by enabling people to use the product for a longer time period. It seems to be a recurring theme when discussing any service-based model. The benefits are there, but so are the challenges. It’s those businesses that can find a way to overcome the latter that will reap the rewards on offer. October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 41
6Osecond Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank
INTERVIEW
the private sector. We’re prepared to be a long term investor.
How has the small business market changed since the British Business Bank was established?
Keith Morgan
CEO, British Business Bank What was the idea behind setting up the British Business Bank?
The British Business Bank was established under the last coalition government at around about the end of 2012. The idea was to create a stateowned development bank focused on small businesses. Quite simply, the idea behind the British Business Bank is to create a financial institution which serves the needs of those small businesses and does that by working through the marketplace.
We purposely have not set ourselves up in competition with the marketplace What kind of finance partners do you work with to access the marketplace?
We purposely have not set ourselves up in competition with the marketplace.
42 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Instead we prefer to leverage the reach and the resources and funding of people in the marketplace by bringing our solutions to the small business through our finance partners. We work through more than 80 different partners.
Why so many partners?
We want to make sure we touch all the right points in the market. Often small businesses can find getting the first piece of finance from a bank quite difficult. In this area we work through a startup loan company offering startup loans between £5,000 and £25,000 to people who quite simply want to be their own boss. Further up the development cycle you get into areas where small businesses are established and might have really good high growth potential. They’ve got an innovative idea and they want to prove that idea, create the product or service and bring it to market. That’s where you need to have much larger amounts of funding and usually because you’re at a risky end of financing that form of funding comes in the form of equity. There we will work through the Angel co fund and we also work through venture capital funds with
We’ve seen some important changes since 2012. There was a period of time during and after the recession when small businesses were very focused on managing their own balance sheets. People were quite keen to make sure they didn’t have too much debt themselves, they wanted to be sustainable, or even self-sustainable in terms of finance. We’ve had more confidence returning to the market and more small businesses are forecasting that they intend to grow. With that comes a change in how they want to use finance. In 2012 a lot of small businesses were focused on working capital, now that’s changed and the biggest use for finance is for buying new productive assets or for business expansion.
What kind of business advice and support do you offer?
We take a two pronged approach. When we sign up a financial partner, we do so because we have conducted our due diligence and are satisfied they’ve got all of the expertise and the sound processes to deliver the support that we want to offer. But we also believe there’s a role to play in bringing together some of the many different voices in the market place around the provision of greater and better information for small businesses. Just over a year ago we put together the Business Finance Guide, which helps businesses understand which types of finance is most appropriate to the situation they’re in and then direct and sign post people to the point where they can get that that finance. We did that together with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. We also brought together roughly 17 other partners including the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Chamber of Commerce, the CBI and the IOD, and the big banks behind them so that what we can try and form a common set of information, a single fact base that small business can appeal to.
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LEAN MANUFACTURING
I
n this day and age, information and technology are key to every single organisation, no matter the sector or industry. As Norman Ralph Augustine, the famous American aerospace businessman once said, “One of the most feared expressions in modern times is ‘The computer is down’.” And he’s not wrong. As I write this, the internet is down in our building; servers are offline; websites can’t be updated; databases can’t be accessed; and a period of panic and unproductiveness has ensued. This hiccup has given me a timely reminder of how much we rely on IT, it also proves the importance of having top quality IT services because our team managed to fix the problem in less than 10 minutes. Whether it is an internet blackout or server issues, whether your company is a multinational or village shop, if the IT system doesn’t work properly, you’re in some serious trouble. IT is often a bottleneck that is ignored, while production lines and manufacturing floors are optimised to gain almost immeasurable improvements, IT is often overlooked. That is why this month LMJ is focusing on the world of lean IT, it spans across all industries and any organisation worth its salt has an IT system that is responsive, adaptable and easy to use. As the importance of IT grows, so too does the importance for it to be lean. October’s issue boasts contributions by some of the leading authorities on lean IT. Mike Orzen, a lean IT guru with over 20 years’ experience in consulting
44 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
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and coaching, explains how IT organisations and departments can become lean and the measures they need to take to achieve this. Orzen explains, “It’s as if organisational momentum is a large stone that needs to be constantly pushed uphill – if we stop pushing, it quickly rolls back down.” On the theme of IT, we also have a contribution from Niels Loader, an initiator of the Lean IT Foundation certificate, discussing what lean IT is and why it is the new frontier in lean, elaborating on “What is it that makes lean IT different to lean applied to IT?” We also have a Q+A, from The Manufacturer’s very own Callum Bentley, with Renault Nissan Consulting about how the two giants of the automotive industry came together to become a joint venture and experts in implementing lean. The nature of IT is one of flexibility and change, with software updates and fixes to glitches released every week. Bizarrely though, despite the continuous improvement synonymous with IT, organisations willingness to invest in new IT systems lags way
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IS I.T. TH FINAL E FRONTLEAN IER?
Where a ruined lean transform an doesn’t d where trad ation can be itional always thinkin fit g
Organis ati edition ons and interv inc Associa lude: Renault iews featured tio and Te n, Suiko Co -Nissan Cons in this nstructi chnolog ulting, AP on, No y rwegian MG Lean, Lean IN THIS Universi ty of Sc IT ISSUE: ience Price it right: a case stu dy in an Transfo rm America System ation, Beha n hat m viour, Se s: How anufactu to main qu rer. tain a lea ence and Ad Why do ap n IT tra we need nsform tive Lean IT lean IT? ation. The pr oblems with m aking IT lean
behind compared to their investment in other areas. So check out this month’s LMJ to ensure that you are up to speed on the latest ways to make your IT leaner from some of the most recognised professionals in the field. And in the eternal words of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, “Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.” FURTHER INFO: Visit the Lean Management Journal at:www.leanmj.com
IOSH
Safety first Forward-thinking manufacturers in the UK are realising the benefits to their business of investment in good health and safety. Shelley Frost, Executive Director, Policy, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) reveals how.
M
anufacturing accounts for around five per cent of businesses in the UK and 10% of employment. It is unsurprising, therefore, that it is one of the largest and most diverse representative sectors in IOSH membership and why we are keen to recognise those manufacturers that are getting safety and health right. The sector is at the forefront of technological innovation that has advanced productivity and efficiency, and this has also opened up many opportunities to design out risk and find new ways to ensure the safety and health of those working in the industry, as well
What makes British manufacturing great is its workforce, which most employers agree is their greatest asset. Aside from the legal and moral imperatives, this underlines why organisations need effective safety and health management – it is a business investment and builds reputation and resilience and improves results
MANUFACTURING LEADERSHIP
as improving the quality and performance of products. Forward-thinking companies know that to secure a competitive edge and sustainability in a globalised market, it is important to ensure safety and health is effectively managed. We operate in a rapidly changing world of new markets, complex supply chains, circular economy, emerging technologies, new materials and greater automation. This requires strong leadership, worker involvement and good safety and health advice – ensuring competence throughout organisations by up-skilling staff from boardroom to shop floor, from artisans to apprentices. It is why IOSH developed a range of training products – Working safely, Managing safely and Leading safely – to cater for people operating at all levels of an organisation. Those businesses that manage safety and health most effectively are those that instil what we call a ‘culture of care’. And there needs to be broader engagement and support for the 58 per cent share of the industry comprising SMEs, which are hard to reach and not always engaged in the supply chain. IOSH offers a range of free tools and guides on its website – www.iosh.co.uk – to help companies of all shapes and sizes manage the health and safety of their employees. What makes British manufacturing great is its workforce, which most employers agree is their greatest asset. Aside from the legal and moral imperatives, this underlines why organisations need effective
safety and health management – it is a business investment that builds reputation and resilience and improves results. A well-trained, skilled and resourced workforce, which is able to design out safety and health problems and design in resilience at the inception stage of all projects, and ensure ongoing risk management throughout an organisation’s operations, provides tremendous benefits to businesses, workers and society as a whole. Recently, IOSH produced a paper, in collaboration with many of the leading engineering institutions, called The business case for engineering in health and safety, available at www. iosh.co.uk/bus_case_eng. This contains examples of engineering-related design successes. I would like to see more showcasing and positive stories about UK manufacturing, including the innovative and effective health and safety practices of so many of our manufacturing enterprises. This is why IOSH is delighted to be a co-sponsor of The Manufacturer MX Awards 2015. The Institution has members working for most of the UK’s major companies in the sector, with many more providing advice and support to SMEs across the country, and they will make an important contribution to what promises to be an impressive showcase of excellence in Birmingham next month. On awards night, I look forward to applauding those businesses in manufacturing that are realising the benefits of investment in good health and safety.
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 45
Manufacturing Directors’ Forum
The real concern for CEOs W
hat is the value of buying where you sell, and selling where you buy? A big question in today’s global manufacturing landscape, and one that was raised by a number of senior manufacturing figures who attended the latest Manufacturing Directors’ Forum, hosted by The Manufacturer and Vodafone. Paul Calver, global value chains specialist at UKTI, set the scene for the evening as he delved into his experience in developing global supply chains across a variety of manufacturing sectors. The seed of conversation was planted early on as Calver drew attention to the potential technology and the new industrial revolution had as a driving force of global supply chain efficiency and innovation moving forward. “Industrie 4.0 is based on two real and now technologies - the Internet of things and the internet of services, both of which are wholly dependent on connectivity and communications,” he said. “More and more the supply chain challenges we face today are being addressed using internet communications, big data and machine to machine interfaces.” Bernard Waldron, director of manufacturing UK at MBDA Missile Systems voiced his concern that mass customisation was already becoming a large part of his company’s business model, but with it came a raft of challenges to ensure customer orders were met first time, every time. “Our difficulty is that we are dealing with customisation; many variations on
46 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
MANUFACTURING LEADERSHIP
reports concerns and considerations surrounding the most effective ways of delivering global supply chain efficiency from ’s latest Manufacturing Directors’ Forum Dinner.
a theme of any one product at any one time,” Waldron said. “With so many levels of the product open to design, the layers of complicity continue to increase, low volumes of very complex solutions make it very challenging. Level of traceability is also vital with the need to exploit data.” Though many concurred, Gareth Hankins from Renishaw countered Waldron’s want for data exploitation, asking whether overseas manufacturing put a firm’s IP at risk. There was, however, general consensus that if companies were to protect and grow their market position, it would be wise to source from target economies, if not manufacture in them. Although this still raised concerns for some. “Often one of the biggest issues is sharing the actual manufacturing processes,” Hankins said. “This naturally makes you nervous about what it is you are prepared to share, especially if low cost competitors are able to unlock your data.” Calver responded, saying: “It’s about where you are and what you’re doing, your attitude for risk and how you perceive this overall rather than singling out a country. “Leveraging technology can enable manufacturers to enhance their supply chain, and protect IP.” Ben Carter from Vodafone agreed, stating that the “smart use of technology and modern communication channels was a clear way in which companies could further protect their IP.” The group agreed that absolute supply chain transparency was somewhat
UKTI SUPPLY CHALLENGES FACED BY MODERN MANUFACTURERS 83% of CEO’s believe that their supply chains are not optimal to meet today’s demands 81% of businesses experienced at least one supply chain disruption last year 85% do not think that their supply chains are resilient enough to address the threat of external disruption 53% say raw material price fluctuation is their top risk 47% say currency fluctuation is their top risk of a utopian outcome – although an extremely desirable one. Assets tracking using bar code or RFID systems has been in place for some time, but the internet of things, sensor development and the leverage of big data is already taking this technology to another level, allowing businesses to not only locate assets in the supply chain, but monitor health, performance and the environment in which it takes place. This will become increasingly important as service orientated manufacturing takes hold and the end product becomes part of the supply chain. The goal when, not if, it is achieved, is an environment where the total supply chain can be monitored - the products, machines and all of its processes – completely remotely.
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Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking
MANUFACTURING LEADERSHIP SPONSORED FEATURE
An appetite for innovation Andrew Connors, Head of Mid-sized Business at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, discusses the bank’s latest research into the prospects for food and drink manufacturers in England and Wales.
E
very year at Lloyds Bank plc we survey the UK’s key manufacturing sectors, including food and drink, to get a detailed snapshot of the current climate. It’s heartening to report that the contrast between the 2014 food and drink report and this year’s research, titled Investing for Growth, is really positive. Plans for investment, job creation, and exporting are all up on last year’s already strong figures, underpinning the industry’s ongoing resilience to both sector specific issues and the broad-based challenges facing the UK’s wider economy.
Plans for investment, job creation, and exporting are all up on last year’s already strong figures, underpinning the industry’s ongoing resilience to both sector specific issues and the broad-based challenges facing the UK’s wider economy
48 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
The employment forecast is particularly strong, with firms planning to create more than 73,000 new jobs over the next five years. And optimism in the sector is universal, with 100% of firms expecting to grow over the next five years, up from 98% in last year’s survey. To achieve that, the majority of firms are focused on entering new markets in the UK and developing new products.
Investing and collaborating
A particular highlight is the significant investment food and drink manufacturers are planning to channel into research and development over the next five years, boosting productivity in the sector. Firms tell us they plan to invest, on average, a quarter of their current turnover into R&D over the next five years. Perhaps even more interesting is that the majority of businesses are also looking to collaborate or partner with other firms in their supply chain to drive innovation. As we know, productivity presents an ongoing challenge for the UK, so against this backdrop the continued commitment to innovate from food and drink manufacturers is a clear indication of the crucial role this sector plays in the broader economy. The provenance of products is also playing an increasingly important role for food and drink manufacturers, who
are finding a ‘Made in Britain’ label is highly regarded by consumers around the globe.
A healthy pride
The research did also expose some potential concerns within the industry, including raw material price volatility, a potential skills shortage and a possible exit from the EU. But dynamic food and drink manufacturers are responding creatively to the growing emphasis on public health awareness that has been building for some time, with consumers, retailers and government placing increasing focus on the content of food and drink products. Almost three quarters of the firms we surveyed viewed this spur for new product development as a positive opportunity for their business. Our 2015 food and drink manufacturing report reflects the real sense of pride that British firms have in their products and their confidence for the future. This vibrant entrepreneurial energy positions the sector as a fantastic example for the wider manufacturing industry in the UK.
FURTHER INFO: You can download the report at http://bit.ly/1g5f5fj
Hennik Recruitment
MANUFACTURING LEADERSHIP
Let’s go to work
Technology must act as a tool for the good, old-fashioned practice of using industry-savvy, people-orientated recruiters to place the best people in the best jobs Halil Bedevi, Managing Director, Hennik Recruitment
Hennik Recruitment’s MD, Halil Bedevi, comments on the landscape of the UK recruitment industry and how it relates to manufacturing as a whole.
R
ecruitment in the UK is a £26bn industry and it’s growing, due in part to a bolstered British economy, as well as a revival in the UK manufacturing sector. Recruitment employs over 100,000 people at some 17,000 agencies and according to the Bullhorn 2015 UK Recruitment Trend Report, 93% of UK agencies expect a revenue increase this year, of which 31% expect 25% or more of growth. While the recruitment industry booms and manufacturing gains momentum, the two are inexplicably linked in the well-documented skills shortage suspended above the industry, like the sword of Damocles threatening to stop this upward trajectory in its tracks. In addition, advances in IT, social media and job boards have made applying for jobs just one click away, so what exists is a gap in the market for expert, experienced recruiters, who really understand their clients, candidates, industry and the roles within it.
What are the challenges for employer, employee and recruiter?
Demand naturally results in competition. Unfortunately, competition can mean
reducing costs and dropping quality for some companies, which can be counterproductive. In many cases, firms place precedence on the quantity of activity, using less skilled recruiters and more computing power, which increases web traffic results, however, it can create problems matching candidates with vacancies or alternatively connecting opportunity with talent. Not only this, but it can be detrimental to the recruitment industry as a whole. There seems to be fewer and fewer of the right type of conversations in the recruitment search and selection game, and this is not a good thing. Employers have several other concerns: how and where to advertise vacancies; how to select the right recruitment company; and how many to use. The key is striking a balance, as partnering with too few or too many can result in unsuccessful outcomes. Recruiters on the other hand, struggle with accessing vacancies; reaching the right candidates; and separating applicants within huge databases. This requires time and expertise to do effectively. Automation may seem like the way forward, however, this method can eliminate suitable candidates, as well as unsuitable ones.
For jobs seekers standing out from the crowd and being selected for consideration in the vast traffic and noise, which exists is a formidable challenge. Having a good CV or profile and good contacts are more important than ever.
Overcoming these challenges
Contrary to growing perceptions, computers, social media and automated word matching will not and cannot take over the recruitment process, especially for senior roles. Why? Because computers are not able to qualify CV content or match personalities to a particular company or team culture. Instead, technology must act as a tool for the good, old-fashioned practice of using industry-savvy, people-orientated recruiters to place the best people in the best jobs.
Think before you act
As a result of an increased demand for skills, now is the perfect time for candidates to take calculated risks and climb the professional ladder. It doesn’t hurt to keep a CV up-to-date, doing this alone, focuses the mind and allows you to examine your current role, its pros and cons and whether you need to leave the company to develop. However at times, a simple conversation with an employer can kick-start an advancement programme as an alternative to changing company altogether. So before you march into your boss’s office with your notice, make sure you’ve explored all the possibilities. Whether you are moving on or staying put, it is a good time to have a career in manufacturing! October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 49
Trish Gray, Specials team leader, Gripple Ltd
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH October 2015 Trish Gray
Specials team leader Gripple Ltd
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
What is your role and what are your main responsibilities?
My role is to run a mini business within a larger business by empowering and engaging my team to hit targets and achieve their own and the company’s goals. My responsibilities are to look after my team’s development and wellbeing as well as taking care of all the machinery. 25% of Gripple business is with new products and, as team leader of the specials non-standard products department, my team is responsible for getting the products from the Ideas and Innovation department through production processes and out of the door.
What are the key technical skills you use?
CV IN BRIEF Trish Gray Age: 41 Education: City School, Sheffield Career to date: Left school at 16 to work for Rotax, which manufactured surgical blades as a machine operator. After five years, Gray moved to Jacobs where she spent four and a half years. Started at Gripple in 2002. Hobbies and interests: Gray has four horses and volunteers at an animal sanctuary in her spare time. Gray is married to Garry, who also works at Gripple, with whom she has two children Francesca, 11, and Harrison, 8.
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Part of my role is getting new products through the new product process which entails liaising with other departments to convert products from hand assembly through all the relevant stages towards automation. I also concentrate on continuous improvement to make the processes more efficient by using skills like problem solving, effective meetings, 5s and TPM, also undertaking quality investigations. As Gripple is 100% employee owned, a major part of my role is ‘people’ with a major focus on people development. Therefore I have to organise training and coach people myself when needed and use performance management and human resources skills.
What personal characteristics help you in your role?
I am well organised, approachable and a ‘people person’. I am conscientious, seeing myself as a team player. I have a keen eye on detail and task completion which, working with new product processes, are good traits to have.
What do you consider to be your biggest personal success so far?
My biggest personal success so far is that within my first three years of joining Gripple I gained promotion to team leader from machine operator and achieving this whilst having my two children. This was an incredibly proud moment as the faith put in me to lead was based on my contribution. Since making the move to team leader the belief in me has continued to grow as now I head a team that has to deal with a great deal of change and variation while never compromising on quality .
What are the most rewarding parts of your job?
One has to be the people I work with. I have built good relationships and work as part of a dynamic team. When we pull together and get things done it feels great! I am proud that I work in a company which believes strongly in UK manufacturing. One of our mottos is “if you can’t buy it in the UK, we’ll manufacture it”. Working for a fully employee owned company means everyone from the cleaner to the managing director has a say. I know that all our hard work contributes to the bigger picture of making Gripple successful year after year. I’ve worked at Gripple since January 2002 and have never had a sick day off, which I think that says a lot about the company.
Do you have a career ambition? I’d like to be the best leader I can be and continue to contribute towards the company’s values and goals and help people reach their full potential. I want to help to make Gripple a household name and leave a Gripple legacy to my children who I hope will pass it on.
DWF
Legal advisors, DWF, reveal the importance of protecting a business’s intellectual property and ways to keep it safeguarded.
A
s a manufacturing business, you should be aware of the importance of protecting your confidential information, intellectual property and trade secrets. Many businesses often have not had the time and opportunity to consider how they protect these valuable assets. Often businesses are not even completely sure what constitutes their key intellectual property and trade secrets. However, according to a recent study by technology consultants Detica for the Cabinet Office, it is estimated that intellectual property theft costs British business £9.2 bn a year and therefore from a commercial perspective, protecting intellectual property is critical. Every manufacturing business will have information and know-how, such DWF LLP is a legal business where legal expertise, industry knowledge and leading edge technologies converge , helping your business go further. Independently ranked first of all top 20 law firms for quality of its advice and joint first for service delivery and responsiveness. Contact DWF here www.dwf.co.uk.
FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
as manufacturing processes, business development and new product plans and design, which are integral to the operation and survival of the business. In an ever increasingly competitive marketplace it is this information which gives manufacturers the edge over their competitors. As a result, it is has never been more important for businesses to protect this information. Threats to confidential information can come from outside the business from competitors or companies up or down the supply chain, but the biggest threat to confidential information can often be as a result of employee activity. Many employees have access to valuable knowledge and information regardless of whether they work within sales, design or technical teams or undertake an administrative role. This information is always an attractive asset to any competitor in the marketplace seeking to encroach on market share and those competitors will often attempt to attract employees on the basis of the confidential or commercially sensitive information that they have access to. Changes to the nature in which we all work mean that it is more difficult to protect confidential information. For example, increasingly employees are encouraged to work on an “agile” basis and to utilise a number of different electronic devices (both at home and in the workplace) and utilise social media as part of their day to day role. This provides the opportunity to access a business’s confidential information both on and off site and makes it more important that businesses put
appropriate safeguards in place to ensure that its assets are protected. Manufacturers must carefully identify what information they need to protect and conduct an assessment as to how much damage would be caused should that information be disclosed to a third party and/or misused. Once the information has been identified and the risk assessed, a business should consider what preventative measures should be put in place to achieve effective protection. Taking preventative action is always more cost effective than a reactive approach and DWF has designed a product called “Asset Aware” to ensure that a business has appropriate safeguards in place to protect its confidential business assets and prevent its misuse by third parties. The key aspect of this product is that, for a fixed sum, a business will have some peace of mind regarding protection from abuse by third parties whether they be ex-employees, competitors or customers. DWF is a sponsor of The Manufacturer’s Annual Leaders Conference (TMALC) bit.ly/1IJTBNR.
FURTHER INFO: If you would like more information about this product then please contact Marie McMorrow Partner Intellectual Property. DD: +44 845 404 2247 Email: Marie.McMorrow@dwf.co.uk October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 51
BGF
FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
The key component Equity funding is helping County Durham based Altec Engineering pursue growth through acquisitions, overseas expansion and diversification. CEO Alastair Waite explains how partnering with BGF means access to money and support, without loss of control.
M
y father, Ron Waite MBE, founded Altec Engineering in 1978. The business manufactures special purpose equipment and high precision CNC components for the automotive, aerospace, mining, defence and oil and gas sectors. I had been involved in building a very successful IT business but decided, after 15 years, I wanted to do something different. I developed some ideas about how we could grow Altec and pitched this to the executive directors who supported the plan. As an engineering firm headquartered in the North East, we’ve been through our fair share of market upturns and downturns. Like many small and midsized businesses in the UK we’ve faced challenges with access to skills, funding and support too. So we’re fortunate that a focus on strong customer relationships, continued investment in apprenticeship programmes and good routes to market has stood us in good stead, and the business has a solid foundation. But we knew there was more that we could do to increase our revenues and
profitability. We wanted to export more, invest more, innovate more and improve our training facilities for staff. We began our ambitious growth plan by extending our main facility at Durham, increasing the floor space by 75%, and completely reorganising our CNC machining facility at the same time as adding new production offices and quality departments. We also invested in 3D printing capabilities, which have been instrumental in helping us to secure new contracts. Alongside this, we acquired Sigma Technologies which brought further capabilities to our offering, including stock build programmes, inventory control, kitting and integrated MRP.
The future for Altec is incredibly exciting. With BGF’s financial backing, we are now exploring further strategic acquisitions as well as the delivery of new value added services such as specialist coatings
52 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Then, in July 2015, and to accelerate our growth even further, we took a £6m growth capital investment from equity provider BGF (Business Growth Fund). Their minority investor approach is completely aligned with our desire to have a supportive partner who is prepared to stand back from the day-today running of the business. Following the investment, we made our second acquisition: Ronco Engineering, a precision engineering company based in County Durham which provides CNC manufactured parts to customers such as Caterpillar and JCB and shares our ethos around engineering quality and building long-standing relationships with customers. We also acquired a further 10,000 square foot factory space adjacent to our existing facilities to meet future investment plans and house a specialist training area. The future for Altec is incredibly exciting. With BGF’s financial backing, we are now exploring further strategic acquisitions as well as the delivery of new value added services such as specialist coatings.
FURTHER INFO: Visit www.bgf.co.uk to find out more.
MARK BRYANT HEAD OF MANUFACTURING, BGF: “BGF is the UK’s most active provider of growth capital, with up to £2.5bn to invest in ambitious small and mid-sized companies. So far, we have backed more than 100 businesses across the country, including 31 manufacturing firms.
We provide patient, long-term capital in return for a minority stake, which means that management teams remain in control of the businesses we back. We also have contacts with a network of more than 3,000 of the UK’s most successful business people, who can provide help and guidance to entrepreneurs. BGF initially invests between £2m and £10m, and we provide follow-on funding to support further growth. The companies we back are privately owned or publically listed and typically have revenues of between £5m and £100m.”
Electric Dog
MANUFACTURING SERVICES
Community first, commerce second MSTLN steering committee member, Thomas Power, pontificates on the importance of data and digital connections.
E
With the Internet of Things (IOT) creating even more data – Google estimates some 45 zetabytes of data by 2020 from 35 billion connected devices, it’s actually beyond our (current) mental capacity, resulting in people quickly falling ever further behind. So let’s consider those 35 billion connected devices, each one of which has at least one sensor – some may even have a thousand. Those sensors would create a trillion pieces of data every second, telling us everything about our own We are coming close to consuming 10 lives; cities; companies; times more content than at the start of this governments; societies, and planet. century, with the average smartphone user Acquiring data won’t be now having almost 120 apps difficult; the real challenge lies in understanding what to do with it. Compounding the issue is the fact social strategies to business executives, sitting in on board meetings, speaking at that we haven’t adequately identified who owns the data – is it yours; conferences, and anything in-between. mine; the Government’s; the product All of these events require maximum manufacturer’s, the sensor maker’s? context in real time, something that is To answer that question, we have to being increasingly expected by audiences. come together, debate the issue and We live in ‘the age of context’ where ensure that everyone has access to the context is most definitely king. We are proper guidance and counsel. coming close to consuming 10 times Engaging with 110 brands at home more content than at the start of this (yes, I counted them), and likely another century, with the average smartphone 100 when on the move, I want access user now having almost 120 apps. to the data that concerns me – what As a result of this, each of us has had data have companies been collecting to become superb filters, identifying the about me? patterns, shapes and trends I really don’t mind my data being in the colossal amount of data that consumed, aggregated or even sold; I passes our eyes every day. very morning at 5am I spend around two hours on twitter, consuming somewhere in the region of 3,000 – 5,000 tweets, links, articles and stories relating to areas such as wearables; social; cloud; 3D printing; big data analytics; cybersecurity; robotics; artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. The purpose of this task is to contextualise my mind for the day ahead, a day that could involve teaching
Too often brands don’t think about serving data to their shareholders, employees or suppliers, let alone customers just want to know what information, to who, and why. I want data to benefit me. The brands can know everything about me, but equally, I want to know them too – for better or worse. Too often, brands don’t think about serving data to their shareholders, employees or suppliers, let alone customers. They’ve got to learn to listen and serve, not dominate and badger. It’s time brands became connectors too, because connecting with someone is worth more than simply selling to then.
Thomas Power is part of the steering team of the Manufacturing Services Thought Leadership Network www.mstln.com @MSTLN_UK
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 53
Columbus
MANUFACTURING SERVICES
Service please Simon Charlton, Sales Director at Columbus Global (UK) tells why a service-based model provides endless possibilities for business. How important is the manufacturing services model to the future of UK manufacturing?
Columbus is a major supporter of UK manufacturing and from a technology perspective, Columbus has seen a huge shift towards the requirements of prospective new partners and customers, particularly in those firms’ servitization needs. For example, looking after equipment, ensuring it is integrated, and stays efficient and effective, but more predominantly now, the services those businesses can provide their customers to be more proactive and more service focused, as opposed to a reactive-type service call.
What are the immediate benefits for a business looking to adopt a service model?
For customers, it is about providing better customer service, which adds a better rate of retention, potentially increases the customer spend, as well as, profitability by acting as a true partner in the servitization of their own customers. In the last five years, we have witnessed a transition from for people being wholly wed to an existing business partnership, to individuals picking up the phone, or searching online to find the services they are not already receiving.
54 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Negating that requirement and providing the servitization needs of their own customers has become more important, and heightening levels of partnership with their own customers is likely to lead to higher levels of loyalty.
What do you think the wider societal, economic and environmental advantages are of servitization?
You can look at servitization in many ways. From a social perspective, the capabilities of cloud services within healthcare will be life changing beyond our imagination. For instance, patients with non-life threatening conditions, could be released from hospital and any changes in their condition will be monitored and assessed remotely to establish what further care is necessary. In other areas, like volumes of transport, levels of pollution in the air, all of these things will be monitored more accurately. The effects on society will be limitless and unthinkable.
What are the major challenges to businesses adopting a service model?
The perceived investment required is always a barrier. We still see companies with systems more than 20 years old
You can look at servitization in many ways. From a social perspective, the capabilities of cloud services within healthcare will be life changing beyond our imagination
and it’s clear that it isn’t company culture to adopt new models. This is also reflected in investment in employees and equipment. However, the situation is improving, particularly in the last half a decade, where there is a better connection between the people on the ground; middle management; and those individuals at the top, who are actually spending the money. Previously, when discussing improved servitization of their customers with those at the top, they would understand and support concepts like customer retention, but would think that evolved mainly around price, believing that as long as they remain competitive in price everything else would follow.
How do businesses begin to overcome these challenges?
Firstly, we must examine which systems we can help provide, as well as, articulating the knowledge and background that change brings. We have to start educating business leaders, and making them understand that changing these systems should not be seen as an IT implementation or as an IT spend. We find that better educated companies now view these changes as a business-led programme that advances every aspect of the business with a shift towards servitization. When you appeal to their business sense, and move away from an IT perspective, it helps potential clients to understand that this is supporting them. Columbus is a silver sponsor of Connect ERP. Secure your place here www.connect-erp.com.
Electrical Systems Control & Automation Solutions
In association with:
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Toyota
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
The kaizen cornerstone established objectives and the continual Toyota Material collection of data, a truck management Handling UK reveals system can help you to identify areas where you can make improvements, for how continuous example you could change your fleet improvement through size or schedule the most appropriate safety, productivity and time to carry out maintenance. environmental care Improved health and safety One important element of forklift truck can reduce costs.
W
hether you have one forklift truck or a fleet of materials handling equipment, a truck management system can help you to improve the efficiency of your operation. But it is not just about having a system; you need to work with your provider to use the technology and information that is available to you, to make continual improvements (kaizen). At Toyota Material Handling, the I_Site truck management system is designed to help all companies improve their operation through real-time information and continual support.
Increased productivity
With real-time information, you can monitor the utilisation of your trucks, your operators, and also your contract. But how does this help you to improve productivity? Well it is all about kaizen. The value of kaizen or continuous improvement is a cornerstone of the Toyota organisation and central to the truck management process. With
56 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
management is controlled access, ensuring that only authorised and trained operators can use a truck. Toyota I_Site truck management system has a number of options for controlling access from pincode, to smart access cards and key fobs. Shock monitoring can help you to improve safety and reduce costs by recording the details of shocks. By understanding why these shocks occur you can take steps to make improvements, from additional operator training to changing the flow in your operation. Finally, truck management can provide you with electronic pre-operational checks, to help you monitor and keep records of safety checks on your trucks and make sure your trucks are reliable and safe to use every day. With the Toyota I_Site system, companies can create their own checklists which drivers must confirm on the display before they start to operate the truck. The truck will remain immobile until all the checks have been completed and the driver has confirmed the truck is safe to use. This system can help companies to ensure
A trucks management system can help reduce costs by providing the information and tools to make improvements.
they are satisfying their own internal rules and regulations and increase safety as trucks that have a critical failure cannot be used.
Environmental Care
A truck management system also helps you to improve the environmental impact of the trucks you operate. By optimising the trucks and battery life, through the monitoring of charging cycles, you can extend the truck and battery life.
Reduced costs through safety, productivity and environmental care
A trucks management system can help you to reduce costs by giving you the information and tools to make improvements to how you operate, but also make sure you are operating within your contracted hours. FURTHER INFO: Kaizen is a cornerstone of the Toyota organisation and central to the truck management process. With established objectives and the continual collection of data, a truck management system can help you to identify areas where you can make improvements. To find out more about how Toyota I_Site truck management can benefit your operation call 0370 850 1409 or visit www.toyota-forklifts.co.uk
Electrical Systems Control & Automation Solutions
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Reduce lead times, win more orders For machinery builders, the need to improve production agility and lead time to the customer has never been greater. The drive for shorter lead times coupled with the need to accommodate increased customer configurability is a real challenge. PP have a proven track record working with leading machinery builders across many market sectors, globally, in order to meet this challenge. Offering customised solutions
n Value engineering n Design for manufacture n Increased standardisation
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Fully approved solutions for USA and Canada 508A
The benefits of value engineering when considering machine interconnectivity can deliver significant benefits to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), but equally careful design consideration is needed if that machine is to be exported to North America Machine builders also need to understand the key differences between UL ‘listed’ cables and UL ‘recognised’ cables
Making the right connection Tony Hague, Managing Director of PP Electrical Systems, explains why the right interconnectivity has never been so important for machinery builders, especially those exporting to North America.
A
lmost every machine builder gives considerable thought when designing a control system for a piece of equipment. Time is invested in looking at panel design so that cost and performance can be optimised, sophisticated CAD software can quickly generate layouts and wiring schedules and 3D software can consider mechanical constraints and assist in the overall design and integration. However, often the amount of time invested in looking at the overall machine
58 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
interconnectivity is considerably less and firms could be missing out on significant opportunities, or worse, not complying with certain standards for markets such as North America. When considering interconnectivity design, we can broadly split it into two areas; Technology & Process Quality Standards & Compliance
Technology & Process Quality Over recent years we have seen the growth and development of ‘bus
systems’ that are now offered by many different technology providers. Networks are now far more flexible and ‘open’ and such systems allow us to replace traditional multi-core cables and connectors with remote I/O and ‘plug in’ style M8/M12 connectivity. The benefits to the customer are multiple and include speed of wiring/install, significant reductions in the number of cables trailing around a machine and the use of propriety, tested cables and modules that can be quickly and easily interchanged or expanded.
PP Electrical Systems
Talk to any machine builder and they will always confirm that the single biggest contributor to machine downtime and field failure is caused by poor ‘connectivity’. This is hardly surprising when you consider the sheer volume of electrical connections in and around a piece of complex machinery, coupled with the often demanding environments that machinery is operating in – lots of vibration, water ingress and mechanical strain. However, steps can be taken to optimise the quality and reliability of such connections, including: Automation of cable crimping – for example, PP Electrical Systems uses equipment that incorporates crimp force monitoring technology, which allows 100% in-line process quality checking of every crimp being put onto a given cable. Use of Spring Clamp technology – can often provide significant benefits over screw clamp technology, providing constant tension and offering resistance against vibration. Use of Torque Tools – where screw clamps are used, it is essential to ‘torque’ up connections in line with manufacturers’ recommendations. The errors of a ‘loose’ connection are obvious, but equally the potential impact of ‘overtightening’ a screw connection is equally damaging. There is nothing more difficult for a service engineer to find than an intermittent fault caused by a faulty connection, when a machine is down and the customer is losing production time.
Standards and Compliance for North America
More machine builders are beginning to exploit the sales opportunities presented by the growing market in North America. They may well be aware of the associated UL508a standard that is relevant to the electrical control panel, which is of course vitally important. Often, however, they are not aware of the equal importance of the National Fire Protection Association standards that are relevant to the machine wiring. The National Electrical Code (NEC) is written by the NFPA, a US trade association that creates and monitors standards and codes for use and adoption by local governments in
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
Where screw clamps are used, it is essential to ‘torque’ up connections in line with manufacturers’ recommendations
connection with machine building and installation… this code is also known as NFPA70. NFPA79 is a ‘standard’ for the electrical part of a given industrial machine and covers machines operating at 600V or less. The standard details permitted wiring types, wiring practices, as well as interconnectivity of components and safety etc… What it covers: Operating conditions Disconnect Protection from electric shock Grounding Control function Lighting Wiring Practice Hence when we consider a typical machine, we would be evaluating such areas as control cables, field bus wiring, data cables and servo motor cables. Machine builders also need to understand the key differences between: UL ‘listed’ cables
use and meets the UL standards and requirements of NEC. A ‘recognised’ cable signifies the product is rated as a ‘component’, being part of an application. Cables with ‘Appliance Wiring Material AWM std 758’ are always recognised. The use of such cables will have certain limitations. PP Electrical Systems works closely with its technical partners in order to provide complete control and automation solutions to machinery builders. The benefits to the customer can result in: Reduced manufacturing costs Compliance to standards such as UL508a & NFPA79 Reduced production times Improved quality and reliability, therefore reduced machine downtime. Reduced customer lead times In addition, PP Electrical Systems is able to offer a range of technical seminars to OEMs and end users at its facility in the West Midlands or off site at another manufacturing business. These are tailored to provide specific information around topics such as UL508a and NFPA compliance for machine builders.
UL ‘recognised’ cables FURTHER INFO:
A ‘listed’ cable signifies it has been tested and approved for a specific
For further information, please visit www.powerpanels.uk.com or follow @pp_electrical on twitter.
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 59
Advancing cancer diagnosis
Endomag is the pioneering firm behind a new diagnostic tool that could end the postcode lottery for cancer staging.
Every year, almost
55,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer.
Globally, that number leaps dramatically to
1.7million with more than
520,000 deaths
When a cancer spreads, it first travels to the lymph nodes – small bean-shaped organs that form an important part of the body’s immune system
The current standard of care is sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) – a sentinel lymph node is the first to which cancer cells are most likely to spread from a primary tumour
SLNB involves injecting a radioactive tracer and identifying the sentinel lymph nodes using a gamma probe
The radioactive isotope decays so rapidly that it has to be supplied to hospitals every week, and is made in just a handful of nuclear reactors worldwide
60 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Advancing cancer diagnosis
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
Sentimag represents an effective radioisotopefree method of node localisation for the widest range of hospitals and clinics The Sentimag instrument generates an alternating magnetic field which transiently magnetises the iron oxide particles in Sienna+ Sienna+ is a tracer that is injected subcutaneously where the natural physical action of the lymphatics system filters out the particles, enabling sentinel nodes to be located using the Sentimag
The handling of radioactive materials is subject to stringent regulations, and the costs of providing and handling radioactive materials are high
50% 18
Upwards of
The products are currently being sold in
of the patient population in Europe and the US are currently unable to receive the best standard of care
FURTHER INFO: You can read ’s interview with Endomag CEO, Dr Eric Mayes here: bit.ly/AdvancingCancerDiagnosis
countries across Europe, and more than patients have been treated to date
6,600
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 61
Healthcare hat-trick ARTIFICIAL TENDONS
T
endons connect muscle to bone, and while extremely strong, once damaged they can take a long time to fully repair – leaving athletes on the sidelines for months. Typically, a damaged tendon can be replaced with either another similar tendon from the patient’s body, or substituted with an artificial material. Lacking in the strength necessary, the artificial materials currently employed aren’t ideal, leading many to explore alternatives. Due to their compatibility with the human body and ability to promote cell growth, collagen fibres are a popular choice. These biocompatible collagen fibres can be woven into the damaged tendons to offer structural support – like ‘scaffolding’ – for cells to grow on. However, to date, these fibres have been short, inconsistent, irregular, and varied in their properties. The University of Bolton has pioneered a method of producing collagen fibres in a continuous flow, capable of being tailored to the specifics of each individual case. The institution has created a machine capable of producing collagen as a continuous single filament, and the next step is to take that filament and produce a yarn used to create structures for cells to thrive on.
62 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
Working alongside the Knowledge Centre for Materials Chemistry, the University of Bolton has developed a trio of next-generation medical innovations.
Healthcare Hat-trick
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
MINUTE PROSTHETIC GRAFTS
A
nother of the University’s bio-inspired textiles are prosthetic endovascular stent grafts of less than 6mm, with specially designed internal scaffold structures intended to improve patient blood flow. Composed of fabric supported by a metal mesh (stent), these grafts are surgically placed inside blood vessels to treat a variety of conditions, but most commonly to reinforce a weak spot in an artery. Though beneficial, prosthetic grafts of such small diameters suffer from calcification and build-up of cholesterol in their inner walls which can lead to heart disease and even complete occlusion (blocking) of the graft. With current grafts not up to the job, the Univeristy has simulated flow in narrow vessels with a variety of internal profiles and concluded that helical structures – created by a technique called electrospinning – have proven to be the most effective. Additionally, the University’s research has shown that cross-linked polymer blends not only enhance the grafts mechanical properties, but support cell growth and proliferation of endothelial cells which line the interior surface of blood vessels.
SMART WOUND DRESSINGS
T
he innovation closest to market is the University’s smart wound dressing, a covering which not only offers a high degree of absorbency, but also has a gelatinous texture and is naturally antimicrobial. Each of the three features are available in separate forms, but Bolton is the first to combine the properties in one system. The dressing brings together alginate – gathered from algae – and chitosan – found in crustacean shells – to produce a hybrid dissolvable fibre called alchite. Having worked on alchite for almost a decade, the University has now acquired global patents and spun out a company to commercialise it. Initially manufactured in China, production is fully expected to move to the UK should the product prove successful. Reportedly outperforming anything currently on the market, if alchite does take off, it’s estimated that turnover could be upwards of £250m after the first year, aided by the fact many practitioners already widely use both alginate and chitosan.
FURTHER INFO: You can read ’s interview with the University of Bolton’s Professor of Fibre Science & Technology, Mohsen Miraftab: here: bit.ly/UniBoltonHealthInnovations
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 63
Epicor
IT IN MANUFACTURING
Working smarter, working faster ERP as a social collaboration tool? You’d better believe it. IT contributing editor Malcolm Wheatley finds out more.
G
At root, he explains, the core difficulty is that ERP is designed around a set of structured processes, codifying them in data entry screens, workflow, and business rules. “The challenge arises when you move away from these standard structured business processes, and into unstructured business processes: that’s when collaboration fails, and difficulties arise,” he sums up. “And the problem is only going to get worse.” So what’s the answer? The challenge arises when you move A lot can be learned, away from these standard structured says Winder, from looking at the real-life business processes, and into unstructured collaboration challenges business processes: that’s when that businesses face. Xtrac, for instance, collaboration fails, and difficulties arise which builds hi-tech transmissions for the Steve Winder, Regional Vice President for UK and Ireland, Epicor motorsport industry, meeting exacting performance standards workflow is not the same as collaboration, on extremely short lead times. Or pump manufacturer Hayward Tyler, where and that those organisational silos remain customers demand both short lead worryingly intact. times and high levels of on-time delivery And yet the need for collaboration has performance. Or indeed, any one of a never been greater, says Steve Winder, Epicor Software’s regional vice president growing number of Epicor customers coming under pressure to respond for UK and Ireland. in almost real-time to ad hoc “Manufacturers are under huge pressure to bring new products to market customer queries. “What we see is that ERP has the in shorter timescales, build-to-order on data that businesses need, but not the even quicker lead times, and respond to social processes that they need,” customer queries while the customer is he stresses. “What’s required is a still on the phone,” he points out. “ERP way of building social collaboration helps, but isn’t the complete solution— processes alongside that data, and emerging business models such as rather than starting again and servitisation just add to the strain.” o back to the early days of ERP, and the word “collaboration” was heard a lot. ERP helped people to collaborate, we were told, providing a corporate glue to join together people, processes, and organisational silos. These days, that initial enthusiasm is more nuanced. With a more mature understanding of what ERP can and can’t deliver, there’s a growing recognition that
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developing some kind of parallel collaborative community.” Which is precisely the approach being taken by next generation ERP solutions, he adds: these now increasingly have “social business” functionality built in, augmenting ERP’s core workflow with an information-rich collaborative environment. And among those next generation ERP solutions is of course Epicor ERP 10. Designed with social working in mind, it incorporates social “tools” that will be instantly familiar to users who use social media tools at home as individual consumers, says Winder. Users can “follow”, comment on, and share information, connecting with each other in new ways, leading to improved processes, better decision making, and closer relationships—both within the business and externally, with customers and suppliers. “And you’re doing it in real time, just as in the consumer world,” he stresses. “It’s not some separate, off-line means of social collaboration: you’re doing it inside the ERP system—and not picking up the phone, or sending an e-mail, or walking over to ask someone. That’s the future of collaboration: ERP for data and workflow, and ERP plus social processes for realtime collaboration.”
Epicor is a gold sponsor of Connect ERP. Secure your place here www. connect-erp.com.
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Finite wisdom Under Siemens’ ownership, SIMATIC IT Preactor’s APS software line-up aims to offer users more bang for their buck. IT Contributing Editor Malcolm Wheatley reports.
66 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
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ith a history going back to the mid-1980s, Preactor International – now part of Siemens’ PLM software business-has long been a ‘go-to’ company for manufacturers keen to boost factory efficiencies through what we now call Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). Simply put, if a manufacturer’s operations were characterised by capacity constraints and bottlenecks— specific pieces of equipment, or tooling, for instance— then Preactor International has been one of a very small number of software companies to offer a cutting-edge mathematically-based finite capacity scheduling and optimisation capability. Connect it to your ERP’s order book, model the constraints in question, and let SIMATIC IT Preactor APS produce an optimal production schedule, balancing the twin dictates of due dates and capacity availability. A tweak required? A visual
Preactor
IT IN MANUFACTURING
If a manufacturer’s operations were characterised by capacity constraints and bottlenecks, then Preactor International has been one of a very small number of software companies to offer a cuttingedge mathematically-based finite capacity scheduling and optimisation capability
The new range delivers a better experience, offers more scheduling functionality at a lower price point, and is a better fit for more manufacturers Barney Speller, Product Manager, Preactor
interface made minor adjustments a very straightforward affair. But even so, the latest release of SIMATIC IT Preactor’s APS software is creating more than the usual buzz of interest. It’s the first new release since the business was acquired by Siemens in 2013. With an extensive range of factory optimisation and automation software under the Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) portfolio, encompassing solutions that address: Manufacturing execution systems Quality execution SCADA Manufacturing intelligence And now SIMATIC IT Preactor’s APS skill set, which provides an excellent complement to the PLM/MOM software portfolio for the German giant. But the benefit has very much been two way, stresses product manager
Barney Speller. “The Siemens name has been hugely successful in helping us to penetrate enterprise-level accounts,” he observes. “We’re now part of Siemens’ MOM software portfolio, which enables manufacturers to implement their strategy for the complete digitalization of manufacturing operations.” And that level of interest can only increase, one would have thought, given the changes to the SIMATIC IT Preactor APS line-up that have been revealed by the new release. SIMATIC IT Preactor APS—to use the new, official branding—does away with Preactor’s old multi-strand product line-up, coalescing the range of solutions around fewer, but more powerful, offerings. And in doing so, says Speller, of SIMATIC IT Preactor APS has had two goals in mind. First, no longer is its entry-level solution restricted to scheduling
around a single constraint. No more: out of the box, the Standard edition of SIMATIC IT Preactor APS supports multiple constraints, including pieces of equipment, the availability of materials, and additional constraints such as tooling. Second, while SIMATIC IT Preactor’s higher-end editions have always offered the ability to impose sophisticated programmable scheduling rules, those rules have sometimes been a challenge to implement. Again, no more. Customisation is still there, but made easier through a range of standard solutions and templates, built-up from over 30 years of understanding how real-life customers use the company’s APS capabilities in practice. Instead of working with text files, users now have a graphical interface with which to fine-tune the system set-up. In short, concludes Speller, SIMATIC IT Preactor APS under Siemens offers a lower acquisition cost, a lower implementation cost, and a faster time-to-benefit. “The new range delivers a better experience, offers more scheduling functionality at a lower price point, and is a better fit for more manufacturers,” he sums up. “You go live sooner, achieve more, and have a faster return on your investment.”
Preactor is a silver sponsor of Connect ERP. Secure your place here www.connect-erp.com.
October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18 | www.themanufacturer.com 67
Terry Scuoler - EEF
TALK OF THE INDUSTRY
Improving our export performance must be a national political priority for all parties
The best trade plans If George Osborne is serious about achieving £1tn of exports by 2020 he needs to add rocket boosters to the Government’s current efforts, Terry Scuoler weighs in.
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n fact he will have to do something special just to ensure the UK maintains its current share of world trade which in terms of goods has halved over the last two decades to just 2.5%. Our pride as a trading nation is rightly based on a history of sailing the seven seas and selling our goods around the world. The new global digital reality means there is an expectation that the goods we produce are not only technologically advanced, but more often than not customised to meet each buyer’s requirements and accompanied by sophisticated service support and back up – anywhere on the globe. That demands investment in new
68 www.themanufacturer.com | October 2015 | Issue 8 | Volume 18
technology, new product development and increased research and development. 94% of manufacturers surveyed in EEF’s innovation monitor stated that they engaged in innovation in the past three years, consistent with long-term survey trends. It is this kind of innovation which will help manufacturers export more, with 52% saying said that they were investing in innovation in order to move into new markets while 47% said they were innovating to develop existing export markets. Manufacturers are responsible for 44% of all UK exports according to the Government’s own figures. So every arm of Government – local and central – must be firmly co-ordinated in support of our drive for increased trade. The Prime Minister, Chancellor and trade minister, Lord Maude, have all personally demonstrated their commitment to helping UK plc on trade missions around the world. In the autumn the Chancellor will take exporters to China and once again seek to sell more goods and services to this vast, complex and still expanding market. Such exemplary effort by ministers makes good headlines but requires powerful back-up at home. Whether it is through excellent professional
services, such as those provided by UKTI, the network of embassies around the world, or funding for research such as the pioneering innovation centres - the catapults - which bring industry and academia together in the drive for greater technical excellence, Government has a key role to play. Improving our export performance must be a national political priority for all parties. Manufacturers are doing their bit and are well-placed to improve their export performance. They are more productive than the economy as a whole, and considerably more export intensive with forecasts suggesting they can contribute 40% of the UK’s productivity gains over the next decade. The export intensity of the sector means however that UK manufacturers are more exposed than most to international competition, which requires them to be ever more productive and innovative. UK manufacturers are investing in new technology, skills and innovation to compete both at home and on a global stage, all of which is borne out in EEF’s latest research. Moving into new markets however is challenging. It requires a huge amount of effort, time and resource. Developing new relationships with new customers can take years. Once relationships are cemented however, they can be long lasting and commercially rewarding. Sustainability is key and success can only come on the back of ever rising investment and commitment. If manufacturers are to have self-belief they need also to have belief in our political leaders and the ongoing support which they and our nation deserves. Let us be clear the £1tn target is an enormous challenge but let us do our very best to achieve it.
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