BQ2 NE Autumn 13

SPECIAL REPORT:

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

steady ground Forty years of game changing on Wearside Breaking borders Innovating a path to the international stage training turnaround Stealing a march on the skills gap threat

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CONTENTS

CONTACTS

4 NEWS

room501 ltd Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk

The latest stories from the region’s forward-thinking manufacturers

12 overview

EditorIAL Peter Jackson e: p.jackson77@btinternet.com Andrew Mernin e: andrewm@room501.co.uk

How innovative firms are breaking new ground in manufacturing

14 GREAT DANE The Scandinavian empire with the North East at its heart

18 CHANGING COURSE Ebac’s Pamela Petty on staying two steps ahead of the competition

24 LIVE DEBATE Innovating a path to international success

32 GLASS ACT Strategic rethink pays of for Fendor

36 BOYLE’S LAW Sevcon boss on the power of innovation

44 SKILLS SURGE New thinking – and investment around an age-old problem

TRAINING TURNAROUND

44 INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

SPECIAL REPORT:

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

WELCOME Green shoots of recovery are appearing, hesitantly at first, but with increasing conviction.

The UK economy does at last seem to be coming back to life after one of the longest downturns in recent history. It still remains to be seen, however, whether this is going to be the kind of export and manufacturing led resurgence that the government wants or whether we are merely returning to the familiar British consumer and housing fuelled boomlet. Certainly, the latter scenario seems the more likely unless manufacturing here can compete more effectively with foreign competitors and this is only going to happen if we can innovate and innovate successfully. In this issue of BQ2, we examine the nature of manufacturing innovation; what it means, both in theory and practice, and we profile a number of companies in the North East which have found – and are finding – new ways of doing things, drawing from them lessons that can be applicable to other firms.

We also report on the latest of our BQ live debates, this one on the manufacturing innovation, in which leading figures from the region’s manufacturing sector, public sector and academia seek to identify opportunities.

Meanwhile, why not join us at our forthcoming BQ Executive Summit. See details on p5.

Design & production room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk Photography Chris Auld e: chris@chrisauldphotography.com Kevin Gibson e: info@kgphotography.co.uk sales Heather Spacey Senior Sales Executive e: heather@room501.co.uk Richard Binney Senior Sales Executive e: richard@room501.co.uk or call 0191 426 6300

room501 Publishing Ltd, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT www.room501.co.uk room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements.

All contents copyright © 2013 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved.

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, October 2013. room501 Publishing Ltd is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

in association with

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

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AUTUMN 13

Dialling into new opportunities, precision planning pays off, touch screen success, green champion named, event Xcels again, new boss swans in and manufacturer’s son rises to a new challenge >> Shiny new markets A Wearside dental specialist is using its partnership links with the University of Sunderland’s London Campus to further its international expansion plans.

Quick Straight Teeth, QST, which was launched in June 2012 to provide a system - developed in Sunderland - to straighten teeth.

The system uses a range of virtually invisible braces with different options available depending on the needs and lifestyle of patients.

Specialist training is needed to fit the braces and QST is embarking on a national training programme roadshow, promoting its products to dentists and orthodontists across the UK, beginning at the Stadium of Light.

And, through the university’s Graduate Internship Scheme QST will be holding its final roadshow at Sunderland’s London Campus, situated in Canary Wharf.

Mark Donnelly, business development manager at the University of Sunderland, said: “We have been working closely with Quick Straight Teeth over the last year and have built a successful relationship through positive dialogue about how the university can support a regional business through employer engagement.

“We recognise that there’s a big market out there for Quick Straight Teeth and want to support their ambitious growth plans, which will in turn be of benefit to the wider city.”

He added: “When we heard about the roadshow we offered our London Campus space to support this showcase event. ”

>> Dialling into opportunities In a £10m project the Centre for Process Innovation, CPI, is leading a consortium of major companies to create a UK supply chain to enable the widespread adoption of the latest smartphone technology.

It is a collaborative project involving businesses and the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, AMSCI, to promote low cost, near field communication, NFC, devices using printable electronics.

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>> Tapping up bathroom business A Tyneside firm is combining Scandinavian design expertise with North East manufacturing skills to introduce a new construction system to UK construction markets creating 20 jobs following a £300,000 investment.

Newcastle-based Aartoft produces lightweight concrete pre-fabricated bathrooms, which have long been widely used in the Scandinavian construction industry for projects ranging from hotels, student accommodation and nursing homes through to apartment buildings and social housing.

The Aartoft management team, led by managing director Niels Sandhal, aims to popularise this construction method in UK markets and expects its development plans to lead to the creation of at least 20 North East jobs to add to the firm’s existing 30-strong workforce, Aartoft will also be looking to target specific commercial opportunities in Scandinavia with its North East manufactured products.

Aartoft’s expansion plans are now backed by a £300,000 investment to provide working capital from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund, which is administered by regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers.

Support for the project is also being provided by Santander Bank and UK Export Finance, with advice on the investment supplied by Newcastle accountants Tait Walker.

Sandahl said: “The last three years of working in the North East have shown me what a fantastic location it is for manufacturing - we’ve been able to build a highly-skilled workforce that has now been trained to manufacture this very specialised product, and we expect to see it grow as our development plans are put into action.”

The project will build manufacturing capacity, develop manufacturing skills and demonstrate application deployment. It aims to bring together the UK’s strength in print, electronics and design to open-up a globally competitive UK supply-chain in printed NFC components.

Many smartphones are enabled with NFC, allowing the user to interact with a wide range of supported devices.

This capability is already used widely in applications such as contactless payment.

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This project will extend NFC’s use so that smartphones can interact with printed items such as labels, posters, documents and product packaging.

It will also allow retailers and manufacturers to manage their supply chains more efficiently.

The programme will develop and integrate materials, printing, electronics, design, and manufacturing technology to create a UK supply chain that can make printed NFC devices at an industrial scale for market testing.

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

A celebration of manufacturing in the North East Manufacturing bosses are being asked to help shape the future success of the sector at a major event in the region.

The BQ Chief Executive Manufacturing Summit, on Wed 4th December 2013 at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead, is part of a series of events organised by BQ taking place across the UK. It will seek to map out the future strategy of manufacturing while providing an environment in which business leaders can come together to debate and influence decisions in relation to key business issues.

The event aims to set out how businesses in the region can maintain a competitive edge and maximise their growth potential, and will cover a range of topics including infrastructure, skills, innovation and supply chain funding.

The event will also celebrate regional successes to date, marking the significant and important contribution being made by the sector to the regional economy.

It will also provide business leaders, entrepreneurs and owner managers with an open and opportunistic environment in which to do business while sharing experiences, best practice and business intelligence.

As part of these celebrations the summit will showcase the North East’s world class manufacturing capability, displaying a range of manufactured goods from across the region.

Bryan Hoare, director of Room501 Publishing, said: “The manufacturing sector has long been synonymous in the North East as a major driver of regional economic

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

growth. From the early days of shipbuilding on the Tyne and the Wear to the petrochemical and steel industries of Teesside, manufacturing has made a significant contribution to the region.

“At this critical time we must maintain the momentum and ensure that the sector is fully supported going forward to embrace opportunity and extend trading momentum. We want our manufacturing summit to not only pave the way for positive change in the sector but to also act as a celebration of manufacturing excellence demonstrating the breadth of innovation and expertise that we have available.”

The event schedule has been shaped by a panel of ambassadors representing the manufacturing sector from across the region and who are also taking part in a series of summit debates in front of the invited audience. The evening culminates in a summit dinner during which a keynote guest speaker will also address the audience.

Output from the event will be collated by BQ and published in a special Executive Summit Manufacturing Report which will be made available both regionally and nationally to the sector and its stakeholders.

The report will also contribute to a national manufacturing perspective as similar summits are held across the UK. The event is being sponsored by Newcastle College and Intraining with other sponsors including Santander, Ward

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At this critical time we must maintain the momentum and ensure that the sector is fully supported going forward to embrace opportunity and extend trading momentum.

Hadaway, Teesside University and Technip/Duco.

Robin Ghurbhurun, deputy principal of Newcastle College, said: “Newcastle College and Intraining are delighted to be principle sponsor of the BQ Manufacturing Summit. As divisions of NCG, the UK’s largest provider of education, training and skills, we work with hundreds of businesses every year to help them grow and develop their existing workforce. Manufacturing in the region has continued to be a huge area of growth and to stay at the forefront we require specialist skills, underpinned by high quality education and training. Newcastle College and Intraining are uniquely positioned to work closely with employers to address these issues and play a lead and expert role in driving forward the manufacturing productivity and skills agenda.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMIT MANUFACTURING Further information about the event can be found at www.bqmanufacturingsummit.co.uk where delegate tickets can also be purchased.

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

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AUTUMN 13

agenda requires a high level of environmental compliance and we have been meeting these standards, consistently for some time.

“We can now officially celebrate our commitments in this area and continue to present ourselves as a supplier who will work together, with our clients to reduce the impact we have on the environment both in the region and beyond.’’

>> Rising son John Garner (on left) and other advisers

>> Precision planning pays off Precision engineering business Express Engineering has secured a fresh capital injection from private equity investor LDC to accelerate its expansion. The deal backs the management team of Gateshead-based Express, led by founder and chairman Chris Thompson and managing director Nigel Davison, to grow the business and exploit the booming international oil and gas sector.

LDC has taken a minority equity stake in the business as part of the deal. A package of senior debt facilities to support the transaction was provided by Lloyds Bank. Express supplies precision machined components and products into the oil and gas market. Its global customer base includes FMC Technologies, Aker Solutions, GE (Vetco), Cameron, Schlumberger, National Oilwell Varco and Weatherford. The business employs about 300 people in Gateshead and about 75 in its subsidiary Petrotec in Sao Paulo, Brazil and also recently acquired the trade and assets of the Stokesley-based engineering business Burdon Limited.

For the financial year ending March 2013, the combined group recorded revenues of about £30m an almost three-fold increase since 2010.

Davison said “With its deep-rooted sector expertise, track record and international credentials, LDC is the perfect partner to help deliver our long term growth objectives.

“Our business has grown rapidly in recent years to become one of the leading players in the precision engineering market. The investment, alongside the operational support from LDC, will strengthen our ability to service a flourishing domestic oil and gas sector, further develop our manufacturing operations in Brazil and explore other foreign market opportunities for growth.”

>> Green champion named Print, digital and communications company Elanders beat competition from manufacturing companies across the North East to take the title of Green Manufacturer of the Year.

The judges at the Made in the North East Awards in Durham praised Elanders for innovative use of lighting, efforts to reduce air emissions and the robust waste segregation programme that has seen 97% of its total waste recycled or recovered.

A large part of Elanders’ activity involves

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

factory-based processes which could be potentially damaging to the environment.

Kevin Rogers, Managing Director of Elanders said: “We are delighted that we have won in this category. Mitigating our environmental impact is something that is very important to us, and in turn to our clients. Manufacturing in the North East is vital for the economic growth of the region, but it is equally important to ensure that we are protecting the environment.

“We work with highly respected and globally recognised clients whose own corporate

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High-tech components manufacturer Ford Aerospace and Ford Component Manufacturing has appointed a new managing director. Chris Ford, 28, son of chairman Geoff Ford and great-grandson of founder Robert Ford, moves from his current role as finance director. The two South Tyneside companies employ more than 160 people across three North East sites and export across the globe this year topping £11m of sales for the first time.

He said: “Over the past year I’ve become involved in all areas of its work and operations and this feels like a very natural progression, one that is right for me and for both companies.

“Ford is doing very well at home and abroad, so what we do won’t change but, how we do it will, to a degree.

“I believe we can progress even further by slightly modifying the way our staff work together and that more flexibility and team working is the way forward to maximise the full potential of the company as well as each and every one of our employees.”

He added: “I am extremely proud to be carrying on the family tradition, and I know my father is too. There are exciting challenges ahead and the future is extremely bright.”

Chris became group finance director with Ford in January having previously been a finance team leader with Ford Aerospace where he passed a two-and-half-year senior management accountancy qualification with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

He is currently studying an MBA at Durham University.

Geoff Ford said: “It’s very good to have a member of the fourth generation as managing director. Chris is very well qualified for his new role.

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

AUTUMN 13

>> Taxi turnaround

>> Touch screen success

are offering discounts on premiums to taxis with CCTV set-up. Chris Waterstreet, owner of C&D Taxis, said: “CCTV will provide me with evidence of what happens in my taxis.

After the initial installation costs, I will re-coup the cost in just one or two years. I won’t get bogged down with lengthy and expensive investigations when someone makes a claim and hopefully my insurance premium will stop rising each year. Gary Trotter, general manager at Hadrian Technology said: “Local councils around the UK are discussing legislation that will require all licensed vehicles to install CCTV, ensuring the safety of passengers.

“Unfortunately serious offences like assault and sexual abuse, as well as accident claims relating to taxis come up again and again. A system like ours acts as a deterrent and a way of providing hard evidence when allegations are made against the passenger or driver.”

A North East taxi company, whose insurance has doubled in the last three years, is set to save thousands of pounds by installing CCTV in its fleet, thanks to a technology firm.

C&D Taxis, which operates across Tyne and Wear, commissioned Sunderland-based Hadrian Technology to install cameras in its cars, which record both inside and outside the vehicle.

The Cygnus cameras installed by Hadrian Technology have a front facing camera to record the driver’s view of the road and a rear facing camera to record the inside, and behind the vehicle.

The CCTV cameras record images that can help protect against staged accidents and false whiplash claims, driving offences and traffic allegations. Some insurance companies

Zytronic has surged during the six months to September 2013 and now expects the results for the year to be ahead of market expectations. Profit before taxation is now expected to be about £1.9m on revenues of £17.2m, compared to pre-tax profits fall to £800,000 in its half-yearly results, which marked a decline of 64% on the previous year. The Gateshead company, which makes touch screen sensors used in equipment for cashpoints, digital signage, gaming and vending machines at its three factories in Blaydon, said the improvement was principally attributable to an improved mix of touch sensor sales resulting in better margins due to production efficiencies.

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FORD AEROSPACE LIMITED AND FORD COMPONENT MANUFACTURING LIMITED PROUD HOLDERS OF INVESTORS IN PEOPLE (GOLD) Find out more about our business, our people and our commitment to manufacturing excellence.

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Unit 1, Silverfox Way, New York Industrial Estate, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE27 0QH.

0191 454 0141 www.ford-aerospace.com

0191 428 6600 www.ford-components.com

0191 428 6600 www.ford-components.com

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SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

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AUTUMN 13

>> Event Xcels again Durham’s biggest Oktoberfest engineering and manufacturing show to date has been hailed as a ‘huge success’. Organisers say the sixth annual event, held at the Xcel Centre in Newton Aycliffe created significant business opportunities and visitor numbers were higher than ever before.

Spokesman Darren Race, managing director of e4 Learning Solutions and chairman of both South Durham Business Network and South Durham Engineering and Manufacturing Forum, said: “The number of stands was at maximum capacity, but this has not just been about size, but about quality.

“Many extremely good connections have been made between buyers and suppliers - a lot of existing business relationships have been renewed and a lot of new ones forged.

“As a celebration of all things good in the engineering and manufacturing industries in the North East I think we can say it has been a huge success.’

The introduction to the event was made by Durham County Councillor Neil Foster, cabinet portfolio holder for Regeneration and Economic Development.

“Innovation is one of the key drivers for the economy of this region and helps promote it as a great place to work, do business, visit and live. Oktoberfest is helping in that process,’’ he said.

Main speaker at the event was Pamela Petty, managing director of Aycliffe Industrial Park-based dehumidifier and watercooler manufacturer Ebac, the first female MD to speak at Durham Oktoberfest.

She said: “Amongst the exhibitors here are some wonderful examples from the region of things we can make.

“Fabrication, processing, assembly, machining, moulding, crafting – the list is endless.

“The one thing we all have in common is that we take something, change it and add value.

“The buzz words of today are innovation and export, selling our clever technology and unique designs to the emerging economies.’’

She added that she was delighted that Ebac was moving into white goods. “In 346 days we’ll have the first washing machine rolling off the track here in Newton Aycliffe and in 85 days we’ll have the first chest freezer.’’

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The day long networking and marketing opportunity was organised by County Durham’s three engineering forums: North Durham, East Durham and South Durham Engineering and Manufacturing Forum.

The event also had a dedicated area for service industries which work alongside and in partnership with engineering and manufacturing companies.

>> New boss swans in Jack Hanwell has been appointed manager of the South Tyneside Manufacturing Forum, STMF following a career with Swan Hunter and Vickers Defence Systems.

STMF, based in the One Trinity Green eco centre in Eldon Street, South Shields, numbers companies from North Tyneside, Sunderland, Northumberland, Newcastle and Gateshead in its membership.

Its aim is to provide a platform for members to share knowledge and best practice to create business growth, success and opportunities across the manufacturing industry and other areas.

Hanwell spent 23 years with the Tyne-based shipbuilder as an electrician and training officer, and two years as a training officer and project engineer with Newcastle tank maker Vickers.

He also enjoyed working for almost 20 years in oil and gas, and marine with spells as a training manager with AMEC and in subsea testing and training with Euro-Seas, the forerunner of NAREC. He had nine years with NOF Energy as training manager and membership services manager, and five years as business development and marketing manager with construction, engineering and

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manufacturing training provider Expedient Training Services.

He said: “I have joined the forum to expand on the excellent work that has gone before me. This is a very exciting time for the forum and its members.

“This includes growing and maintaining its already strong membership and increasing the number of businesses recruiting engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships throughout the borough via South Tyneside College.

“I believe passionately in manufacturing and engineering in the region, believing that it is the basis for a healthy economy and sets the region apart from many others.”

Other aims include promoting collaboration with education establishments to prepare young people for a career in manufacturing, and to establish manufacturing as an attractive and rewarding career choice.

>> Summit to look forward to Business leaders can shape the future of manufacturing in the North East at a major forthcoming manufacturing summit.

On December 4 at the Baltic in Gateshead Room 501, publishers of BQ Magazine and bqbreakfast, is launching the first in a series of Executive Summit events which will focus on manufacturing. Bringing together 100 delegates, the BQ Executive Manufacturing Summit will provide an environment for chief executives to come together to help shape the future of manufacturing in the region through debating and influencing key business issues.

Room 501 managing director Chris March said: “The BQ Executive Manufacturing Summit is just the first in a portfolio of quality, contemporary and compelling events which we have planned for the coming months.

“These events will bring together elements of the BQ brand to provide an open forum in which industry leaders and entrepreneurs can do business, while sharing their experiences, best practice and business intelligence.

“Output from the events will be used to influence national government and sector relevant organisations and so contribute to economic growth and improvement in manufacturing.’’

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COMPANY PROFILE

Would you invest £10,000 in your manufacturing & innovation to save £900,000?

Would you invest £10,000 in your manufacturing & innovation to save £900,000?

The recent BBC Panorama “Tax, Lies and Videotape” episode suggested that the new Patent Box tax relief was only for large multinational companies because smaller companies (SMEs) could not afford to patent their innovations, therefore could not afford to benefit from the new relief that was implemented in the UK in April 2013. Patent Box is a tax relief which allows a 10% rate of corporation tax for companies making profits from patented products. The relief is wide ranging, meaning any company with qualifying patents can potentially benefit, regardless of its size. Any UK or European Patent Office patents can

qualify, as well as a number of individual EU states that meet the UK’s rigorous examination criteria.

Income arising from existing patents owned by companies can qualify as well as income from new patents. Tait Walker’s clients are primarily SMEs and will typically turn over between £5m and £40m. We have recently carried out some tax cashflow modeling for one of our manufacturing clients, who turnover £15m making “white goods” which contain some patented components they retain ownership of. The models show that over the next five years alone the client will save approximately £900,000 in reduced taxes simply as a result of having patents in place.

Given that a UK patent can cost less than £10,000 to obtain, contrary to Panorama’s opinion, I would

suggest that to remain competitive SMEs should be considering whether they can afford not to obtain a patent which enables them to use this relief. If North East manufacturers aren’t using Patent Box and their UK competitors are, how long will North East manufacturers remain financially competitive?

That £10,000 investment in protecting the company’s IP might in reality be too expensive to ignore!

Alastair Wilson Tax Partner, Tait Walker LLP alastair.wilson@taitwalker.co.uk

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AUTUMN 13

>> Made for success Biotech company QuantuMDx Group supported by Newcastle Science City, has been awarded the Insider’s ‘Made in the North East’ Life Sciences Award for innovation.

Chief operating officer Dr Sam Whitehouse and research manager Dr Jonathan Salmon collected the Medical & Life Sciences Award at an awards ceremony in Durham in recognition of the impact that its handheld DNA medical device will have on global medicine.

The low cost, handheld device carries out DNA analysis on samples such as blood, saliva or even tumour tissue, to provide a rapid diagnosis of disease in less than 15 minutes and at a fraction of the cost of traditional labbased diagnostics.

The device, which is currently under development to diagnose diseases such as cancer, malaria and TB, will be capable of being deployed in both developing and developed countries and is expected to launch commercially in 2015.

The company is currently working with academic, industrial and charitable organisations across the world to introduce the device into developing countries such as Africa and the BRICS nations, as well as the NHS, and hospitals and clinics worldwide.

Dr Whitehouse said: “To see our achievements rewarded by Insider and the North East community is a testament to not only our cutting edge technology but to our dedicated team, working hard to make our vision of democratising global healthcare a reality.

“Many fellow North East businesses were astounded to learn that something so advanced could be made by a small company in the region. Through support from Newcastle Science City we have been able to develop this product to the point of taking it to market, and it is an incredibly exciting time for the business as we look to launch commercially next year.”

>> Fiona files in Fiona Standfield will become the new Director of Newcastle Science City, joining the organisation, a partnership between Newcastle University and Newcastle City Council, for a three year term.

She brings more than 20 years’ experience in

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

L to R: George Ord, managing director, and Tom Wilkinson, chairman, of IIT.

>> Chariot gets rolling Specialist fine grinding technology developed in the North East will play a key role in a new manufacturing collaboration in advanced powder production and processing.

Gateshead-based milling technology company International Innovative Technologies is part of an eight-strong consortium brought together by Procter & Gamble Technical Centres to develop new and innovative equipment and processes for the production of super fine powders.

The project has the potential to create up to 20 skilled engineering posts at IIT. The £18m three year project, named Chariot, is being supported by an £8.85m grant from the Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative and is being managed by Procter & Gamble’s Newcastle Innovation Centre.

IIT has successfully developed a patented low energy vertical milling system suitable for the fine grinding of a range of bulk materials, powders and minerals.

The company’s involvement in the Chariot project will include further in-depth analysis of the milling of powders and particles, and research into the effects of new and different grinding equipment designs on material properties and performance. In this role, IIT will work alongside the Teesside-based CPI Centre for Process Innovation.

high profile and board level roles across the public and private sectors, and is currently both acting chairman of the Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and chairman of Northern Stage.

She will now take on the lead role in delivering Newcastle Science City’s aims to advance the cause of the city and the wider region as a driving force for science excellence and industry, including the successful delivery of Science Central, the UK’s biggest development site, based in Newcastle city centre.

Standfield said: “I am delighted to be taking up this role as Newcastle Science City embarks upon an exciting new chapter in its development. I feel privileged to have this

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opportunity to lead the team, build on the success achieved to date and support the innovative partnership between the university and the council, which is working to enable Newcastle to deliver its full potential as a city of science.”

Newcastle University’s vice-chancellor Professor Chris Brink said: “Fiona’s considerable experience and leadership in various different organisations will be invaluable in driving forward the vision for Newcastle Science City, and in particular Science Central. This is an exciting time for the project, and we are delighted that Fiona has accepted the post.”

Stanfield is expected to join Newcastle Science City in early November.

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>> Big plans at Bignall

founder of the group, will only be aided by the aware, the Bignalls installation is the largest Precision engineering firm, The Bignall introduction of solar technology. single roof mounted solar system in the North Group based in Shildon, has installed a “The very nature of our business as a precision East. In terms of scale the system has the 150-kw, 620 solar panel system to support its engineering company means we are very ability to power the equivalent of 50 homes planned expansion into international markets heavy users of electricity. As such this means which gives an indication of just how big this through significant cost savings. It is believed that, unless we did something to reduce these install is.” to be the North East’s largest single roof solar costs, then inevitably we would have to factor panel installation. these into our pricing for new contracts.

The family run company, which employs 40 “What this installation demonstrates is that, as staff and has been operating for 37 years, is a business, we are committed to keeping our experiencing significant growth and believes operating costs low and as such can be very the installation of the new technology will competitive in the markets we’re entering.” only add to that through the ability to pass on Matt Hawkins, director of business reduced operating costs to clients. A supplier development at UCS Renewables which to the cryogenics, marine engineering, electric installed the system, said: “As far as we’re vehicle and chemical industries, The Bignall Group expects its staffing levels to grow to ONLINE: Get the latest North East business news delivered to your desk every beyond 50 as it pushes into countries including morning by subscribing to our daily alert, BQ Breakfast. the USA, Brazil, Australia and South Korea.Ad_w85-5 x www.bq-magazine.co.uk Cromwell Tyne-Wear_Ford Academy h120mm_Layout 1 17/10/ This expansion, according to John Bignall,

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OVERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

shifting gear Innovation is the lifeblood of successful manufacturing. Peter Jackson looks at how the North East is doing in breaking new ground MANUFACTURERS – with the possible exception of those in the offshore sector – have been severely tested by the post-Lehman economic turmoil.

There’s nothing new in that – it’s in the nature of economic downturns to put businesses through the wringer and drive the weakest to the wall. This recession was different in that it prompted a long, hard look at the very nature of the British economy. Our economic model, with its reliance on services, particularly in finance, was found wanting.

The new incoming coalition voiced these concerns and declared its aim of rebalancing the economy away from financial services and towards manufacturing – especially exports.

This is music to the ears in the North East which has a long manufacturing tradition and is one of the few UK regions with a positive balance of payments, exporting about £12bn a year of goods and services. It seems that our manufacturers are taking up that challenge.

In these pages we profile Newton Aycliffe manufacturer Ebac, which has not only added to its products range but which is going to begin manufacturing washing machines alongside other electrical consumer goods. This was a sector believed to have been abandoned

by British industry for good and it is heartening to see Ebac moving back in. The ability to think big and to take bold strategic decisions seems to be key in successful innovation. We also look at Washington pump maker Grundfos, which two or three years ago made the decision to shift emphasis towards producing more

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value added products and fully integrated solutions where it will have a greater competitive edge.

Similarly, glazing specialist Fendor, also in Washington, took the strategic decision to move into new markets when it saw only a limited future in concentrating on its traditional fire glazing business. As with Ebac and Grundfos, taking such a strategic decision paid off for the company which is now making headway in new markets.

Such examples are encouraging but while the region’s manufacturing sector may be able to think big on occasion, there’s still the danger that it is not thinking big enough.

Joanna Shields started her career in Silicon Valley and was on the management teams of both Facebook and Google. She is now chief executive of Tech City, a technology cluster in London’s East End. She recently addressed the Institute of Directors on the subject of innovation and raised questions which ought to give all UK businesses food for thought.

She pointed out that incremental innovation in tough times is all very well – it ensures that products will be better and cheaper and gives predictable returns.

“However,’’ she added, “what it doesn’t offer is a guarantee that a start-up won’t create something completely different, or even radical, that changes the business landscape forever.’’ She cited a few examples of such `creative disruption’.

At its peak Eastman/Kodak had employed 140,000 people and had

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90% market share and, as recently as 2005, had been generating US$6bn in revenue from the digital photography and services market.

But, on 19 January 2012 in Rochester, New York, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after 125 years in business.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, in San Francisco, Instagram, the photo-sharing application was celebrating its runaway success, having been downloaded 30 million times.

Within weeks, it was bought by Facebook for US$1bn, which was pretty impressive for a company that had been founded just 18 months earlier and had only 13 employees.

Shields said: “…if logic had prevailed this great company, Kodak, should have played a prominent role in the new way we are sharing our lives and experiences on social networks.

Yet 140,000 people working diligently and with the best intentions watched from the sidelines as 13 people sparked a new revolution.’’

She went on: “The new wave of creative disruption that is changing almost every industry that we know is making one thing clear: what brought you here to a position of market leadership will not be enough to secure your place in the future.

“So it is important that you ask yourselves, `Are we too focussed in incremental innovation?

Are we spending too much time refining, optimising, reducing cost to increase margins – and if so, what else might we be missing?’ ‘’ She went on to argue that information has become a commodity with everything being available at the click of a mouse. What matters now is how information is used. Shields described how 15-year-old Jack Andraka invented a new test for pancreatic cancer that costs 2p, takes five minutes to run and is 100% accurate and he did so using information from free online scientific journals.

This kind of disruption is occurring in sector after sector: music and film have been revolutionised and even raising capital can be done through peer-to-peer lending structures such as Kickstarter. What effect will 3D printing have on manufacturing?

Shields believes open platforms is the key to the future, creating value by providing tools that allow people to participate in markets that are otherwise centralised and closed. Google, for

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

example, was not the first search engine, but it took off when it opened up its search platform to let people bid for key words and Facebook opened up its network to be translated by users and then opened up its platform to developers.

In the UK GloxoSmithKline believes bionics and bio-electrical medicine will open up a whole new front in the fight against disease but instead of focussing all research internally it has created a £50m venture capital fund to invest in companies that pioneer bio-electric medicines and technology. Barclays has launched a product called Pingit, Europe’s first person-toperson service for sending and receiving money using a mobile phone. Even the government is getting in on the open platform act. In 2011 it set up the Open Data Institute offering the public access to thousands of data sets from across various departments, ranging from traffic statistics to crime figures.

So what should businesses do?

OVERVIEW

other manufacturer in the country. Sadly, in those pre-Lehman days, when manufacturing in the UK was regarded almost as a historical curiosity, engineering was not encouraged as a career. As a consequence, according to research by recruitment specialist Ranstad CPE, by 2050, we will face a shortage of 36,800 qualified engineers. A report this year by the Social Market Foundation think tank said that the government’s ambition to shift the economy away from financial services is “inconceivable’’ due to a shortage of home-grown graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths.

It calculated that industry is already 40,000 short of the number of Stem graduates it needs every year. If that isn’t depressing enough, a recent OECD report on education standards puts the dunce’s cap firmly on our head, behind almost every other advanced nation in the world. Those aged 16 to 24 in England came 22nd out of 24 for literacy and

Large organisations can start by moving away from closed models and internally focussed innovation and promote a model that ensures creativity and collaboration.

“Well,’’ said Shields, “large organisations can start by moving away from closed models and internally focussed innovation and promote a model that ensures creativity and collaboration.

“To do this you need to think of your company as an open platform for enabling your employees, your customers, your suppliers, and perhaps even your competitors, the ability to create new products and services that customers want before they even know they want them.’’

In this issue of BQ2 we profile Dyer Engineering whose ambition is to move towards such an open platform model, eventually giving customers access to its Enterprise Resource Planning system to allow them to track and monitor their own orders and projects.

However, a priority for Dyer is to recruit and train the next generation of engineers and in that they will be in competition with every

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21st for numeracy. As Elizabeth Truss, under secretary of state for education and childcare, said: that’s the price you pay when you make qualifications in cake decorating `equivalent’ to a physics GCSE. Thankfully, as we show elsewhere in these pages, some manufacturers, such as Ford, are stepping up to the plate as far as manufacturing training goes. There is much to celebrate in manufacturing’s record in innovation, particularly in the North East.

Our businesses are embracing change, making courageous decisions and marching in step with the latest thinking in this digitised knowledge economy. But, ultimately the ability to innovate will depend on an educated workforce and in this, as in so much else – and despite the heroic efforts of the Fords of this world - industry is dependent on the decisions and actions of government, which – on manufacturing – has talked the talk; can it walk the walk? n

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ON STEADY GROUND Grundfos in Sunderland is celebrating 40 years of manufacturing innovation, as Lee Carlin explains to Peter Jackson Prominently displayed in the reception of pump maker Grundfos’ Sunderland manufacturing base are the group’s corporate values – Be, Think, Innovate.

According to general manager Lee Carlin, innovation is a theme that runs right through the Danish headquartered global group.

He says: “The strapline Be, Think, Innovate was created by the founder’s son when he was chairman of the group. It stands for being responsible, thinking ahead and innovation is the essence of everything we do. Innovation flows through our business.’’

He points out that much of the equipment used in the manufacture is designed and built in-house – much of it in Sunderland.

This kind of innovation, he argues, is achieved by focusing on people in the business with extensive training.

“We offer training not only to benefit the

company but to benefit the individual as well, to take them to the next stage of what they want to do.’’

The Grundfos Group employs 17,500 people in 80 companies worldwide. It has an annual turnover of £2.6bn and produces 16 million pumps a year. This means, says Carlin, huge opportunities for the 190 staff employed in Sunderland and the 150 sales and marketing staff in Leighton Buzzard.

“The only thing that will hold you back in Grundfos is yourself,’’ he adds.

Like most modern manufacturers, Grundfos uses the Kaizen approach – the Japanese pioneered philosophy of continuous improvement – and lean manufacturing but it does have its own methods.

“Our approach is based around what we call Grundfos shopfloor excellence, GSE,’’ says Carlin. “That basically takes all the lean

manufacturing principles and puts it into a way of working around the Grundfos culture.

It’s about getting everybody involved, so that everybody who works on the line has an input into any potential issues. We do that throughout the site and throughout the group. It’s the approach that’s innovative.’’

Grundfos is one of the world’s leading pump manufacturers. It supplies pumps and pump systems for domestic, commercial building services and process industry applications, as well as being a major supplier to the water supply and treatment industries and provider of packaged fire sets.

Circulator pumps for heating and airconditioning as well as other centrifugal pumps for the industry, water supply, sewage and dosing are the main products. Today Grundfos is the world’s largest manufacturer of circulators, covering about half of the >>

We offer training not only to benefit the company but to benefit the individual as well, to take them to the next stage of what they want to do

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world market of these pumps.

In addition to pumps Grundfos produces standard and submersible motors as well as electronics for monitoring and controlling pumps.

This year it is celebrating its 40th year of manufacturing in the UK. It began operations on rented a rented site in Washington and it grew until it reached the point where it needed a dedicated Grundfos facility and moved to its present site on Ferry Boat Lane in 1980.

evolved into producing more value added type products. Instead of a single pump we now sell three or four pumps linked together for boosting applications. It’s a journey to evolve from high volume manufacture – which we still do and still will do in the future – to get a competitive edge in creating value added packages, systems and fully integrated solutions for the growing commercial market in the UK.’’ Over the next two or three years Grundfos’ strategy is to maintain the high volume

It’s about taking the concept that the customer wants, their specification and moulding it into a very commercially attractive proposition for them In 2008 the Sunderland site reached a record turnover of £103m but the following year had to shed 60 jobs as the production of an upgraded version of its cold water pump was moved to a plant in Hungary. Then it became clear that there had to be a change to the business model.

Carlin explains: “I came into the business three years ago with the brief to create a new vision for Grundfos Sunderland. We come from a heavy manufacturing base of two or three volume products and in recent years that has

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manufacture centred on a new A rated, energy efficient domestic circulator which was introduced in January. Grundfos has about 65% market share in the UK, in this market.

“We want to maintain that but also to expand into the engineer-to-order business,’’ says Carlin. “There are a number of different areas we’re looking to grow that in.’

These include fire-fighting and commercial and industrial applications.

“One of the things that makes this packaging unique in today’s market is health and safety.

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Large contractors on these big sites don’t want to have subcontractors hanging around doing lots of small fiddly work on site. They would much rather it was done in a closed environment like here, tested to a certain standard here, then shipped and then literally plug and pump when it’s installed.’’

The change of strategy inevitably involved changes for the staff.

“The key thing for me is all around the people,’’ says Carlin. “We have a high proportion of our staff who have well in excess of 20 years service in Sunderland. It’s about working with those people who have worked with Grundfos for so many years and know the values of Grundfos but also bringing new people into the business with different competencies to be able to support the new types of business.

“Getting that mix right between the established Grundfos employees and the new Grundfos employees has been a challenge but it has been a really worthwhile challenge.’’

He tries to promote from within wherever he can but the change of business model means that is not always possible.

“The reality is that if we want to excel in this new form of business there are certain competencies for which we have to go external. But it’s also good to get new people into a business and have a fresh pair of eyes because any business can get stale.’’

Grundfos employees have had to adapt to different approaches to design.

Carlin explains: “For the big packages the innovation comes in the design element. It’s about taking the concept that the customer wants, their specification and moulding it into a very commercially attractive proposition for them.’’

Conventional wisdom has it that it is the SMEs unencumbered by bureaucracy which are nimbler and better able to innovate. Does he feel handicapped by being part of a global group?

“To have the resource [of the Grundfos group] available and at your fingertips is a real benefit. We have four technology centres around the world – two in Europe, one in America and one in China. Because we are continually evolving on this site to get hold of that type of talent and that resource literally a

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phone call away is invaluable. There’s always a specialist you can get hold of somewhere in Grundfos whether it be about the smallest microchips and sensors right up to the large scale engineering.’’

Peerless, a Grundfos company in the US, has developed a speciality in the kind of engineerto-order business – particularly in firefighting - that Sunderland is seeking and the two businesses are beginning to work together.

Carlin says: “We have a slightly different business model to some other large

improvement in handling speeds, which will provide a sizeable reduction in the time spent in port. Europe’s largest logistics park will be adjacent to and integrated with the port.

Grundfos’ involvement is a single surface water pumping station. Surface water will drain into a collection chamber, the level in the chamber will be monitored by an ultrasonic level controller and the water will then be pumped out into the Thames Estuary to prevent flooding of the site.

INTERVIEW

because we sold so many of the old products the previous year and that transition period has taken its toll. But I think we are starting to see some growth potential coming through.

I think we will probably be on a par with last year. For the market conditions that’s not bad.’’

Also he feels the strategic innovation is starting to bear fruit.

He says: “We are definitely seeing more long term orders for the larger engineering solutions that we are starting to produce.’’ n

A team effort

organizations. We don’t tend to compete with each other, we often help each other out in terms of capacity, moving things around the group in a way that is most economically viable. There’s a big culture within Grundfos about sharing knowledge.’’

The change is beginning to pay off and Grundfos has worked on some major projects.

“Grundfos has some interaction with most of the large, prestige projects in the UK. There’s always a big degree of our pumping solutions,’’ says Carlin.

He reels off T5 at Heathrow, the Tower Bridge development, a development on the Tottenham Court Road, and St Thomas Hospital.

One of the biggest has been the London Gateway Project, a major deep sea container port on the north bank of the Thames.

It is designed to provide significant

The control panel is arranged for fully automatic operation and is situated in the surface water pumping station which serves the Phase One Container Yard, Petroplus site and the adjacent railway.

The control panel controls three Grundfos 355kW Peak Flow Pumps which are each capable of pumping 1800 l/s each weighing 6600kg. There is also a Low Flow Pump which is 55kW with a flow rate of 300l/s.

Last year Grundfos reported a 6% hike in pre-tax profits despite suffering a sharp loss in sales in the depressed European market and turnover was £97.2m, a drop of just £264,000, in line with the previous year.

Profits also rose from £5.3m to £5.7m.

“We’ve made steady progress this year,’’ says Carlin. “Because we had the introduction of the new product come through in January, we had a difficult time in the first half of the year

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When B&Q specified a competitor’s product in their tender documents at a new store in Brighton, Grundfos and Alpine Fire worked together to convince B&Q to accept an alternative manufacturer using their track record and relationship with the engineers at Alpine Fire.

The presentation of their quotation, together with GBW Engineering, meant the order was secured.

Without the investment made at GBW for overhead cranes, new access routes and test facility modifications, assembling the 6.5m x 4.0m x 3.2m unit and weighing 9.5 tons would have been impossible as would the loading and unloading of the Packaged Pump House.

The Package, fitted with two 4-cylinder diesel engine Firesets, both manufactured and tested in GBW, was designed to comply with legal standards alongside B&Q’s own technical specification. Together with the Firesets, a range of electrical and hydraulic controls were installed to ensure its compliance with regulations.

Once assembled, the unit was run and tested in the GBW test facility to minimise any snagging on site. Delivery was on time, 12 weeks after the order was received.

Now Grundfos is the preferred pump supplier for Alpine on all future works and several new B&Q stores are currently on the radar.

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Changing for the better SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

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County Durham manufacturer Ebac embraces change, but only change with a purpose, as Peter Jackson discovers talking to Pamela Petty Ebac as a company is wary of the term innovation, which sounds like heresy in a modern business environment.

Group managing director Pamela Petty explains: “I feel more comfortable with saying we do things differently rather than that we innovate, because I worry that the term innovate brings up the idea of technical solutions to everything and constantly trying to change things for the sake of it. We like to do things differently when it’s right for us.’’

Indeed, whether one calls it innovation or not, Ebac has a long track record of doing things differently.

Petty’s father John Elliott, who set up the company and is now chairman, introduced dehumidifiers – which were popular in the US to the UK market more than 20 years ago. The technology was the same as that used in their then core product - industrial building dryers.

Petty says: “When we first brought dehumidifiers in we couldn’t get retailers to sell them for us because at that time there was no section of their shops to put them in. There was no concept then of having a dehumidifier in your home for every day life.’’

The original dehumidifiers were larger and metal but Ebac quickly introduced `wood-look’ models. Because of the lack of take-up by retailers the company sold direct to the public through advertising in Sunday supplements.

The condensation which dehumidifiers combat is worse in winter and, as these were then Ebac’s main product, business was extremely cyclical, which caused problems. But Ebac came up with a solution.

“It seems really simple now and a lot of people do it but we introduced annual hours over 25 years ago,’’ says Petty. “The problem was our core product was dehumidifiers and that’s a very seasonal product. Back in those days 10% of dehumidifier sales would happen on one Saturday in the year and the whole year’s sales were almost dependent on when that Saturday happened, which was dictated by the weather.’’

If the weather worsened too early people did not have £300 for a dehumidifier and, if too

late, their money was earmarked for Christmas.

The result was that sales could fluctuate widely from one year to the next.

“The problem was that we needed a lot of people to work for a short period of the year.

Then we had a reputation as a hire and firer.

Then there weren’t as many people out of work as there are now and there were a lot more manufacturing opportunities for people and people chose not to work at Ebac,’’ says Petty.

“We tried to build up stock in the summer but we built the wrong ones and people wanted a different colour so they had to be reworked. So we decided to look at keeping the workforce all year but who wants two days pay in the summer and six days pay in the winter?

You can’t manage your bills like that. So we introduced annual hours whereby we pay everybody the same pay every week irrespective of the hours that they work, we averaged it out to pay everyone 1/52nd of their salary every week irrespective of hours. That was pretty innovative at the time we did it.’’

It had a twofold benefit: it gave the workforce a dependable regular wage and meant Ebac did not have to worry about cranking up production to satisfy extra demand. This was important in the face of growing competition from foreign imports, as Ebac could then react to such sudden fluctuations in demand where a foreign manufacturer could not.

“Once you’ve turned on the tap with a Chinese supplier, it’s hard to turn it off,’’ says Petty.

Since then Ebac has widened its product range, including office water coolers – an area which has been subject to an Ebac technical innovation. Point of use, POU, water coolers where the water comes from the main as opposed to ready filled bottles, now account for almost 50% of the overall market, compared with just under 12% in 2002.

They are popular because they provide endless amounts of chilled water without the need for deliveries, or changing of bottles. However, with most POU coolers, the water is filtered – to make it taste better by removing chlorine - as it

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is fed into the machine and, with less well-used coolers, it could be hours or days, before the water is consumed, meaning that, without the chlorine, small levels of bacteria are able to build up in the water. In bottled units the water is sanitised during the bottling procedure.

It struck Ebac’s designers that if the water was filtered at the point of dispensing, with the chlorine left in the water until the last possible moment, as it is in the mains supply, before it is put through a carbon filter system, the system would be more hygienic.

Because the chlorine remains in the water, instead of requiring regular sanitisation, the coolers simply require a change of filter kit and the process can often be done by the user, rather than needing an installer call-out. This removes any potential element of human error from the sanitisation process. Additionally, no chemicals are required, reducing the carbon footprint of companies.

“Aquasafe turned it on its head and we said, why not leave the chlorine in the water until we dispense it and then we don’t have the problem of having to sanitise the cooler any more. Now, it’s an extension to your mains pipe,’’ says Petty.

This is the principle behind the Ebac Aquasafe system, which was launched in its Fleet coolers last year. The company reckons the system reduces the chance of microbiological contamination by 98%.

Ebac has also invested £500,000 in adding air source heat pumps to its range of products, know-how gained in the manufacture of air coolers and dehumidifiers. Air source heat pumps allow home owners to provide heat form a renewable source.

With the market expected to grow through the advent of Government backed green incentives, the company sees the potential for air source heat pumps to become a significant business stream.

The company has developed, and received approval certification on 5kw and 9kw heat pumps. Production is anticipated to reach up to 3,000 units per year within two years.

Petty says: “Air source heat pumps using one kilowatt of energy can create heat output of between two and seven kilowatts. They are much cheaper to run than electric and, as gas prices increase and the same happens with oil, air source heat pumps become an >>

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increasingly viable option.

“We have developed a good, strong product and are very excited about the potential for air source heat pumps to become a large part of the Ebac portfolio of products.’’

She adds: “The increased viability of air source heat pumps could become even more enhanced with the eventual implementation of the Government’s Renewable Heating Incentive, as with the products’ inclusion on the Green Deal approved list. Therefore, we believe now is an excellent time to take this first step into the market.”

Last autumn 2012, it was announced that Ebac would start to manufacture washing machines, creating more than 200 jobs.

It is to develop the new products in a £7m venture, made possible by £1m from the Regional Growth Fund. The first washing machines are expected off the production line in spring 2014.

Ebac has also agreed a deal which will preserve the brands and products of UK manufacturer Icetech Freezers in a multi-million pound acquisition and investment deal, after the company fell victim to the collapse of Comet.

The deal, for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, will see production of the firm’s Norfrost domestic chest freezer range moved to Ebac’s Newton Aycliffe base, with up to 100 jobs expected to be created in the long term.

The Norfrost name and the company’s equipment, designs and copyright agreements have been acquired after production closed at the firm’s factory in Castletown, Caithness, Scotland, at the end of 2012.

The first washing machines are expected off the production line in Spring 2014 with the aim of building up to match the previous output of 80,000 Norfrost chest freezers a year.

Ebac is also to begin production of hot taps next January and add some £2m to its annual turnover and its growing range of domestic products.

The company, estimates the total annual UK market to be about 50,000 units a year and it hopes to capture a segment of that worth about £2m annually, creating a handful of new jobs. The taps feature in top of the range fitted kitchens to provide instant hot water to make hot drinks and cost between £300 and £1,000.

Ebac will make them using the technology from

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the hot water tanks in its range of water coolers.

“We have commissioned the tooling for the plastic parts and now it’s a matter of finalising the tap design,’’ says Petty.

The company has not only been introducing new products but has also been innovating its existing range, particularly the dehumidifiers.

The latest model, for example, includes a laundry function, which will dry clothes in the same room over a period of a few hours for about a third of the cost - Ebac estimates - of using a tumble dryer.

The company has also upgraded the filter system and the water container area, providing an injection moulded bucket.

“It’s not going to collect the water any faster, it’s roughly the same size but the experience of taking that bucket out of the recess will be better, your real interface with your dehumidifier is emptying the water out,’’ says Petty. These innovations are not made on a whim. Ebac goes through a process of

face value.

She says: “You have often got to test their actions and test it with the question: what would you pay for it? If it’s going to cost you £50 extra to have that feature on it, is it worth it? You can survey that a bit but then you have to get down to conversations and watch their reactions when you talk about certain things because people tell you an awful lot alongside the words they actually speak.

“Everyone commonly tells us that washing machines are too complicated nowadays and that they only ever use two programmes so I test them and ask them if there were two washing machines in the shop, both exactly the same, apart from one having a very sophisticated set of controls with 20 wash programmes and the other has two and they are the same price – which one would you buy?

They’d buy the one they have just told me is the one that’s the problem. But then, if you ask, if it was £50 more expensive? No, then perhaps they wouldn’t buy it. It’s a process getting a feel

To me the best use of innovation is when you understand how much a customer will value something and whether they have a need for something or a problem you can solve and then use innovation to fix that. I think that’s a better way to do it consultation with its customers via its customer base – people who have registered with Ebac, having bought directly from the company or registered a warranty, and who receive news letters and other communications.

“Our customer base are great, they love to talk about deumidifiers,’’ says Petty. “I have also used them to research washing machines.

We sent a survey out to just under 20,000 people, as of last night, something like 8,000 had actually clicked onto that email and 3,000 of them had answered the survey, which is phenomenal. They just like to help. I think the right people to drive innovation are your customers.’’

However, she does not believe that the feedback should necessarily be taken at

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for things and then testing it to find what they really mean by it and what value they would put on it.’’

Ebac will go through this consultation process rather than just leave it to designers to propose an innovation.

“If we left innovation to the design office we’d probably be out of business quite quickly because designers and engineers always seek perfection and don’t always look at the commercial value of that perfection,’’ says Petty.

“To me the best use of innovation is when you understand how much a customer will value something and whether they have a need for something or a problem you can solve and then use innovation to fix that. I think that’s a better way to do it.’’ n

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COMPANY PROFILE

Manufacturing success in Sunderland Manufacturing businesses from micros to multinationals are thriving in Sunderland, a city with a proud heritage of making things well.

Sunderland’s manufacturing strength underpins the North East’s success in opening up overseas markets, making it one of the UK’s fastest-growing exporting regions.

The sustainability of the big names based in Sunderland – such as Nissan, Rolls-Royce, Lear Corporation and Liebherr – is matched by a host of smaller, innovative local companies setting up and growing strongly across its many business locations.

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING Some of the most advanced manufacturing techniques are creating world-class products at Sunderland-based companies. Rolls-Royce, for example, is now producing aero engine parts for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A380 and the Eurofighter Typhoon at its factory in Washington.

Wessngton Cryogenics, a world-leading Sunderland-based manufacturing company which designs and manufactures specialist gas storage tanks, is growing fast.

Gill Southern, Wessington Cryogenics director said: “What we make at Wessington is unique worldwide.

It involves some brilliant engineering, and it’s all designed and built by local people. In the last year or so we’ve pioneered new products that now set the standard for one of our global customers, and which have opened new markets for the company.”

Nissan’s Sunderland plant began construction of the Infiniti production line in October. It is the first step in a £250m investment at the plant which will see the new Infinit Q30 built at the Sunderland plant from 2015. The move into luxury car production could open a lucrative market for an Infiniti-related automotive supply chain cluster at Sunderland.

It has been another outstanding year for automotive manufacturing in Sunderland. In March 2013 Nissan Sunderland started production of the LEAF, and six months later, production started of the new Note. The plant set a UK record in 2012 by producing half a million cars.

Because making stuff well is something to be proud of...

Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, John Martin, said: “We’re going to break that record and we’ll be north of 520,000 units. That shows that with a very competitive offering, built at a good cost-base and using very capable labour - which we have here in Sunderland - you can build a car at the right price, at the right quality, for European and global consumers.”

START-UP SUCCESSES Smaller UK-based manufacturing companies which have chosen Sunderland as a base have blossomed, such as Interplas Coatings, which grew from one to 30 employees during its first year in Sunderland; Export Tooling and Automation, expanding from one to 26 skilled employees in one year, and Fastglass, which opened in February 2013, and has recruited seven staff and reached its first-year targets in its first few months of business.

Councillor Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “Sunderland has a long and proud manufacturing history, from our shipbuilding

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heritage to the arrival of Nissan in the 1980s and the strong supply chain that has grown up to service the car maker.

“We’re well-known for our skilled workforce, enterprising companies and can-do attitude, and we’re delighted a new generation of manufacturers is choosing Sunderland to start their businesses. International investors and SME manufacturers are benefiting from both the business support that is available locally and the central location that puts it directly in touch with its customer network.”

For more information email: info@makeitsunderland.com or telephone 0191 305 1194 www.makeitsunderland.com

SPECIAL REPORT | AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 13

Driving opportunities through new innovations The University of Sunderland’s Institute for Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice (AMAP) plays a key role in helping businesses regionally, nationally and globally innovate. And, as advanced manufacturing practices continue to emerge, its vital work with industry looks set to become increasingly diverse in coming years.

Innovation in manufacturing can take many forms, from groundbreaking product development to minor tweaks in processes or new applications for existing technologies.

For many businesses, however, to be truly innovative there is an acute need to seek external help, whether that’s through knowledge and expertise or access to technology and other required commodities.

Providing such a service with some distinction in the North East is AMAP – part of the Faculty of Applied Sciences within the University of Sunderland.

The organisation evolved from two previous university groups with complementary skills and knowledge across the automotive and manufacturing sectors.

And today it plays a vital role in helping manufacturers tap into a broad range of expertise, which includes industrial applications and digital engineering technologies.

“Most innovation is not about invention,” says Professor John MacIntyre, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Sunderland. “It’s about adopting existing technologies in innovative ways to meet a specified market gap.

“Customer value is what manufacturing is all about – how to create products which customers want to buy, and make them in the most cost effective and efficient way, and we will support the innovation process wherever we can.”

The University’s work with industry through AMAP is far reaching, covering an array of sectors and delivering significant results. While its roots are entrenched in automotive, it is now harnessed by businesses to support a diverse mix of other industries.

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AMAP’s Andy Cook scanning the engine cover for the Fuel Cell Powered Bus.

Customer value is what manufacturing is all about – how to create products which customers want to buy, and make them in the most cost effective and efficient way Take, for example, Roman Showers, the County Durham-based globally successful manufacturer of shower enclosures and bath accessories.

It operates at the whim of fast-moving fashions, meaning it needs infrastructure which enables it to respond quickly.

Through AMAP the company was able to adopt 3D design and visualisation technology that

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ultimately compressed its product design cycles by an average 50%.

In turn, being able to respond quickly enabled its bespoke service to grow into a division of the business in its own right.

The AMAP team provided Roman with impartial assistance in setting out its benchmarking criteria, helping to identify bottlenecks in processes and delivering transferable skills knowledge to its staff around digital engineering.

Similarly positive results were felt by North East-based cryogenic vessel maker Wessington Cryogenics.

AMAP’s assistance cut the firm’s design time for pressure vessels by 90% and opened it up to new areas of product design, boosting its global trade in the process.

On the back of the university’s intervention, the company also designed the first tank that could be lifted by helicopter to wells in northern Canada.

With international mechanical product design firm FS Design, training and assistance provided

by AMAP and the university allowed the business to design a new software application which increased its capacity and enabled it to gain additional customers.

Safety products giant Dräger Safety worked with AMAP to take advantage of digital engineering technologies that improved quality, lead times, reduced costs and encouraged innovation.

Design and engineering issues can now be detected early in Dräger’s development cycle where the cost of change is low rather than at prototype build and test.

Despite AMAP’s diversification in recent years, the automotive industry remains a major beneficiary of its work.

Most notably, The Nissan plant in Sunderland

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COMPANY PROFILE

AMAP’s Dirk Kok and his team working on the EV Micra.

AMAP has for many years been recognised on the international stage in terms of automotive and manufacturing innovation worked closely with the University and collaborated with AMAP to develop a powerful study tool to find and fix problems earlier, saving overheads and time. Meanwhile, car parts maker Unipres – which operates in Nissan’s supply chain called on AMAP’s support during the development of Nissan’s digital process activity.

This co-operation allowed Unipres to develop sophisticated systems to manage and communicate CAD based product data.

Improving the range of electrical vehicles has been a major part of AMAP’s work with industry in recent years. And, as operations manager Adrian Morris explains, there are a number of exciting ongoing projects currently in that field that are now coming to fruition.

“With an industrial partner called Innova Power Ltd we developed an on-board hydrogen system / battery charger which takes the energy drain, formed by heating, lighting, windscreen wipers and that type of function, away from the traction battery. This in theory could increase the battery’s range by about 20%.

“Another project we did looked at the effect of using gear boxes in electric vehicles. And again that 13 to 20% improvement in range was expected. That is now being experimented on by a couple of our industrial partners.”

“We have also developed a new control strategy.

One of the big losses in energy in vehicles is due to heat build up in the electrical system and

we’ve managed to smooth it out very nicely. That’s still in the experimental stage but it’s a very exciting development.”

Aside from its work in the UK, AMAP has also gained a global reputation. Professor MacIntyre says: “AMAP has for many years been recognised on the international stage in terms of automotive and manufacturing innovation. For example, we ran a programme called the Global Automotive Technology Exchange, funded by the UK Government, to support UK companies in both showcasing their innovative technologies around the world, and also in helping them to become aware of, and source, innovations which could help their businesses from global suppliers.

“We developed projects in Tennessee and Japan, and we now work with collaborators in China, South East Asia and across Europe. As an example, we have an excellent collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, one of the world’s leading research and development facilities.”

A key factor in the growth of AMAP’s global reputation is the calibre of people driving the organisation and their close links to industry.

Associate Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Rob Trimble, previously worked for Rolls Royce, while Professor Ahmed El Marakbi is an internationally renowned research scientist and academic working on electric and low carbon vehicle technologies.

Fellow senior team member, Professor Alan

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Wheatley, represented the UK on the USA Department of Energy’s FreedomCar initiative, looking at lightweight vehicles through the use of innovative materials. Dr David Baglee is an expert in intelligent asset management and advanced maintenance, and has led projects working with companies in automotive, food and drink, and general manufacturing sectors.

Driven by experts with experience of working with, and in, industry, AMAP effectively covers three activities: • Innovation in design – through digital engineering and computer aided design, as well as reverse engineering.

• Innovation in product development – based around product lifecycle management and design for manufacture.

• Innovation in process improvement – using its expertise in productivity improvements, lean methodologies, and adoption of new technologies to improve the manufacturing process.

Looking to the future, MacIntyre believes advanced manufacturing will play an increasingly prominent role in driving the economic recovery of the North East.

He says: “We hope we will be able to support the development of this key industrial sector for the region and we have plans to develop both our R&D programme and to work with manufacturers across the region – in any sector, not just automotive – to support their growth plans.

“One specific area of need is supply chain development, where we have issues in the North East both in terms of capacity and capability in supplying to the highest quality and cost requirements for advanced manufacturing companies. We need to help OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] with their supply chains, and suppliers to develop both their capacity and capability to meet the needs of their clients, in a fiercely competitive global market.”

Adrian Morris, Operations Manager 0191 515 3888 andrian.morris@sunderland.ac.uk

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Taking part Sue Houston, assistant director, BIS Yorkshire, Humber and the North East Graeme Parkins, managing director, Dyer Engineering Geoff Ford, CEO, Ford Aerospace Kenny Dalgarno, Sir James Woodeson professor of manufacturing and engineering, Newcastle University Tony Trapp, managing director, OSBIT Power Craig Iley, regional director, Santander Corporate Banking Stephen Carmichael, relationship director, Santander Corporate Banking Lynn Tomkins, chair, Skills 4 UK Dr Colin Herron, managing director, Zero Carbon Futures Colin Hewitt, head of commercial, Ward Hadaway Elizabeth Shaw, innovation manager, NE BIC Andy Tuscher, regional director, EEF Pamela Petty, director, Ebac Mike Smith, partner, Tait Walker James Ritchie, CEO, Tekmar Energy Mark Cambridge, CEO, Zytronic In the chair: Brian Nicholls, editor, BQ Magazine Also present: Andrew Mernin Venue: Jesmond Dene House Hotel

in association with

BREAKING NEW GROUND

The issue: How can manufacturers in the region continue to innovate to enable them to go from good to great on the domestic and world stage, and what do we need to do to support them?

Innovation in manufacturing doesn’t necessarily mean developing a transformative piece of technology. It can be a clever rethink on an existing model – like the decision to bring washing machine manufacturing back to the UK taken by North East firm Ebac.

Or engineering and manufacturing group Ford’s recently opened Tyneside training facility which will help fight back against the skills gap.

These and other equally innovative North East firms gathered at Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle, along with industry influencers and financiers to discuss the challenges and opportunities for businesses in their battle to break new ground.

While there was a recognition that the North East has much to shout about and is doing many things right in leading the way in emerging manufacturing markets, many problems and pitfalls were outlined.

Solutions were sought, too, including the suggestions that manufacturers lower their defences, collaborate more and take heed from other more personable sectors like retail.

Here’s how the evening unfolded:

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The debate With one of BQ’s biggest debate gatherings around the table – perhaps indicating the eagerness of manufacturers to drive growth through innovation – the customary introductions soon gave way to heated and insightful jousting. After many positives and challenges in an increasingly competitive global market were outlined, the foundations for the debate were laid – how exactly do we define innovation? Elizabeth Shaw had the answer: “It can be a process, a change of a process as well as a service or a product. Or even an existing product in a new market”.

Kenny Dalgarno, whose main research area during his academic career has been in innovative manufacturing processes, said: “The classical definition of innovation is that you have a need, a solution and finance and any new combination of those three things is innovation. But people are sometimes too scared to call themselves innovators.”

One of the other sticking points with innovation, said Elizabeth Shaw, is that it doesn’t always create jobs – and in fact can create efficiencies, causing job losses.

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BQ is highly regarded as a leading independent commentator on business issues, many of which have a bearing on the current and future success of the region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

Kenny Dalgarno:“But there’s a bigger picture that it creates different jobs.”

So what does the climate for innovation in the region look like currently for manufacturers?

Colin Hewitt, an influential dealmaker who insists intellectual property (IP) departments are seeing plenty of evidence of innovation in the North East currently, said: “There are great opportunities and there is undoubtedly an upsurge in interest in engineering. There’s also a move from bedroom software start-ups to hard-tech science businesses. People are also much smarter now in terms of their knowledge and understanding of IP and how to protect it.

The region is a much more sophisticated base than it used to be in terms of IP knowledge and understanding.”

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Brian Nicholls asked where this smartness comes from.

Colin Hewitt: “It would be fair to say that most of the hard-tech businesses have people with degree backgrounds in the main.”

Lynn Tomkins, whose organisation is a specialist provider of gender-diversity initiatives, said: “The stats might not support that. I think there are 460 aerospace chief execs in the defence and its related sectors and more than half started life as an apprentice. And more and more, that’s becoming the case. People want to grow their own talent.”

After conceding that apprenticeship levels have undoubtedly surged within innovative organisations, Colin Hewitt added: “What I’m saying is that there is a significantly increased level of graduates involved in those new start businesses.”

But have rising university fees clogged up the source of the next generation of innovators?

Kenny Dalgarno: “Engineering schools are doing very well in terms of applications at the moment because it’s a very attractive recession subject. But there was a time 10 years ago when we had the 50% higher education target, which was a mistake – not because it wasn’t a good thing to go to university – but because it was presented as though everything else wasn’t as good. And that was a terrible mistake. There needs to be opportunities to come in and out of education at different stages in people’s careers.”

Graeme Parkins: “In the last 18 months we’ve recruited graduates and apprentices, but they are all on different journeys. If an apprentice joining us at 16 wants to continue their journey in our business and has the ability, we’re more than happy to sponsor them because it will buy their loyalty.”

Brian Nicholls: From what we are saying here, are we getting to a position of say Austria or Germany where a doctor of engineering is respected as much as a doctor of medicine?

Colin Heron, a doctor of engineering himself, said: “No. We’ve lost the word engineer. It’s completely lost and you can’t get it back.

When British Gas advertise that an engineer will be round to fix your boiler, or notices on toilets say ‘out of order, engineer called’, or photocopiers being fixed by ‘engineers’, the word is lost in this country.”

Geoff Ford: “A straw poll of the public last year asked ‘who do you see as a typical engineer?’ and it came back as an actor in Coronation Street who plays a mechanic.

If that’s the image then boy have we got a problem getting young people to come into engineering.”

Graeme Parkins: “There are still plenty of people wanting to go to university to become engineers so it’s not completely lost.”

Sue Houston: “We are starting to turn things around by helping careers teachers, youngsters and parents understand what the opportunities are. So there is still an opportunity to change it but it’s going to take time. The economic climate, the fees and other things going on in education will lead us to move back to our better understanding of engineering.”

At this point academic and serial entrepreneur Tony Trapp, whose previous successes and current enterprise have been built on truly innovative practices, entered the debate.

“My businesses have all been from a university base and all have a university, common room feel about them still. And we’ve always looked for talented engineers from universities. If you get clever graduates and put them in the right environment they can do wonderful things.

The tragedy is most people never get in an

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environment where they can do wonderful things. Part of what we do is to create a community working for itself and building for itself. I’m convinced that’s the solution.

And in the North East, if you get innovative engineering companies, everything else flows around it and grows out of it.”

Brian Nicholls: And are your bright young people all from this region or do you have to look nationwide?

Tony Trapp: “We have a lot from the region [but] it is a fact that Edinburgh University attracts bright students so we always target them. We are retaining talent here and attracting it.”

Stephen Carmichael: “So how do you create the right environment to help graduates grow and innovate?”

Tony Trapp: “We try to not be bureaucratic and everyone is called an engineer instead of having 20 different titles for engineers. We’ve got a Victorian villa in Riding Mill and it’s just a friendly and relaxed environment. Most people flourish in it – maybe one in 50 will sink. ” Thriving graduates are one thing but quality management may be in short supply.

Tony Trapp: “We still have a problem attracting top management up here, if you look at the boards of the big companies >>

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and how many actually live here. We still have a problem persuading people this is a place they’d like to live.”

Leaving staffing issues aside, Stephen Carmichael, who works on the coalface with innovative firms as a relationship director for Santander, was then asked how he responds to businesses with new ideas looking for backing.

He said: “Most bank products are more or less the same so it tends to be about relationships and we have to try to be doing it differently.

We often say to clients ‘have you ever taken a step back and looked at your cash cycle, your processes, the way you do business, your supply chain and your customers?’ and it can be quite startling what can come out.”

James Ritchie, who heads up a particularly forward-thinking design, engineering and manufacturing business in the subsea sector, then explained how often innovation requires a new take on an existing product base.

His firm is currently applying technology it developed for the offshore wind sector back into oil and gas. And, just like Tony Trapp’s business, people are the key element for its successful innovation.

“We’ve got to be innovative in the way we recruit and retain people because we cannot pay the fees that the Aberdeen oil and gas market pays. We just can’t compete with that market. So we have to look at ways of incentivising people by having a good working environment.”

Returning to the notion that innovative firms needn’t be technology-driven, Andy Tuscher – a relative newcomer to his role of EEF regional director - said: “We have lots of metal bashers in the region but metal bashers can be innovative. What I’m finding with a lot of them is that they aren’t just metal bashers but they are solution providers. And that’s where the real innovation is. Those that are doing well are the ones that aren’t selling a widget, but a solution. It’s incredible the solutions engineers are coming up with. What I am also finding is the connectivity that technology is providing, is helping innovation. One company will be providing one solution and another business something else and when they connect all of a sudden that then solves another issue. That’s what we need to do more of, but sometimes businesses lose sight of it.”

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There’s nothing to let young people know what the opportunity is for a career in manufacturing and engineering

As well as connectivity, the balance of the teams driving innovation can play an important role, said Lynn Tomkins.

“We work for companies taking an innovative approach to their skills development, particularly those looking to have a culture of a diverse gender balance. It’s an official fact that mixed gender teams out perform single sex teams because they approach a problem in a different way. Great minds do not think alike, they think very differently and there are lots of leading companies that are broaching that in a really positive way. Having the right culture leads to innovation and an equal culture very much leads to innovation. Women make up approximately 50% of the workforce but they are less than 20% of the engineering and manufacturing sector and even a smaller percentage in the North East.

So if we can’t attract from the whole of the

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talent pool then you’re fishing in a much smaller skills environment.” She added that more positive female role models in engineering and manufacturing would help to boost female involvement in the sector.

Tony Trapp mentioned here that he has seen a notable rise in quality female graduates when recruiting for his business.

From personal experience, Graeme Parkins believes much more needs to be done, however. He said: “My daughter has just started an engineering degree course in Sunderland and there are two females and about 120 boys.”

Stephen Carmichael: “There’s nothing to let young people know what the opportunity is for a career in manufacturing and engineering unless they go to a university open day. But I remember when I was at high school, loads of firms would come in to promote themselves

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and by the time I left school I had a choice of different careers. But one of the problems in this region is that companies are not allowed to actually present, recruit and promote their business and sector in high schools.”

Sue Houston: “There is actually a lot going on. SEMTA [the engineering skills body] recently organised events with careers teachers from across the region. And some of them were working with engineering businesses.

But also EEF is doing a lot of work. However, at the SEMTA event a number of barriers were identified by the careers teachers and those results will be pushed back to BIS [Department of Business, Innovation and Skills] to get more schools and businesses working together. We are trying to encourage the DfE [Department for Education] to take a different approach so that those opportunities are recognised and identified early.”

Kenny Dalgarno: “The universities are working with schools on this and we are continually looking for more businesses to work with. So there is a route available.”

Sue Houston: “There’s also still a perception issue that’s it’s better to be doctors and nurses than engineers.”

As an employer with a gender-balanced workforce, Colin Herron gave his views on the issue: “I have three men and eight women in my team. With four of those women, every morning I don’t know exactly when they will turn in because they are also being mothers bringing up kids and being engineers at the same time. In certain industries with production lines they won’t accept that. I’m flexible and I’ve learned to live with it – but some people won’t.”

The conversation moved to the question of the expense of being innovative. Sitting at the helm of touch technology maker Zytronic, Mark Cambridge was well positioned to comment here.

“It is expensive [to remain innovative] in one sense. Part of our problem is getting the right calibre of engineers into the business. We moved from being a processing company to an electronics company. As a consequence, finding engineers to come into the business when we need them is very difficult in the North East. We’ve employed people from different parts of the country and we’ve found,

unless they’ve got a definitive need to be in the North East, trying to keep those people here is particularly difficult. There’s definitely a move towards people going into engineering, but the reason we can’t get the right people now is because if you go back ten years the educational establishments were not pushing engineering. They were quite happy to bring people in to fund it from abroad.”

Colin Herron: “Immediately post Thatcher, why would you go into manufacturing and engineering? That was the statement then.

It was closing, it was history. It wasn’t the universities it was the political agenda at the time.”

Kenny Dalgarno: “Ten years ago the universities couldn’t make a demand out of nothing. We weren’t getting the applications.

It was a different landscape then.”

Mark Cambridge: “The education system is a business in its own right but ultimately as a consequence, those people who came from abroad didn’t want to stay in the North East of England. So they got the education and left.”

Kenny Dalgarno: “That’s not how university finance works in fact. The local market and the international market are two different things so people coming in from the outside don’t displace or take seats away. Had we had an

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awful lot of demand in the national market it would have been met. It wasn’t there.”

Tony Trapp: “Only in the last six to eight years has engineering been an attractive career to follow. Before that it’s been low paid, low status and the bright graduates coming out of universities annoyingly all went into finance.”

Graeme Parkins: “You had that generation when engineering shut down but that probably jumped on a couple of generations with parents saying ‘you don’t want to do that son, that made me redundant’. Now that it’s starting to change and people are coming back to engineering, it’s definitely a very attractive option now.”

Craig Iley: “Opportunity is one thing but I’m sure if I did a straw poll around the table nobody would disagree that this is a fantastic place to live and work. We have a fantastic quality of life but do we do enough to promote that in an innovative fashion to highlight the benefits of living here?”

Drawing a line under the link between successful innovation and skills, Brian Nicholls asked delegates to come up with a tangible way of boosting innovation and maximising its positive impact among manufacturers.

Mark Cambridge: “I think we’re getting hung up on invention coupled with >>

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We need to give staff the autonomy to be able to innovate themselves and understand the applications on which they’re working engineering and we should really be focusing on innovation, which is multi-faceted in a business. It’s not just process innovation or product innovation, its market development, social media to generate business, all of these things are coming together. Innovation is about bringing other facets together, like bringing in language graduates to support exports, for example.”

Lynn Tomkins suggested: “The North East is a great place to innovate and to live and work and we need to get better at getting those three points across.”

Andy Tuscher: “It’s about providing solutions instead of making widgets. And you do that by engaging with the knowledge base.”

James Ritchie: “We need to give staff the autonomy to be able to innovate themselves and understand the applications on which they’re working.”

Stephen Carmichael: “I think to innovate

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more we need to create some type of forum where businesses can tap into that knowledge base and check their own business with others in similar fields. So they could tap into the knowledge of businesses that have been through it.”

Tony Trapp: “You have to spot a need which has the potential to have money driving it and have a creative team able to deliver the need.”

Colin Hewitt: “I think you need to get into the schools and raise aspirations and confidence in the sector. And also we need to raise the aspirations of management.”

Elizabeth Shaw: “For me it’s about the approach to funding and having transparent funding programmes out there that don’t duplicate each other and reduce the complexity for SMEs in accessing the money, but which also have SMEs at heart.”

Geoff Ford: “I think we have to avoid a onesolution-fits-all mentality. We all face different

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problems. As a region we’re of no interest to any political party, with no marginal seats, so we need to do our own thing. But the key word is ‘do’.”

Sue Houston: “We need to change perceptions so we can get children to be creative and understand what the opportunities are to them and part of that is about changing policy to enable those opportunities to be recognised.”

Graeme Parkins: “I consider myself to have a good company but to be a great company I have to confront the accepted norm, look for different ways of delivering the service we offer so that I do it quicker, faster and meet the demands of the ever increasing speeding up world.”

Pamela Petty: “Innovation isn’t just about engineering or invention. I would personally like to see as much effort on import displacement as there is on exporting because I think there are so many opportunities out there for manufacturers to apply to – like all the boring stuff we use everyday.”

Mike Smith: “I’d like to see a central point where we are getting the innovation agenda on the map in the North East.”

Kenny Dalgarno: “One point is that an awful lot of innovation is knowledge and you need to think of knowledge in your supply chain. So you need to know who outside your organisation you work with in terms of building knowledge. You need to have a view of who your knowledge partners are. The other observation I would make, is that there is something coming along called Horizon 2020 which has 70 billion Euros in it and a huge emphasis on SME engagement. If you want to have a look at what, over the next seven years, is going to provide a huge opportunity for manufacturers, then that is the place to go.”

Colin Herron: “I’ve listened to quite a lot about what we do in the region but I spend a lot of my time outside the region. People say we’re a great place to work and we need to be on the map etc etc. However, the RDA [regional development agency] is dead, we accept that. But there is absolutely no-one shouting for the region. If you phoned the North East who would answer the phone?

The answer is nobody. Who greets you at the airport? Nobody. So I think we have a problem

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that promoting the region just doesn’t happen anymore. We used to have ‘Passionate People’ posters [as placed by One North East] and now there’s nothing.

“With Horizon 2020, we need to be aware that each region is going to say what it’s going to be good at. What is its subject? The subjects then go to Europe and if you apply for grants and what you do is not on that list, you don’t get the money. If you’re not in low carbon, energy storage or tick other boxes, you will get absolutely no support. I think we need to wake up in the region to what Europe and the world is determining as the order. We can either plough on successfully as individual companies or we have to work together as a group. In the Far East they don’t care where North Tyneside is, they think the Nissan plant is in Newcastle.

They work with a region and a country and they want the package. At the moment we’ve completely lost that. If we want to compete against the major markets in the world, we have to work out how.”

Tony Trapp: “But the money is in the customer’s pocket, it isn’t determined by government or quangos. We want good companies who get money out of customer’s pockets.”

Colin Herron: “I accept that but when you

talk to big players, they want to know what the package is, where are the golf courses?

Where can they buy fresh fish? What are the universities like? ... And so on, and we can’t answer them anymore. That will bite us.”

Craig Iley: “I think we do compete and I see great businesses every day. But I do think it’s a shame we don’t have a single unified voice even at a national level, never mind a European one. There are still too many people that view the North East as the problem but actually we are the solution and we’re the only region with a net balance of exports.

“We also allow other people to drive the agenda. For example, they talk about manufacturing shrinking, but it’s not, it’s just not grown as fast as the service sector.

We’ve got a great product here and a great proposition and for me it’s about positioning on the UK and European stage.”

As the debate drew to a close, many other issues were raised to ponder into the night – like how Scottish independence might impact on this region’s innovation-driven success and what part the splitting of the North East in to two LEP-represented zones has played.

But a defiant Colin Hewitt interjected: “The

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issue is about what the North East can do, not whether we can get inward investment. It’s about what the companies can do and I think we can compete. We need to stop whingeing about it and just let them get on and help them. I think we have to accept that we’ll always be marginalised so let’s just get on and do it ourselves.”

Tony Trapp: “We’ve got the best companies, we’ve got NOF Energy, which spreads the word all over the place and we’ve got Subsea North East and others, and I think we’re very well represented.”

Kenny Dalgarno: “In Germany they have apolitical trade associations who go out around the world and explain the offer and there is no political edge to it. They represent their region and the businesses within it and the changing political winds have nothing to do with it. They are there to represent their members.”

With desserts devoured and coffees drunk – and the debate in danger of veering off into an entirely different issue around North East identity – Brian Nicholls brought the evening to a close with much to think about around innovation. n

Fuelling Ambition At Santander Corporate and Commercial we have made a commitment to support North East businesses, providing relationship banking support to help fuel their ambition and support them in achieving their goals and we were delighted to be associated with this lively debate. A debate which brought together some of the North East’s most successful manufacturers, advisors and industry opinion formers who all share the same aim – to capitalise on the opportunities and continue to make the most of our innovative manufacturing industry.

We all agreed that each and every one of us has a responsibility to help fuel the ambitions of local people and local businesses to encourage sustainability in the region. It became apparent from the discussion that innovation doesn’t have to be associated with a complete sea change; small changes that have a big impact can be just as beneficial. It is more about having the right talent, in the right job to realise their full potential.

If we are to move towards this we cannot look at sectors or industries in isolation. We need to consider the bigger picture, promoting the benefits of the North East as a place to live and work alongside making engineering and manufacturing an attractive career choice. If we can make this a priority rather than something we’ll do if we have the time it will become an integral part of our everyday agenda. Positioning the NE as a great place to live and work will help attract high calibre individuals and address inaccurate, stereotypical perceptions of our region, fuel individual ambitions and as a result help support local economic growth.

Craig Iley, Regional Director NE & Cumbria, Santander Corporate & Commercial 07753 712 749 craig.iley@santander.co.uk

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AUTUMN 13

The future inspired As British manufacturing shifts from traditional areas of heavy industry, in North East England The Centre for Process Innovation is advancing the development of novel process and products for new, more globally lucrative markets Anticipating the move towards an innovation led economy, CPI have pioneered the exploitation of emerging ideas, knowledge and technologies to create a more sustainable model of growth for key industrial sectors. As CPI approach their tenth birthday, the Technology Innovation Centre and partner in the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult is now a world-class and internationally recognised centre of excellence for the process industry, setting the trend for business led innovation in the UK. In order to compete on a global scale, British industry must not only be able to innovate, but commercialise such innovations quickly and the Government’s investment in Catapult centres underpins this approach.

Addressing seven critical technology platforms, the centres provide business with access to some of the best manufacturing talent and facilities in the country, reciprocal communication with central government, and a valuable conduit for funding from both the public and private sectors.

They bridge the gap between early innovation, where the UK has traditionally been strong, and industrial-scale manufacturing, where real wealth is created.

Nigel Perry, CEO of CPI said, “Innovation is central to the growth of UK industry and the UK economy.

At CPI we have spent the last ten years working to create a space within which scientific and industrial expertise can be combined to nurture innovation in a low-risk environment.”

CPI offers market and technology expertise, as well as cutting-edge development assets to help its public and private sector clients build and prototype the next generation of products, processes and services quickly, efficiently and with minimal risk.

They have designed and established national centres for printable electronics, anaerobic digestion, industrial biotechnology and more

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By engaging CPI, Thermacore secured a €6.1 million FP7 grant for the largest collaborative nanotechnology project in Europe, which involved 12 partners from six different countries.

Furthermore, CPI lead the project management, dissemination and commercial exploitation of the project, which not only produced a nanofluid that could improve heat transfer by up to 19% and a working nanofluid pilot line, but allowed Thermacore to build a functioning demonstrator for the liquid cooling of data centres.

David Mullen, Project Director for NanoHex said, “CPI’s assistance made the difference between success and failure of the NanoHex bid and the ability to collaborate with such a rich pool of expert technologists has served to strengthen Thermacore’s skill set and facilitate its entry into new technology markets.”

CPI’s Continuous Processing Facility recently biologics. Furthermore, their development laboratories, prototyping facilities and pilot plants enable clients to prove and scale up processes from laboratory stage to commercial reality.

Clients have been plentiful, as well as diverse and to date, CPI has worked with more than 2,000 organisations, including SMEs, universities and large corporations.

CPI’S APPROACH: THE PROJECT Hoping to develop a revolutionary cooling system for nanofluids in industrial applications, Thermacore Europe Ltd approached CPI with the goal of securing a Framework Seven Programme grant. CPI helped to strengthen their proposal by identifying and resolving key flaws, and following extensive market research and careful negotiation, CPI secured the participation of thermal nanofluid experts Dispersia Ltd, to remedy the lack of nanofluid coolant experience within the existing consortium and demonstrate the early development of the nanofluid within the project.

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CPI’S APPROACH: THE COMPANY By providing organic lighting company Polyphotonix with the commercial expertise needed to assess new product concepts and the facilities to prototype, test and scale-up manufacturing processes, CPI have allowed Polyphotonix to develop novel low energy organic light applications with minimal risk or financial impediment.

By utilising CPI’s facilities, Polyphotonix did not need to invest in equipment often prohibitively expensive for a start-up, gained crucial insight into the marketable realities of their technology and identified potential emerging markets. They are one of the first companies in the UK to commercialise printable electronics based products.

Polyphotonix CEO, Richard Kirk said, “Remaining lean and responsive, with short chains of communication between us and CPI, has provided freedom and flexibility to react to new opportunities. Although we operate as a private company, CPI’s extensive resources and support have enabled us to grow at a pace faster than

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COMPANY PROFILE

CPI’s Printable Electronics Facility

usually possible for a start up. The bottom line is that without CPI we wouldn’t be here.”

laboratories of their own with a team of 30 based at CPI and their operations are self sustained.”

CPI’S APPROACH: THE PRODUCT

THE SUCCESS

Plaxica approached CPI with an aim to develop and scale up the process for producing environmentally friendly and sustainable bioplastics, in order to take the product to market.

To reduce reliance upon oil-based products, the Imperial College spin-out use natural feedstocks, such as sugar and corn starch, to produce plastics that can be used for a variety of applications from clothing to packaging.

Whilst Plaxica had conducted successful early stage trials, they required assistance to advance the technology and confirm the scalability of the process. By utilising CPI’s laboratory facilities and extensive technical and analytical expertise, Plaxica have not only successfully completed larger scale trials, but have also recently opened their own pilot plant on site. CPI Project Manager, Jonathan Kearney said, “When Plaxica initially came to CPI, they took one bench unit within one of our laboratories. Now they’ve expanded into two

In markets where the reduction of weight can save thousands in fuel costs, or reduced energy consumption can significantly increase a product’s long term viability, the drive for the latest smart solutions, lightweight components, reduced costs and increased efficiency is key. Leading this innovation, CPI have worked on more than 350 private and public projects with a value in excess of £300 million. Inside the £55 million state-of-theart facility, 130 new companies have been spawned from CPI projects and more than 2,700 jobs created, furthermore, for each £1 of public money CPI returns £1000, significantly more than the average return on public investments.

to 15% of the current pharmaceutical market and more than one-fifth of new medicines launched on the world market each year are now biotechnologyderived. As the application of biotechnology within healthcare continues to grow, the new centre will help companies of all sizes in the biologics market to develop, prove, demonstrate and scale up new biologics process technologies, enabling them to quickly commercialise their new products and processes.

As part of the UK Governments Strategy for Life Science, the flagship National Biologics Manufacturing Centre will help UK companies to develop a competitive foothold in the growing global biopharmaceutical market.

THE FUTURE Further building on this success, CPI will shortly launch a fourth National Centre for biopharmaceuticals.

Biological medicines already account for around 10

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For more information visit www.uk-cpi.com, call 01642 455 340 or email info@uk-cpi.com

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

A polished proposition For glazing company Fendor, innovation meant a strategic change of direction as Peter Jackson discovers talking to Sue Fortune Duffy

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Adapt or die is a well known business axiom and embracing it has proved the salvation of Washington-based commercial glazing manufacturer Fendor.

Founded in 1982, as a fire glazing business, it grew steadily working on some high profile projects in London such as Marks & Spencer’s headquarters and the Guinness headquarters.

It moved into a different league when it worked on the Waverly Gate development in Edinburgh, a project worth £2.5m to the company and which involved overcoming some challenging technical problems.

However, when the current managing director and owner Chris Duffy joined the business 12 years ago it was a fire glazing business in decline.

His wife and fellow director Sue Fortune-Duffy, explains: “He recognised this and described it as `a large fish in a small pond’ and he recognised that to survive in the recession he saw coming that it was going to have to cast its net wider and use its core skills which were steel manufacture and develop new product lines. He didn’t see the business model of remaining only in fire glazing as being viable’’ This strategic decision took the company into security glazing, developing new product lines. This was underpinned with a £500,000 investment in new equipment. Duffy bought the business about seven years ago and was then faced with the challenge of the post Lehman economic climate.

“It’s hard growing a business in a recession,’’ says Fortune-Duffy. “It’s very challenging in terms of getting appropriate funding.’’

The nature of the business means R&D is a necessity and that costs money.

“Filling a container full of new products just to go and blow it up is not cheap and for the petrochemical market, if you are dealing with Americans, you have to ship it off to Texas. You invest an awful lot of money in blowing things up. You’re basically saying, can I borrow money to blow it up? Pay back takes time because you don’t break into these very sensitive markets quickly, all of these projects have long gestation periods.’’

Some funding was secured from NEL – the first tranche of which is now repaid – and additional funding was sought just over a year ago when the company was able to move

Filling a container full of new products just to go and blow it up is not cheap from its previous location, a 20,000sq ft former tea depot in Felling, to its current 50,000sq ft facility in Washington.

The first new market was in providing secure windows for young offenders’ detention centres. This led to work in the mental health sector and now Fendor has been specified as a preferred supplier for the redevelopment of Broadmoor, the high security psychiatric hospital. At the time the company began to move into mental health, glazing in that sector was in `a pretty poor state’ according to Fortune-Duffy.

“Windows were typically glass blocks and timber frames with very thin pieces of glass resulting in poor light transmission. Low levels of natural light and poor natural ventilation are not ideal conditions in which to convalesce in and recover from mental illness.’’

Fendor’s windows give patients large areas of glass and control over their own natural

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INTERVIEW

ventilation with the option for blinds.

“These are fundamentals that we take for granted but it’s not something that was possible until our technology which is a combination of glass, which is made under licence for us, the framing system which we developed and then the fixing and securing, so it’s not just one element but the whole combination,’’ says Fortune-Duffy.

Gradually Fendor built up its reputation in these markets and also provided glazing for a number of banks at a time when ram-raiding was a common threat.

The company undertook extensive consultations with professionals in the health and mental health sectors.

“We would get the clinicians and front-line staff saying, `what I need is this’ and `my patients need to be able to do this’. People will ring us up now and say, `I’ve got this problem, what can you do about it?’ That leads to R&D and working alongside people to develop new product lines.’’

Fortune-Duffy says that Fendor’s staff are key to its success in innovation.

“The most important quality they have to have apart from technical competence is the ability to listen and understand what the customers’ problems are. They have got to listen and sometimes you have to be able to read in between the lines because you can get mixed messages.

“We attended the custody sergeants’ national conference recently just to have the opportunity to talk to them, to find out what their working environment is like. It’s much easier now to talk about CellGuard Custodial window and what that can offer now that I have a really good understanding of what a custodial environment is like.’’

Fendor has three apprentices and hopes to take on another two next year. It also took on a Northumbria University student, Nicola Hall, on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership.

“She worked on particular aspects of particular projects and, with Northumbria, developed some of the innovations,’’ says Fortune-Duffy.

“She did her masters and stayed on with us while she did that and at the end of her masters we offered her a full time contract.

Since then, she has gone from being technical assistant to being technical manager, I’m >>

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

very proud of her.’’

Innovations included such features as window handles which continue to turn once they have reached closing point so that repeated attempts to turn will not break them and handles which can be set so that they might require anything from six turns to 60 to operate depending on the needs of an individual patient.

In the last two years Fendor has spent £300,000 on R&D developing its CellGuard window and other new products.

“CellGuard is quite a revolution,’’ says FortuneDuffy. `Imagine if you are in a custody cell you will have a window with bars with either no natural light or very little natural light, so you have to have artificial lighting on all the time.

It’s a very oppressive environment.

“It’s also better for the custody sergeants who operate in this environment day-in, day-out being subjected to low level light. It’s the same with the nursing teams in mental health, they are also behind bars, so it’s a better environment all round, for patients, people in custody, staff and people visiting.’’

The CellGuard window is made using a

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multilayered glass process and is manufactured for Fendor under licence and, after a three year process, it has been approved by the Home Office for custodial use and it is now being installed around the country.

Fendor also developed its Hydro Carbon window for the petrochemical industry. If a small bore gas pipeline fractures and is ignited temperatures can reach 1,000 centigrade in less than two minutes causing an immense thermal shock to the glass in any window.

Failure of even fire rated windows is instant, but the Hydro Carbon window will insulate against those temperatures for 45 minutes and against flame spreading for up to an hour.

“Our target was to reach about 10 minutes to give people time to evacuate but it far surpassed our expectations,’’ says FortuneDuffy. “It’s a phenomenal piece of kit and we are incredibly proud of it.’’

Fendor has recently been granted a patent on Clean Vent, its top-selling window for medium secure locations in mental health hospitals.

The change of strategy and of business model has paid off. Fendor now employs about 60 people at its Washington facility and a further

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60 subcontractors. Turnover last year was £6.6m and this year is on course to reach about £9m and its products are beginning to be sold around the world.

A large part of its work is still in standard fenestration - windows, doors, curtain walling - for commercial projects such as hotels. It recently worked on a £1m contract at the new Dorchester in Park Lane.

But Fortune-Duffy is convinced that without the diversification the outlook for the company would have been bleak. In fact, the old fire glazing business now only contributes about £1m to turnover.

“If we hadn’t diversified I don’t think we would have survived,’’ she says. “We are now growing because we are starting to see payback for the investment that we made.’’

What are management’s ambitions for the company over the next few years?

“To continue to survive as we come out of recession because it’s still difficult out there is ambition number one and to grow and prosper is ambition number two,’’ says Fortune-Duffy.

“Personally, I would love to work with the prison service to get rid of bars in prisons.’’ n

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COMPANY PROFILE

Driving the North East’s manufacturing renaissance Manufacturing in the North East has emerged from the doldrums and is poised to take advantage of new investment, opportunities and an increase in re-shoring says the Manufacturing Advisory Service’s Cameron Ross Small to Medium sized manufacturers are leading the North East’s renaissance according to a leading business support organisation that has been set up to help them.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service, which is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, is predicting a period of growth for the region’s engineering firms following fresh investment in the automotive and aerospace sectors and new opportunities in oil & gas, renewables and offshore wind.There has also been a lot of anecdotal evidence of local companies winning work back that had originally gone overseas when low cost countries were the flavour of the month. The final price of the landing part, drawn out logistics, increasing fuel costs and quality issues all contribute to the increasing costs that have all been factors for the recent changes in purchasing decisions.

“All of this adds up to an extremely exciting time for manufacturing SMEs in the North East,” explained Cameron Ross, Team Leader for MAS in the area.

“Our companies have suffered more than most with the recession, but what it has made them is more efficient, more pro-active and more committed to doing things differently…they know they can’t stand still and maintain their market share.”

He continued: “And management teams are optimistic for the future, with our latest Barometer suggesting over two thirds of firms are looking to grow and 57% looking to invest in new machinery and plant.

“It’s not difficult to see where this confidence is coming from. Nissan in Sunderland has recently started work on the new £250m production line for the Infiniti Q30 and Procter & Gamble’s ‘Chariot’ Project – designed to manufacture products that open up new markets – has secured backing from the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI).”

The Manufacturing Advisory Service provides SME

9600) for technical enquiries, runs an extensive workshop programme and has recently launched two new programmes - ‘Inspire’ and ‘Finance Expert’ – to help with increasing sales and dealing with financial issues that have been found to restrict growth.”

“Recently, we have also been successful in securing an additional £589,000 from the European Regional Development Fund to support a further 122 manufacturing SMEs in the North East. This includes access to transformational change projects and grants of up to £10,000.”

Cameron Ross, North East Team Leader

All of this adds up to an extremely exciting time for manufacturing SMEs in the North East manufacturers with access to specialist support on strategy, process improvements, new product introductions and supply chain development.

A team of five dedicated advisors – all with significant industry experience – operate on the ground in the North East and collectively have assisted more than 500 firms in the last year to grow and create jobs.

“We go in and work with the management team to review their business and identify where the issues or opportunities exist. Once this has been agreed we may help the company directly using the expertise within the MAS team or, if appropriate, bring in additional specialists to work with the company on the action plan and deliver the bottom line benefits,” explained Cameron.

“MAS also operates a dedicated helpline (0845 658

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RAISING THE PROFILE The Manufacturing Advisory Service has recently launched ‘Manufacturing Matters’, a two month campaign designed to showcase England’s manufacturing SMEs - a sector that currently accounts for more than 110,000 businesses, 1.1 million jobs and a major share of £140bn of annual GDP. The initiative, which has its own dedicated website at manufacturingmatters.mymas.org, will look to discuss key challenges and opportunities, whilst opening up dialogue with the media, politicians and major industry influencers to ensure the right support is in place to encourage growth and future job creation. It will then culminate with a special week of activities on November 25th that will include the launch of the next MAS Barometer, a series of debates and events covering topics such as innovation, skills, international trade and access to finance.

Manufacturing Advisory Service T: 0845 658 9600 W: www.mymas.org T: @mas_works

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

charging Past the competition In some sectors where technology is developing rapidly, manufacturing innovation is vital as Peter Jackson discovers talking to Matt Boyle Electric vehicle component maker Sevcon has made a name for itself in the automotive sector on the strength of its key role in the development of Renault’s eye-catching Twizy.

The range of controllers developed and manufactured by Gateshead-based Sevcon are key components in the Twizy – for which Sevcon was chosen after a lengthy and exacting selection process - and a range of electric vehicles.

Sevcon's other customers include manufacturers of on and off-road vehicles including cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, fork lift trucks, aerial lifts, mining vehicles, airport tractors, sweepers and other electrically powered vehicles.

It has designed and manufactured controls for companies such as Renault, Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Hyundai for a range of on and off road, zero-emission vehicles.

This has put the company in a strong position.

For the year ending September 2012 it reported revenues of £22m, 10% up on the previous year, while profits rose by two-thirds to £740,000 Although managed from Team Valley where it employs more than half of its 100-plus workforce, it is listed on the Nasdaq stock market. It is a global player with factories in China, Mexico and Poland.

Sevcon has only achieved this by working hard on innovation.

Matt Boyle, president and chief executive says: “Innovation is essential. It’s a fast moving

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market place, the technology is developing all the time and the people who win are the people who stay ahead of the curve.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things. It’s market intelligence, understanding where the technology is going, it’s having a very well staffed engineering department that’s very clearly goaled and it’s following through on all of the work that that all generates.’’

Thousands of Twizys have been sold since its launch in the spring of 2012, with Germany being the most eager consumer and there is speculation Renault could ramp up production further.

The Twizy is a two-seater vehicle designed for urban driving. It's a quadricycle rather than a car, with a top speed of 50mph. It is exempt from road tax and has a range of 62 miles.

Sevcon’s Gen4 controller is used to vary the speed and movement of vehicles. It integrates specialised functions, and helps optimise the battery’s energy consumption.

Also an eco-friendly tuk-tuk featuring key

parts from Sevcon is to go into production in Asia with sales projected to reach 100,000 a year. Sevcon has partnered with Swedish manufacturer Clean Motion to develop the Zbee, a three-wheel city passenger vehicle. It is being built and launched in Indonesia where it is being touted as a zero-emission alternative to the popular, high-emission Bajaj – Indonesia’s version of the tuk-tuk automotive rickshaw.

The Zbee will be rolled out in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and plans are afoot to make it the low carbon passenger vehicle of choice across Asia.

Sevcon’s Gen4 controller acts as the brains of the vehicle controlling the speed and movement, and as well as integrating these functions, it also helps optimise the battery’s energy consumption.

The company has been careful about the way in which it structures its R&D effort.

Boyle explains: “We have an R and we have a D and we also have an engineering applications department. The Research look at stuff >>

The technology is developing all the time and the people who win are the people who stay ahead of the curve.

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Key component: Sevcon, produces parts for the Renault Twizy model likely to get to product in the next three years, the D is product development with time scales ranging from about nine months to about 18 months. They are constantly working on things the R department may or may not have had a solution for or we may have to develop a solution from what we already know. Applications are the people who take the product out of design and apply it to the customer’s vehicle.

“The R is in Cambridge, the D is in Gateshead.

The R has a very tight relationship with Gateshead. All the development of all the IP is done in Gateshead. The application groups are scattered around the world. There’s one in Tokyo, there’s one in Korea, there’s one in China, there’s one in the US, France and the UK.’’ About 35 people work in the D department in Gateshead.

The company is an SME and its size has an influence on its ability to innovate.

Boyle says: “Being an SME adds to your ability to respond quickly but that does bring with it

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its own challenges. Being an SME you typically don’t have the sort of departments doing some of the ground work that you would in large companies. While it’s a blessing in one way it’s a curse in another.’’

He adds: “We’ve got to work hard to keep ahead. Being a small company it’s easily goaled but unless you’ve got the resources, it’s difficult to do. We’ve got aspirations but we’ve got to work very hard to achieve them.’’

Sevcon may be a small company but it has a presence around the world which gives Boyle an insight into other cultures’ approach to innovation.

“It’s partly down to culture and it’s partly down to problems. The Chinese are becoming very innovative because they’ve got lots of problems. An economy that’s growing like theirs generates a lot of problems. One of the biggest ones they’ve got is pollution. You’ll see more electric vehicles on the streets of Shanghai or Beijing than you will in the entire UK.’’ The developing world is also training many

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more engineers to do the innovation than we are in the West.

It’s as hard in the US as in the UK to get engineers,’’ says Boyle. “It’s actually very difficult everywhere apart from the Far East. The West has not been producing engineers of the sort of quality in electronics and design over the last few decades that we need. Since there’s a dearth of talent in the UK we have to look to other places around the world. We’ve had people from Columbia, Iran, China and India in the last several years because we just don’t produce them ourselves.

“It’ll take a decade or two to rectify the situation because if you don’t get people to want to become engineers at the 10-year-old level then you’re not going to do it. That’s why we’ve been working with schools and colleges and universities trying to encourage kids into engineering as a career. We need to mould people as they go through the education process.

“People forget that because we haven’t been doing it for 20 years, it’s not a little blip, it’s for two decades easily that we’re going to have a problem. National Grid have said something like 55,000 of its engineers they are going to have to replace in the next five years because of retirement.’’

To help fill this gap in engineering skills, Sevcon has handed a £25,000 tuition fee lifeline to a Northumbria University student – along with a guaranteed job on graduation.

It has recruited second year Northumbria University computing student Danielle Walsh to its student bursary scheme and will pay her annual £8,500 tuition fees and on completion she will take up a software engineering post at the company. She is the first Northumbria University student to win a place on the Sevcon scheme after Newcastle University student Ehsan Dehghan-Azad’s recruitment last autumn. Sevcon says it is preparing to fund another six students at the two institutions over the coming years - representing an outlay of over £200,000 - due to the chronic shortage of skilled engineers in the region.

Boyle is not optimistic that this problem for UK manufacturing is going to be solved without years of work.

He jokes: “If there’s light at the end of the tunnel it’s somebody else’s rear lights.’’ n

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Innovating to get noticed - help to innovate event for SMEs NEPIC Project Event Encourages SMEs to Innovate Innovation is essential to the long-term future of any business. Its benefits are far reaching – from spotting new markets, to new ways of working and collaborating, to improvements to existing products and services, innovative businesses are more profitable and more sustainable.

Whilst many business leaders know where opportunities for innovation lie and understand their benefits, one of the main barriers preventing businesses from realising them is access to support.

The NEPIC project, BASME (Business Acceleration for SMEs), which helps SMEs increase their sales to the process sector supply chain is addressing this issue directly.

BASME’s ‘Help to Innovate’ event provided SMEs with a day of presentations and one-to-one coaching from recognised expert speakers and organisations that offer practical advice and expertise on innovation on a daily basis.

Speakers included Roy Sandbach, (formerly of P&G and current David Goldman visiting Professor of Innovation & Enterprise at Newcastle University), Aesica, European Enterprise Network, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, METRC, Murgitroyd and company, Sector Innovation Services and TaitWalker. The speakers used their presentations to dispel the misconception that innovation is a time consuming or expensive process and offered examples of the different routes, such as open innovation or crowdsourcing innovation, that are accessible to SMEs. Professor Roy Sandbach said of the event: “This is a great initiative from NEPIC and I am very happy to support it. Companies of all sizes, including SMEs, must embrace innovation for growth. The world doesn’t stand still and innovation drives competitiveness, market share, the opportunity for premium pricing and diversification. Innovation might seem a risky and time-consuming enterprise for SMEs but there is valuable expert help out there for them, both in terms of practice and funding.

NEPIC is clearly playing its part, especially through

Help to Innovate Event speakers

This is a great initiative from NEPIC and I am very happy to support it. Companies of all sizes, including SMEs, must embrace innovation for growth this initiative and by creating vibrant networks, vital in today’s open innovation world.”

Philip Aldridge, BASME Programme Leader, added: “We wanted to deliver an event that both inspired and gave practical help to SMEs on the BASME programme – and ‘Help to Innovate’ achieved both these objectives.

“Professor Sandbach and Aescia’s Dr. Barrie Rhodes led fantastic sessions on Open Innovation.

Professor Sandbach explained why innovation is essential to success in an increasingly global marketplace and shared his experiences growing P&G’s global Open Innovation culture, whilst Dr. Rhodes demonstrated how Open Innovation had been key to Aescia’s tenfold growth over the past ten years.

“The second half of the event featured organisations who provide practical help to SMEs wanting put innovation into practice. Delegates learned how they could access technology locally, nationally and internationally and how to access grants to support this. TaitWalker shared the benefits of R&D tax credits, whilst Murgitroyd

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and Co explained why it was important to protect Intellectual Property associated with innovation.

The speakers generated a great deal of discussion, which made for a lively and educational event.

SMEs who wanted to go into more depth were also provided with opportunity of one-to-one coaching sessions with the speakers.

“I was delighted with the quality of presentations and the high level of engagement from our BASME companies, which all contributed to a successful event.”

For more information contact Felix O’Hare (Programme Manager), NEPIC, 0164 2442 576, felix.ohare@nepic.co.uk, NEPIC, The Wilton Centre, Wilton, Redcar, Cleveland, TS10 4RF

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engineered to thrive Innovation is as much about culture as technology, as Peter Jackson discovers at one County Durham engineering firm >>

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Precision fabrication and machining firm Dyer Engineering didn’t come unscathed through the economic downturn and credit crunch.

It suffered along with much of UK manufacturing outside the offshore sector and its annual turnover dropped from £7.6m to £5.6m for the year ended May 2010.

The owner-managed company, based in Annfield Plain, County Durham, manufactures metal products as a subcontractor for a range of sectors. It makes everything from components for diesel engines to parts for oil rigs, trains and defence vehicles.

“We manufacture everything from little widgets you can pick up by the handful to 15 tonne structures,’’ explains managing director Graeme Parkins.

Its processes include laser profiling, forming and fabrication, welding, including robot welding, boring, turning and wet paint and powder coating.

“We do everything under one roof, we are a one-stop-shop,’’ says Parkins.

Dyer has come through the choppy economic waters and not only is its annual turnover back to £8m, it is bullish about the future.

“We are looking at a similar level this year and we are looking to hit £12m within the next two to three years,’’ says financial director Richard

Bradley. In the last three years the company has invested about £1.75m in equipment, property and software. Investment in machinery in the last year has included a new CNC (computer numerical control) lathe turning centre.

Now Dyer has a £1.5m investment planned for this year to put a 20,000ft extension on its factory with the aid of a Regional Growth Fund grant.

This is central to the company’s £2.6m two-year project to reach £12m turnover and create 60 jobs in addition to the 110 it currently employs, with further investment in equipment and training.

The company is investing because it is confident in its abilities to service its markets.

“We have a very good business and a well run business,’’ says Parkins. “It’s profitable and we are doing the right things, we’ve got a good team and we are developing that team and we are going to invest in that team.’’

He proudly cites the company’s recently awarded title of outstanding supplier by one multinational engine manufacturer.

“The feedback that we get from our clients tells us that we are doing the right things and that we are one of the best in the market place,’ says Bradley. “That’s why the clients we currently have keep coming back to us. We

I’m proud to walk out onto the shop floor now. It looks great compared to what it looked like two or three years ago

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are also doing pretty well in generating new business from new clients.’’

Dyer has identified oil and gas as a boom sector and is positioning itself for that market where there is a shortage of companies with its skills and capabilities.

“We also have the rail industry which is growing again in South Durham with Hitachi,’’ says Parkins. “We see huge opportunities to try to build relationships with the business and get into that supply chain.’’

On the other hand the company is leaving the defence market. “Defence is finished in the North East unfortunately and there don’t seem to be too many doors swinging open in other areas,’’ he says.

Apart from investing in new equipment, Dyer has also undertaken internal restructuring.

“We have changed the whole structure of the shop floor,’’ says Bradley. “When we started there were two supervisors who controlled some 60 people. In that same space we’ve now probably got 90 people, we’ve got three supervisors and 10 team leaders. We have a production manager above them. We have also put in place a works committee and a safety committee.’’

Much innovation at Dyer has been driven by a process of benchmarking itself against other companies, particularly a sheet metalworking business. This is a similar family owned business which Parkins had known for some time. In particular, Dyer has followed them in a process of continuous improvement.

Parkins says: “We employed a continuous improvement manager six month ago and his task is to work with everybody in the business and identify any area where we can fundamentally do things safer, faster, cheaper.

He has a range of initiatives, some of which are quite high level and some low level, perhaps making changes to the way a product is handled on a job.’’

He cites the example of one product which was a water tank and had a high level of leaks detected which then had to be welded. By modifying the manufacturing process, through training and standardisation of the welding, the company went from about 46 potential leak points to just three.

“That saved us a lot of money and made the process more repeatable and much easier to

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manage,’’ says Parkins.

In another process the parts for a product came in a box and it was not easily identifiable if one was missing or was left out of the assembly. Now the parts are on a shadow board making omissions obvious. The continuous improvement manager will also train the leaders in the methods of continuous improvement so they can identify problems in their own areas.

“One of his biggest remits is to get as many people as he possibly can bought into it on the shop floor so they are coming to him, so they are the ones who are suggesting and then implementing the change,’’ says Bradley.

“The only way we will have a continuous improvement culture out there is if that happens. Even if we can get 20% - but I’d like to think it could be 60% - invested in that, it would make a massive change.

“What we are trying to achieve here is a change in culture and a change in culture is a long process because you don’t just change people’s hearts and minds in the space of a few months. We are probably a year into a five-year culture change.’’

He adds: “But it’s massively different from what it looked like two or three years ago. I’m proud to walk out onto the shop floor now, it looks

great, compared to where it was three years ago, but we are still nowhere near where we need to be, we still have a further journey to go on.’’

At the end of that journey Parkins would like to see his company closer to the modern online retail model with the transparency that allows customers to follow the progress of their orders.

He says: “We are seeing more and more shrinkage of our lead times with our customers because everything is needed more quickly now and on some complex engineering projects, if the front end takes longer than expected, we get squashed.’’

As a step towards this Dyer has bought a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, called Epicor.

“This plans everything, right through from a quote to the cash coming in at the other end,’’ explains Parkins. “At the moment we know things will inevitably go wrong and things might not be quite right and all businesses in our line are like that. Where I see us becoming market leading is in giving the customer access via a portal into our ERP system. But that’s a vision rather than something we can make happen straightaway. That’s the way we’ve got to go and manage the delivery of the offering

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INSIGHT

so much better and so much slicker than anybody else.’’

Dyer faces the same big challenge as all UK manufacturers – an increasing shortage of engineers, which is due to get worse as the current generation reaches retirement age.

“We have a very skilled bunch of people in the 50 plus age range,’’ says Parkins. “But, younger than that there’s a bit of a gap. So we have 10 years to get some good kids into the business and start the next generation.’’

But Dyer is on the front foot in facing this problem. Out of its 110 employees, a tenth are apprentices and it has taken on three new graduates.

“That is to be a continued focus of the business,’’ says Bradley. “We have made a commitment to take on at least one graduate a year.’’

The aim is to have the apprenticeship and graduate schemes approved by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. There is also the prospect of sponsoring apprentices to go on to do degrees.

Parkins says: “One of the things I really enjoy about this job is working with people and developing them and helping them fulfil their potential. Now I’m the md of a business I’ve got a really good opportunity to do that.’’ n

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training turnaround

Manufacturing innovation matters as much in training as technology, as Peter Jackson discovers talking to Geoff Ford and Alison Maynard One North East manufacturing company is doing something about preparing youngsters for industry by opening a new academy.

The initiative, by aerospace and high technology industries’ parts maker Ford (Ford Aerospace Limited and Ford Component Manufacturing), is giving a first group of 12

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trainees – including two females – instruction on machinery in-house, education in dedicated teaching rooms, and work experience placements.

The first cohort, which began work in September, is doing a traineeship, the precursor to an apprenticeship. Their age

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range is 16 to 25 but the aim in future is to take any age above that.

The mix is designed to identify talented youngsters with the ability to work in manufacturing and overcome a sector skills gap.

South Tyneside College has joined Ford in

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running the programme and providing training and three other engineering businesses, which – along with Ford – have opened their doors to students to provide work experience – a vital component of the academy plan.

Other partners are Haas Automation, the world’s largest CNC machine tool manufacturer, and Cromwell, a provider of cutting tools and industrial supplies, which are also supporting the Ford Engineering Academy and have provided equipment.

They will guarantee a job interview for trainees after their six months of academy training has been completed with the prospect of full time employment.

Tracing its history back to 1910, Ford

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already feeling the effects of the skills shortage and when Nissan start to recruit their 2,000 extra people and Hitachi look for their 800 other firms will feel the pinch.

“If it’s possible to replicate the Ford Engineering Academy in other boroughs throughout the North East then we will have a ready supply of skilled, trained young people on an ongoing basis, which the wider North East will clearly need.’’

All the students will learn a range of employments skills, and demonstrate, or reach, basic standards of numeracy and literacy standards. The traineeship will be five-days-a-week for six months, including the equivalent of six full weeks of

A well-oiled machine HAAS Automation is the world’s largest manufacturer of CNC machine tools. The UK is its longest established market outside the US, where the machines are designed and built. In the UK, 33 of its 70 employees are HAAS trained service engineers.

James Leet, HAAS director, said: “We are a known proponent of training the engineers of tomorrow, which is why we are partnering an ever increasing number of training facilities, colleges and universities. We are especially delighted to support the Ford Engineering Academy, where the apprentices can develop in a factory environment. HAAS UK will be able to use the facility as an extension of our own training provision for our North East customers.’’

Aerospace is based at Tyne Dock, South Shields, and Ford Component Manufacturing has plants at Monkton Business Park, South Tyneside, and Silverfox Way, North Shields. The academy is the brainchild of Geoff Ford, the chairman of both companies.

What drove him to do it?

“There are three basic reasons,’’ he says. “The first is Ford’s need for the input of skilled people for the foreseeable future, so having an academy run here with us benefiting from the output on an annual basis of these young people comes at the right time.

“Secondly, is to have young people of the North East progress into engineering, in our case, and into manufacturing on a wider basis. I believe there are some very worthwhile careers there for young people.

“The third reason is for the general good of the North East. We are an engineering powerhouse in the UK economy but we are

work experience.

A workshop at Ford Aerospace’s Tyne Dock headquarters has been converted into a training centre and contains a range of equipment provided by key Ford suppliers and enthusiastic academy supporters Haas Automation and Cromwell on which the youngsters will train under the guidance of college lecturers.

Classrooms have also been provided on site for the academic element of the course.

Great emphasis is placed on attendance, punctuality and dress and work has to be submitted to deadline. They are also taught communication skills.

Haas and Cromwell have provided stateof-the-art equipment and Geoff Ford has personally set up a foundation trust to provide on-going financial support for the academy in the future.

As well as a guaranteed job interview, >>

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We are an engineering powerhouse but we are already feeling the effects of the skills shortage

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INTERVIEW

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“It’s going very well. The first part of the course is very practical and they have absolutely loved the practical skills because back in school they do a lot of theory but don’t touch the machines and don’t do the hand skills. We do a lot of practical units and the students have asked for additional units, so they are doing more than they need to for the qualification.’’

A second cohort of trainees is expected to start early next year and the academy will train two intakes every year. The college would like to replicate the academy with other employers.

“That’s what we need, the main thing for traineeships is working with businesses and addressing the needs of industry so we really do need more businesses to come on board to develop their workforce,’’ says Maynard.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,’’ says Ford. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to go ahead with it.’’ n

Skills champion A taxing issue Does Geoff Ford resent funding training for young people when he and his company pay taxes to do just that?

“Whatever this government says, it doesn’t really understand the importance of manufacturing,’’ says Ford. “We are down to 14% of GDP where it used to be in the 20s. It should be an aspiration of this government to have manufacturing’s contribution to GDP back up to 20%.

“Financial services, which Gordon Brown worshipped, only ever contributed 10% of GDP on a good day.

“The fact we are having to do it [training] in the North East is because we are more prepared than most other areas to do our own thing because we have got used to it. The North East is a political and therefore an economic wilderness. At the next election nearly all the North East MPs will be Labour, so there’s no need for Labour to do anything to help the North East and the other parties see no point in doing so because there are no marginal seats.

“So, yes, we do resent it, but we understand it. We are where we are and it’s up to us to help ourselves.’’

those coming out of the traineeship also have the opportunity to progress directly on to Level 3 college courses.

Alison Maynard, principal of South Tyneside Professional and Vocational College, said: “We got over 30 applicants for the first course. We could have offered them all a place but we had to make sure we had the right students.

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“We didn’t just look at qualifications, we looked at their attitude, what they had done in the past and whether they had done work experience. One young man had actually used his pocket money to buy a lathe, which shows that dedication and interest. We had one female who has always wanted to be an engineer and did a work placement at Ford.

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Cromwell was founded in 1970 and is the largest independent industrial distributor in the UK with more than 1,900 employees and 53 distribution centres throughout the UK and 12 overseas branches that operate in Europe, Africa and the Far East. Stocks are held locally at these distribution centres supported by an overnight delivery service from the central distribution hubs in Leicester. Cromwell tooling, protective clothing, vending solutions and other related services to industrial sectors including aerospace and automotive.

Albert Chater, regional business director – North said: “Cromwell continues to expand and partner with many global companies investing in plants and factories in the North East and is proud to support the development of those essential manufacturing and engineering skills through the trainees and apprentices of the Ford Engineering Academy.”

INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN MANUFACTURING

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

Our exclusive manufacturing summit will seek to map out a successful future as well as celebrate our world class capabilities in what is a crucial industry for the North East economy. And we’re calling on business leaders to join us at this invite-only event to ensure it delivers maximum impact in contributing to economic growth and improvement in the sector.

For more information about the Summit you can visit www.bqmanufacturingsummit.co.uk or please contact Kirsty Tarn or Rachael Lasckhe on 0191 426 6300 or email events@room501.co.uk to book your place and we hopefully look forward to seeing you there to help us shape the future of manufacturing in the region.

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a centre for change Gateshead College has set up an academy specifically for manufacturing innovation, as Mick Brophy explains to Peter Jackson Set up just over two years ago, Gateshead College’s Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation, Sasmi, is the UK’s first education centre dedicated to the clean technologies sector.

Housed in a state-of-the-art building in Washington, the £9.8m academy delivers a range of low carbon vehicles skills training, with a focus on the automotive industry.

Mick Brophy, managing director of Business, Innovation & Development at Gateshead College says: “In any given week there will be in excess of 300 students going through Sasmi. Every week there are about 100 unemployed young people in there that we are training up on manufacturing skills to get them on the production line or into warehousing.

“Also we teach very high end technical skills, doing robotics, hydraulics, pneumatics.

“So it goes right from the very basics on

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production line right the way through to maintenance engineers.’’

The new facility forms the hub of the Government’s £200m Low Carbon Enterprise Zone, which is expected to create 7,000 jobs in the region over the next decade.

The academy is the first of its kind in the UK, unique in its focus on battery assembly, manufacturing, testing, charging and safety.

It was set up in partnership with Nissan and other automotive supply chain companies in the region. Apart from Nissan, companies

Every week there are about 100 unemployed young people in there that we are training up on manufacturing skills

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INTERVIEW

Engine room: Colin Herron, managing director of Zero Carbon Futures; Paul Copping, corporate development director of TRL; Mick Brophy, managing director for business, innovation and development, Gateshead College; and Alan Jones, business development manager of Tadea using it to train their apprentices include Nexus, Calsonic, Unipres and Procter & Gamble. It is also looking at training for the region’s burgeoning rail manufacturing sector.

“We are already in conversations with Hitachi about the kind of manufacturing skills that we offer, which are right the way up from very basic production line personnel right the way through to team leaders and supervisors.

I think Hitachi’s immediate concern is likely to be team leaders,’’ says Brophy.

It also trains the unemployed.

“We work very closely with the job centres and what we have designed now is a very strong seven-week intensive training programme where we put people through

their paces,’’ he says.

“Most of them stay with us and of those who stay to the end almost 60% are likely to get jobs in Nissan and the supply chain. That’s about 120 every five or six weeks coming off the programme and getting employment.’’

Sasmi adds to Gateshead College’s credentials in Low Carbon Vehicle training with the college already delivering a full programme of LCV Skilled Training. Current courses, running from their AutoSkills Centre in Gateshead, include training for first responders, helping the emergency services and roadside rescue operators to safely deal with high voltage hybrid and electric vehicles. This will be followed by courses dedicated to the

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production of EVs. Sasmi is adjacent to the North of England’s first Performance Track, which is also operated

by Gateshead College. With easy access by road and sea ports, the 2.8km oval track provides a central location for conventional and low carbon vehicle development, testing and trialling.

The facility, which is available for commercial hire, is the only publicly accessible track in the North of England.

Designed for both conventional vehicles and alternative fuel technologies, Sasmi is a low carbon facility with hydrolisers, EV charging points (both standard and quick), a photovoltaic canopy and biofuel provision. >>

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Nissan has contributed in excess of £1m worth of equipment - stuff that colleges can only dream of

“Nissan has contributed in excess of £1m worth of equipment – stuff that colleges can only dream of,’’ says Brophy. “It’s all there: industrial training rigs situated in Sasmi and Nissan themselves use it for their own technicians but we are also able to use it for our apprenticeships.’’

At the heart of this centre is the development of skills and the creation of jobs and apprenticeships building on Gateshead College’s track record in linking manufacturers with a trained workforce in this new sector.

Innovation, by its nature, means keeping up to speed with the latest developments and the college is investing to ensure Sasmi does just that.

“Over the New Year we are going to put in almost £300,000 worth of new kit and CNC equipment because of that kind of skills

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shortage in that area of engineering,’’ says Brophy.

“You are constantly having to look at where is the latest technology. We are investing also in 3D printing because we believe that in the next five years manufacturing will take up 3D printing very quickly. It’s already in evidence now that some of the more advanced manufacturers are seriously looking at that as a solution.’’

The college is to create an International Centre for Low Carbon Vehicle Development, adjacent to the Nissan Sunderland plant and the new Turbine Business Park. The centre, scheduled to open next summer, will support the future growth of the region’s low carbon vehicle industry and build on the success of Sasmi.

Brophy explains: “It’s about R&D and capacity.

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Working with the new technologies, and supporting industry in commercialising and developing those technologies. Also, at the point at which you are doing all of that, you are creating skills training programmes. So at the point at which you are commercialising something, you have the skills ready to go.

“The critical thing about that centre is that it’s also a demonstration centre. So much of this technology is so new and it’s locked away in little labyrinths all over the place. What we are trying to do is get it out into the light of day so people can see all these things and how they work. For example, if I’m talking to somebody about how, in the future an electric car can charge a house, there’ll be a house there and you’ll be able to see the car charging it, see it switching on the lights, boiling the kettle, just so that people can see, touch and feel all this new technology.’’

By anticipating tomorrow’s world, the college aims to provide the jobs for today’s young people.

Says Brophy: “At the end of the day you want to create the opportunities for our people in the North East to be successful and by capturing these early jobs that’s what we are trying to do.’’ n

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