The Manufacturer October issue 2011 by The Manufacturer

www.themanufacturer.com October 2011 Vol 14 Issue 10

Securi n g the perimeter UK defence and security manufacturers use brains and brawn to battle austerity

Leadership, people & skills

Fixing industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talent supply chain

Finance & professional services

Product recall strategies and avoidance

Innovation and design

De-risking innovation strategies

Special feature

Bloodhound starts manufacture

Interview Nigel Brooksby Cogent, SSC

T pag urn t o e fur 25 fo det ther r ail s

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Editor’s comment

Health and safety - not gone so mad after all. It is very easy for those employed in inherently hazardous occupations to complain of the everyday constrictions placed on their activities by health and safety regulations. At the end of August, Will Stirling, now Editorial Director for TM, wrote a popular blog for our website on the bureaucracy this legislation so often carries with it – it was a piece which struck a chord with many readers. The sad news in late September however, that Graham Begley, a worker at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood factory in Merseyside died of his injuries following an accident at the plant, is a sobering reminder that manufacturing professionals cannot become complacent about the dangerous environments they work in. The Health and Safety Executive’s investigation into the Halewood incident is ongoing but in our September issue an article from law firm Eversheds stated that the majority of fatal accidents in manufacturing companies still occur as a result of by-passing established health and safety best practice, such as making sure guarding on dangerous equipment is in place and in good order, or failing to segregate pedestrian areas from those used by lorries and forklifts. The tragic news from JLR seems particularly potent in the light of the ecstatic announcement from the firm, just a week earlier, that it will be investing £355m in a new plant in Wolverhampton. This news put a spring into the step of British industry. Simon Griffiths, CEO of MAS West Midlands told TM: “It is very difficult to summarise just how important Jaguar Land Rover’s decision...is to the future of manufacturing in the West Midlands.” Although the sad event at Halewood will not diminish this fact, it has undoubtedly taken the shine off the celebration for JLR. In another pendulum swing for industrial optimism in the UK the defiantly confident show put on by UK defence and security manufacturers at DSEi (see p14) was swiftly followed by the announcement that Britain’s largest manufacturing employer, BAE Systems, is to shed 3,000 jobs. This is one in a string of unfortunate proofs of the instability undermining true economic rebalance in the UK, only exacerbated by government policy – not only with regard to defence procurement trends, but also in industrial strategy areas such as low carbon (see p10).

Cover image: BAE Systems’ Hawk Jet Trainer. See page 14 for more on the Brittish defence industry

But amid all this doubt there is ample cause for hope. I have already mentioned JLR’s massive new UK investment but the bite-back story for manufacturing in the UK goes far wider. At The Manufacturer of the Year Awards next month TM looks forward to trumpeting that message with a flourish! Jane Gray, Editor

04 14 26 32 1

The team Nick Hussey, Managing Director: Nick has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry spanning titles in the UK, US, Asia and Australia. In addition to his commercial enterprise experience Nick has also worked in government, spending a year as Managing Director of Manufacturing Insight, a programme aimed at changing the image of Manufacturing. He holds several non-executive directorships and is a founder member of the IET’s Manufacturing Policy Panel. n.hussey@sayonemedia.com

Editorial

IT Editor Malcolm Wheatley malcolm@malcolmwheatley.co.uk

Associate Editor Roberto Priolo

r.priolo@sayonemedia.com

Editorial Assistant George Archer

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Design

Art Director Martin Mitchell

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Henry Anson, Business Development Director: Henry is a shareholder in SayOne Media (SOM) and responsible for the company’s commercial activities developing new concepts and products for The Manufacturer’s readership. Henry is keen to build a bridge between the manufacturing community and sector which supports them. h.anson@sayonemedia.com

Designers Alex Cole Vicky Carlin

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Marketing Executive Grace Gilling g.gilling@sayonemedia.com

Project Director Matt Chilton

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Will Stirling, Editorial Director: Will edited TM for two and a half years and now is working to expand the SOM Media publishing portfolio. He is responsible for the launch of new reports and special supplements for The Manufacturer and for the maintenance of editorial standards across SOM publications. Before joining SOM Will worked for Euromoney and IPC Media. w.stirling@sayonemedia.com

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Jane Gray, Editor: Jane joined SOM in 2009 for the launch of the Lean Management Journal, sister publication to TM. Reporting concurrently for The Manufacturer, Jane focused on industry skills development features and lean enterprise until she became editor in June 2011. j.gray@sayonemedia.com

Tim Brown, Web Editor: Tim joined The Manufacturer in 2009 after working as Journalist for eight years in Australia on a range of lifestyle and business magazine publications. His primary areas of interest include the automotive industry and business development. t.brown@sayonemedia.com

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Contents 04 News and regular columns. A whistle stop tour of manufacturing news and events in the last month along with commentary on industrial research, legal issues and economic challenges for manufacturers.

NEW to this issue!

Our regular columns have been joined by The naked engineer – a noholds-barred critique of industrial policy and the role of manufacturing leaders written by one of your own

14 Lead Defenders of the realm: Will Stirling reviews the Defence & Security Equipment International trade show highlighting the part played by British companies in the latest brains and brawn the industry has to display

20 Interview Prescribing industrial health: Nigel Brooksby, chair of the Life Sciences Skills and Strategy board at sector skills council Cogent, talks to Jane Gray about his passion for skills development and the industry he has risen through over the last 30 years

Pillar features 26 Energy and sustainable manufacturing

Sustainable networking: Have you considered how your IT networks impact your company’s green intentions through power consumption and driving employee behaviours?

36 Leadership, people and skills

Nil sine labore: Tim Brown finds out about two pro active industrial initiatives to make the industrial workplace mean more to the next generation

39 Employee of the month

Rachel Carr, flight systems engineer, BAE Systems

42 Finance and professional services

The risks of recall: A round up of expert opinion and advice on the strategies needed to protect against brand and financial damage in the event of a product recall

54 IT in manufacturing

Hacked off: Technology pundits are not playing ‘cry wolf’ says Malcolm Wheatley as he takes a look at the realities of IT security for manufacturing companies

61 IT news 68 Innovation and design

Alter the odds: How to de-risk innovation for originality without the leap of faith

32 Special feature Blood lust for manufacturing: As the once in a generation engineering project for the record breaking supersonic car, Bloodhound finally begins manufacture TM finds out more about what it means to be an industrial partner to such a unique collaborative initiative.

Manufacturinginaction Each month TM conducts interviews and case studies with companies from the whole gamut of UK manufacturing from large multinationals to niche SMEs across sectors. This month TM visits:

72 Miller UK – construction 76 James Walker – industrial seals 82 Daval – custom furniture and fittings 3

Manufacturing BUSINESS WINS Deputy PM Nick Clegg at JLR the day of the announcement

INVESTM2NT

AUTOMATION

JLR invests in new engine plant Jaguar Land Rover announced a £355m investment in new engine plant in Wolverhampton. Flipping popular perception of the direction of demand on its head, JLR has said the site is primarily intended to supply mounting demand for its cars in Asia. A large proportion of JLR’s engines are currently produced by Ford at its Bridgend and Dagenham sites. It is

not expected that the new Wolverhampton plant will adversely affect employment or production at these facilities. It is estimated that the new JLR plant will create 750 direct jobs. As a sign of its commitment to supporting manufacturing strength, government has pledged £10m to assist in the build of the plant through its ‘Grant for Business Investment’ scheme.

Simon Griffiths, chief executive of the Manufacturing Advisory Service - West Midlands says the implications of the JLR investment for the local supply chain are extremely positive. “It is very difficult to summarise just how important Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to base its engine plant at i54 is to the future of manufacturing in the West Midlands,” he commented.

JOBS

Proposed BAE job cuts anger unions

BAE Systems, the UK’s largest manufacturing-based organisation, employing around 40,000 individuals in Britain, is to cut 3,000 jobs. BAE has declined to comment on the proposed job cuts, but Ian Waddell, the national officer for aerospace at the union Unite, said that the planned head count reduction would represent a “hammer blow” to British industry. According to Waddell, the pressure BAE finds itself under to make these cuts is a result of government’s ‘buy off the shelf’ policies for defence procurement. Earlier this year, BAE revealed a 12% drop in half-year profits, a decline it attributed to government spending cuts. This knock on effect on UK defence manufacturers is not unexpected. Ian Godden, chairman of the aerospace, defence and security trade body, ADS, predicted earlier this year that, without policy change from government, 20,000 to 30,000 jobs will be lost across its sector in the next three years.

Vulcan SFM, the offshore design and project management division of Sheffield Forgemasters, secured a £1.3m deal to supply a North Sea oil project. It will deliver six drill riser joints to Norwich-based offshore engineering company Aquaterra Energy. The forged steel components will be used to transfer minerals from the seabed to the surface in oil fields across the North Sea.

On September 26 Innomech launched a new offering called RoBox – literally a robot in a box. The new robot is designed to carry out repetitive, labour-intensive or hazardous product assembly tasks as well as quality testing in sectors where it can be difficult to recruit or retain staff. Easy to configure, RoBox does not require specialist programming knowledge of operaters.

ACQUISITIONS Clyde Blowers Capital, the Scottish industrial investor, sold its Clyde Union Pumps business to USbased SPX Corporation for £750m. SPX is a publicly traded multiindustry global engineering solutions company with annual revenues of $5.5bn, employing over 15,000 people around the globe.

AUTOMOTIVE The UK’s first low carbon vehicle academy opened on September 6 at Gateshead College’s Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation. The £9.8m academy focuses on battery assembly, manufacturing, testing, charging, safety and also includes a test track for green vehicles. The new facilities form part of the Government’s planned £200m Low Carbon Enterprise Zone.

BAE Systems employs over 100,000 people worldwide, 40,000 in the UK

Manufacturer of the off-road car Bowler, CPP Global Holdings, will purchase 23 acres of the former Jaguar site in Browns Lane from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. It plans to submit planning applications before the end of this year, and hopes to have redevelopment work underway by 2012.

News ANNIVERSARIES GE Aviation Wales celebrated its 20th anniversary of operations at its Nantgarw site north of Cardiff. The facility is one of the world’s largest aviation test, assembly and overhaul sites. The plant occupies over 1.2 million sq. ft. of workshop space and employs over 1,200 skilled workers including 150 apprentices, graduates and interns.

Datesfor yourdiary October

The Lean Business Systems annual conference is being held at the Marriott hotel – the Forest Arden, near Birmingham. Highlights include keynote sessions, with speakers such as Professor Peter Hines. For further information contact Jo Maniatt at jo.maniatt@LeanBusinessSystem.com

11-12

Energy Solutions, Total Workplace Management and M&E - The Building Services Event is being held at London Olympia. For further information visit http://www.buildingservicesevent.com/

ERP Connect, hosted by The Manufacturer, is being held at Haydock Racecourse. Connect with like-minded manufacturing professionals looking for growth and opportunity through the advancement of their IT systems. For further information on the event contact Jon Tudor at j.tudor@sayonemedia.com

November

Bribery Act – are you compliant? EEF is hosting this event at St James House, Birmingham. Visit http://www.eef.org.uk/events/current/Bribery-Act-are-you-compliant. htm for more info and to register.

The GE Aviation facility in Nantgarw, Wales

On September 27 Coca Cola Enterprises celebrated 50 years of operations at its Sidcup site. A special anniversary event welcomed visitors to tour the manufacturing facilities. There were also presentations and displays educating visitors on the work currently being undertaken to by CCE to progress its Corporate Responsibilty and Sustainability agenda.

MARINE INDUSTRY Business minister Mark Prisk launched a new scheme to support Britain’s maritime and ship-building industries, aimed at boosting exports and the domestic renewable energy sector. The Government claimed the growth strategy could generate a marine industry worth between £8bn and £25bn by 2020.

NUCLEAR Siemens announced its withdrawal from the nuclear industry, stopping the construction of new plants in many countries, while reaffirming its commitment to renewable energy. As well as the cancellation of projects in Germany, Siemens cancelled a longplanned contract with Russian nuclear firm Rosatom.

UK Energy Summit – held at IMechE, 1 Birdcage Walk, London, SW1H 9JJ. The event brings together leading keynote speakers, a ‘Question Time’ panel from government and energy supply and a selection of practical discussion forums. Call 0207 576 8118 to book.

The Manufacturer of the Year Awards Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony, the Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester. Join over 700 manufacturers in a celebration of UK manufacturing excellence. For more information on the awards contact Laura Williams on 01603 671 323 or l.williams@sayonemedia.com

9-10

An exhaustive ‘real life’ research study and continuous product development by SGS Carbide Tools with an aerospace client, has elevated SGS - showing on Stand 824 at Advanced Engineering UK 2011 - to the forefront of tooling technology in the machining of carbon composite materials for advanced manufacturing industry sector applications, such as aerospace and motorsport. Contact Simon Simmons on 0203 289 7515 / 07912 489786 or simon@complete-pr.co.uk

10 10-11

The Benefits of Automation for SME’s, held by the Food and Drink Federation at Coca Cola Enterprises, Nobel Road, Eley Trading Estate, Edmonton, N18 3DJ.

Lean Enterprise Academy Summit 2011. The summit is being held at the Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Email events@leanuk.org or go to http://www.leanuk.org/pages/event_summit_2011_booking.htm to register.

Growing Business Awards – held at 198 Kings Road London SW3 5XP. The event recognises UK entrepreneurs and growing businesses. Contact Alexis Carlson on 020 7368 7127 or email alexis.carlson@caspianmedia.com

CBI Annual Conference – the focus of this year’s conference will be Accelerating growth – breaking and entering new markets. To book and for more information please contact gemma.fisher@cbi.org.uk

Managing Risk and Extracting Value from Supply Chain Contracts – held at Eversheds LLP, Manchester. Visit http://www.cia.org.uk/Events or contact events@cia.org.uk for more details.

For all of the latest news in the manufacturing world visit www.themanufacturer.com

Manufacturing DSEi – News in Brief

About 400 British SMEs and many big companies exhibited at Defence and Security Equipment International 2011, the world’s biggest defence equipment show. Here’s a round-up of product and company news from some of them. (see page14 and www.themanufacturer.com/uk/dsei for further coverage).

Ultra Electronics’ Rifle-Mounted Gunfire Locator (RMGL) is designed to detect and localise the source of incoming high velocity gunfire. “Our gunfire locator is better than other detection systems because it uses frequency-phase processing rather than simply measuring the time of arrival of the sound,” said Ultra Electronics’ Tom Caster. The RMGL hasn’t hit production volumes yet, but it is operating in theatre. The benefits of wool over synthetic fabrics in the battlefield include greater resistance to acids, chemical residues and aerosols, says Armadillo Merino. And production techniques have enabled the company’s garments to thermoregulate the skin, reducing overheating in hot climates. “We’ve created a wool through selective breeding and novel manufacturing techniques that gets past many of the obstacles of previous wool products,” said a spokesman.

BAE Systems’ ‘stealth tank’ derives from the CV90120 BAE Systems’ CV90-120T is a tank you might expect to see in a Hollywood action movie. Completely black, the sides are masked by a hexagonal layer of ‘pixels’ which are able to change temperature rapidly. The cloaking device, called Adaptiv, picks up the background heat signature from ground sources and projects it onto the side of the tank, providing effective camouflage from thermal cameras in the dark.

Cinch Connectors’ Hyperion

Interconnect product manufacturer Cinch Connectors introduced their latest generation aerospace connector line. Hyperion is a new contact technology that can be incorporated into existing connector technologies, allowing customers to utilise many variants within one connector. Developed using fibre optics, Hyperion was manufactured using ‘active alignment’. This technique enables dynamic adjustments during the manufacturing process to create products with optimal performance. C-MAC MicroTechnology’s fibre optic front-end transceiver has been developed for avionics in the Eurofighter Typhoon. The manufacturing technology is based on thick film. “We start off with a ceramic substrate to which we add a precious metal interconnect by a thick film screen printing process,” says C-MAC’s Chris Andrews. “The process over time has allowed us to perform a technology transfer to higher temperature applications, with more demand by markets like the oil and gas industry.” Electrothermal Engineering displayed some less lethal equipment than some of their neighbours at DSEi. One of the more interesting devices was a silicone rubber mat heater, wrapped around batteries that operate in extremely cold conditions. Batteries in jets operating at high altitudes need heaters such as these to remain operational. Owned by Bibby Scientific, the company manufactures in Rochford, Essex.

Rugged case manufacturer Peli chose DSEi to launch a new series of Inter Stacking Pattern transit cases to keep loads tight. The ISP² cases are engineered with “wave design” stacking ribs on the lid and moulded in discs on the base that work in tandem to lock the cases together in a stack. They vastly reduce load movement and are designed to maximise the volume of standard logistics platforms. Peli moved to its Glossop, Derbyshire base in 2004. Ballistic jacket from Aero Sekur

Anglo-Italian company Aero Sekur has identified a gap on the market for a ‘midi’ unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). It will be capable of autonomously following a route to a given target, and responding to radio controlled directions. Aero Sekur’s Marco Adami said: “Previous UGV options have been limited to mini-products with restricted range, or large machines that are expensive and focused on specialist applications.” The QinetiQ West Wales UAV Centre and Clarion Events announced a strategic partnership that will deliver the world’s first scenario-based programme of indoor unmanned systems demonstrations. A “foot patrol in Afghanistan” scenario was unveiled to DSEi visitors. It demonstrated the integration and interoperability of unmanned ground and airborne systems with force patrol operations in support, surveillance and protection roles through a “real world” scenario.

News Low Carbon Vehicles

The automotive industry showed off its recent low carbon vehicle developments at two events last month: The LCV2011 at the Rockingham Motor Speedway and EcoVelocity in London. The full spectrum of environmentally friendly designs were on display with many of the OEM’s demonstrating their latest hydrogen powered offerings. Here are a number of highlights from the events.

Inside the Optare Leeds production plant; the company’s principle manufacturing site at which all of its integral range of buses

The Flybus consortium has successfully integrated its prototype combination of a Ricardo Kinergy flywheel and a Torotrack continuously variable transmission into an Optare Solo Midibus. The new Flybus system could be available at a fraction the cost of an electric hybrid system and offer fuel savings in excess of 10%.

A project led by advanced battery manufacturer Axeon and co-funded by the TSB has developed a new battery for use in electric vehicles that offers over a 35% improvement in range compared to existing technologies, for the same weight. The battery uses nickel cobalt manganese instead of lithium iron phosphate.

An astounding 95% of those who participated in a recent electric car trial run by the Technology Strategy Board reported that they did not have any difficulty with using an electric car. All of the participants initially suffered range anxiety but after three months this figure dropped to only 35%.

The UK’s first ‘open access’ hydrogen vehicle refuelling station is now officially open for business at Honda’s manufacturing facility in Swindon. Built and operated by BOC, the Swindon venture is the result of a partnership between Honda, BOC and Forward Swindon and is open to anyone developing or using hydrogenpowered vehicles.

The Vauxhall Ampera was named green car of the year by What Car? magazine. The range-extending plug-in hybrid also scooped the award for top alternative-fuel car at the EcoVelocity awards. GM, Vauxhall’s parent company is also working on a pure electric city car and considers itself a leader in hydrogen fuel technology. At the What Car? awards, Greenpeace campaigners protested against Volkswagen, the biggest car company in Europe, who they say are financing lobby groups to oppose Europe increasing its commitment to Greenhouse gas reduction from 20% to 30% by 2020.

The North East is set to further cement its position as a UK leader in the low carbon vehicle industry through the development of the country’s first dedicated training centre and test track. Gateshead College’s Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation will deliver a wide range of low carbon vehicles skills aimed at the automotive industry. LCV2011 played host to 110 exhibitors and attracted a total of 2341 visitors. EcoVelocity, The UK’s first lowcarbon motor show at Battersea Power Station, attracted 8,700 visitors. Almost 7000 consumer drives were taken in the electric, low and ultra-low carbon vehicles that were on display

The K1 Evelio has set a new standard for LCV performance Nestled in the Supercar Paddock at EcoVelocity was the British-built K1 Evelio. Developed by Alex Letteriello and launched in July, the zero emission Evelio is capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds (a full second faster than a Ferrari 360), can recharge in an hour and has a range of 150 miles per charge.

For all of the latest news in the manufacturing world visit www.themanufacturer.com

ManufacturingAppointments UK Appointments Pasquale Di Bartolomeo MBDA

Pasquale Di Bartolomeo has been appointed executive group director of strategy at MBDA, as well as being made a member of MBDA’s Executive Committee, reporting directly to CEO Antoine Bouvier. He takes over from Giuseppe Snider who is due to retire at the end of this year. Di Bartolomeo will lead a multi-national integrated team whose

responsibilities will cover strategic planning, strategic cooperation, M&A activity and the group’s product strategy.

David Delaney TMAT Limited

TMAT Limited, a multi-national manufacturer of acoustic components for tractors and excavators, has recently cemented its senior management team to drive the business forward. David Delaney has been appointed operations manager and is part of the team that has built TMAT into a successful

manufacturing operation, growing 30 per cent in the past year. Mr Delaney has a long association with TMAT and its customer base and in his new role he will oversee the key operational elements of the business with around 90 per cent of the workforce reporting to him.

Steve Evans Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing

Steve Evans has taken on the role of director of research in industrial sustainability at Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing. Professor Evans’ background is both in industry and academia. He spent 12 years in industry as the engineering systems manager at Martin-Baker Engineering, a manufacturer

of ejection seats. Evans has over 20 years of academic experience, including supervising over 120 PhD and MSc students at Cranfield University. Evans movement will mean that EPSRC funding for industrial sustainability research will be re-directed to Cambridge rather than Cranfield University.

Jayne Edwards Technical Apprenticeship Service

Jayne Edwards has been appointed as the managing director of the Technical Apprenticeship Service, a strategic employer-led initiative that was initially funded from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Growth and Innovation Fund. Ms Edwards previously managed a number of high

profile skills initiatives for Cogent, including the Sector Compact, a programme which successfully increased demand for technical skills across England through the Train to Gain programme. She has begun the process of setting up the TAS, including building a team to deliver the service.

Nigel Issa Opera Solutions

Nigel Issa has been appointed as Principal EMEA Supply Chain manager at Opera Solutions, the international big data analytics

firm. Nigel specializes in advising firms on how to use Big Data to resolve supply chain issues and become more competitive in the process.

Supply chain solutions provider Wincanton has appointed Guy Elliott as managing director of contract logistics for the UK and Ireland. Mr Elliott will focus on strengthening Wincanton’s position in the UK and Ireland market and take responsibility for operations across all industry sectors. With over 20 years’ experience in the logistics industry, his recent career history was spent at DHL. Business Secretary Vince Cable has announced the appointments to the group that will advise Ministers on the establishment and the strategic direction of the Green Investment Bank. The group will be chaired by Sir Adrian Montague. The nine members have a wide range of experience and capability in finance, but also first rate expertise in green economics, sustainable and responsible financial services and development banking.

He joins MBDA from Finmeccanica Corporate, where he held several key positions prior to becoming responsible for group strategic planning in 2005.

International Appointments International heating and combustion manufacturer Enertech Group has appointed Graham Williamson as the new managing director of its UK business, Enertech Limited. Mr Williamson joined the company at the beginning of the year as general manager for the Nu-way burner division. In his new role, he will be responsible for strategic and operational management of both of the Enertech Group’s brands in the UK. Prior to joining Enertech, Williamson was the general manager for Ideal Commercial Heating, a role he took on after nine years as a business director for ISG Group.

To notify The Manufacturer of your company’s appointments, please contact Roberto Priolo at r.priolo@sayonemedia.com and 0207 401 6033

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Economics

Thebigpicture

Made in China Let us eatcake not as cheap as you think… China has long had a reputation for low cost manufacturing and many UK companies have tried to cut costs by getting components or products made there. However, warns Dr Ken Platts of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), the savings disappoint.

or many years China research went on to quantify has been seen as 35 ‘ongoing’ costs, over the place to get and above the quoted price things for supplying the product made cheaply. or component. Two of the However, while the most significant of these quoted cost for making a were transportation and component or product may insurance costs. The figures be less than it would be in varied from company to the UK, research carried out company, but for one of at the IfM shows there are the companies studied the additional costs which are costs amounted to nearly often underestimated and 16% of ongoing expenses. can add an average of 50% The best case showed that to the total bill. the additional costs added This research is only 14% to the the first attempt to quoted price, try to capture all whereas in the The the costs involved worst case, companies in sourcing goods studied ranged the final cost was from China. The four times the from a highproject carried quoted price. tech printer out six in-depth The project manufacturer case studies of with a turnover went on to of £190 million compare these UK companies to an electrical figures with how who have sourced control panel products or much companies business with components from thought it cost a turnover Chinese firms. them to outsource of £2.5 million The companies goods from studied ranged China. A survey from a highrevealed that tech printer most companies manufacturer with a significantly underestimate turnover of £190 million to the add-on costs. While an electrical control panel the case studies showed business with a turnover of an average add-on cost of £2.5 million. 50%, the perception of the The project came up companies surveyed was with a list of 14 set-up that they only added an costs – the most significant average of 25%, although of these were staff time there was large variation. To and travel costs involved download a report on this in researching and visiting IfM research go to: potential suppliers. The www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk

These articles are abridged. For full versions go to

It might seem like having your cake and eating it too, but why can’t we rebalance and de-carbonise our economy? This question is at the heart of EEF’s latest report which began our new Green and Growth campaign. Steve Radley, Director of Policy at EEF reports.

he government wants manufacturing to play a bigger role in the economy; but badly designed environmental policies drive up costs for UK companies rather than stimulating investment in innovation, jobs and supply chains. Although the UK has led the world in trying to tackle climate change, the primary reason we may hit our 2020 carbon target is because of the recession and the weak recovery. This is why cynics suggest that we can either be green, or we can grow – not both. This needn’t be true. The tensions between green and Although growth are of our own making, the UK has led and are avoidable through basing the world in trying to tackle policy on a good understanding of climate change, the challenges manufacturers face the primary in investing and innovating in the reason we may UK including the significant costs hit our 2020 and risks involved in innovation. carbon target Recent EEF research suggests is because of that most manufacturers see the recession opportunities in the green area – and the weak half of them plan to be part of low recovery carbon-technology supply chains. But, at the same time only one in eight companies believe that the government’s climate and environmental policies will boost their investment in the UK. In the coming month, we will set out more detailed policy advice to government, but for now, we highlight four key areas: Targets; industry largely supports the UK’s long-term carbon targets but government needs to take a hard look at whether the renewables target is making decarbonisation unnecessarily expensive; The need to see a shift from taxing emissions associated with production to encouraging innovation focussing on the emissions associated with product lifecycle; Creating greater certainty for investors and developing a more coherent mix of policies. In particular, government must tackle the unnecessary complexity and compliance costs associated with taxing a unit of electricity four times through the EU Emissions Treading Scheme, the Climate Change Levy, the Carbon Reduction Commitment and, from 2013, the Carbon Price Floor. EEF will publish its final report in December. For more information and a copy of the interim report visit eef.org.uk

Monthly columns

Thenaked engineer: stripping industry issues bare

e hear a lot at the moment about how important manufacturing is to the UK economy; and about time too. Manufacturing accounts 13% of the UK Economy, much more than the 8% provided by the disproportionately disruptive financial services sector. It is a relief to see political rhetoric changing. The previous government’s ‘Master Plan’ was to let manufacturing continue its decline, from about 25% of the UK economy in the 1980’s, down to under 10% by 2020. Fortunately, UK manufacturing growth is now back on the agenda. Unfortunately, that growth is not coming through as fast as it could, and much of what passes for ConDem and men-from-the-ministry industrial support is well meaning but largely irrelevant window dressing. Manufacturing does not need special grants, technology strategy boards, strange tax breaks, or a blizzard of seemingly unconnected government initiatives. What it does need is stable and internationally competitive tax and regulation, and even-handed treatment when compared to other sectors of the UK economy. Neither of these is currently happening. Examples of uncompetitive tax and regulation are numerous. National Insurance: a pure tax on jobs, strange in a nation which needs to build employment; Entrepreneurs: Let’s keep changing the income tax, capital gains tax, and pensions rules every few years, so they never know what to expect and leave the country. UK energy costs: Not only high and variable, but now turbocharged with a carbon stealth tax. Want to build a new factory in the UK? Land and construction costs are more expensive than just about anywhere else, before you get onto planning restrictions and transport. Use your spare cash to invest in your existing factory? Forget it, your UK bank not only won’t lend, but also wants to charge you a fat fee to spend your own cash. It’s got its own problems to worry about, so reducing its own risk is

A no holds barred critique of the historically an unbalanced economy and it slighting practices.

much more important than letting you grow, whatever the fluffy TV adverts might say. Moving on to even handedness: Manufacturing does not need special protection, but nor should it be expected to subsidise everything around it. Like all private enterprise, manufacturing needs to share the burden of paying for government spending…but when the business of government becomes more than half of the UK’s economy, it has gone too far.

Use your spare cash to invest in your existing factory? Forget it, your UK bank not only won’t lend, but also wants to charge you a fat fee to spend your own cash A more specific danger is that the UK predilection for annually subsiding the development of financial services at the expense of other industries. This subsidy takes the form of an implicit state guarantee of customers’ bank deposits, so the banks pay less interest to borrow than they should. They have government subsidised raw materials. We gave up subsidising shipbuilding, steel making or car manufacture some time ago. The cost of the subsidy was more obvious, and the argument that shipbuilding, or whatever, was a strategic industry that had to be protected was quickly seen through. So it is strange that we adopt other rules for financial services. So, as manufacturers, we have quite a challenge. But we are back in fashion and have a weak pound to help exports. We need to seize the moment and make sure we get the fundamentals of internationally competitive tax and regulation properly fixed. We mustn’t get fobbed off with the shallow window dressing of largely irrelevant Government initiatives. Get this wrong and we won’t be the sixth biggest manufacturer in the world for long, and the old Master Plan to reduce UK manufacturing will have come true.

Naked engineer is a new column for The Manufacturer. Written by anonymous industry representatives it gives manufacturing leaders the opportunity to speak out on the challenges they face without restraint. If you would like to contribute email your thoughts to j.gray@sayonemedia.com. All submissions will be treated as confidential.

Thelegallowdown Feed-in tariffs Green or financially lean? Philip Gray, Associate, Thomas Eggar LLP

he Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published its Consultation on fast-track review of feed-in tariffs for small scale low carbon electricity on March 18, 2011 and following the conclusion of this consultation on May 6, announced that it would cut feed-in tariff (FIT) rates with effect from August 1, 2011. Manufacturers, take note!

FIT for purpose The FIT scheme came into force on 1 April 2010 and applies to wind, solar photovoltaic (Solar PV), hydro-electric and anaerobic digestion (AD). Under this scheme, manufacturers (among others) who generate low-carbon electricity receive a fixed sum

The fear within DECC appears to be that take up of the FIT scheme by larger projects will reduce the funding available to the smaller projects which were the focus of the scheme as it was initially envisaged Philip Gray, Associate, Thomas Eggar LLP for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated; guaranteed payments linked to RPI for electricity supply to the National Grid for a period of 25 years. The aim of the scheme is to incentivise people and organisations to use their land or rooftops to supplement electricity produced by the National Grid. The fear within DECC appears to be that take-up of the FIT scheme by larger projects (potentially involving manufacturers with large surface areas at their disposal) will reduce the funding available to the smaller projects which were the focus of the scheme as it was initially envisaged. So, sadly for manufacturers looking to take advantage of the scheme, DECC has cut the tariffs for larger projects in order to redress the balance.

The future? Figures at December 31, 2010 indicated that 14,644 Solar PV projects had been registered under the FIT scheme. Although this overall figure is slightly below the initial projection, the figure of 225 new build projects represents a 67% increase on the projected figure. It became apparent to the DECC that these figures were set to increase further, as awareness of the ability to generate a reliable income stream, grew. The rapid take up of the FIT scheme supports the coalition governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s green credentials, but it also has a significant financial impact during this time of austerity measures and public spending cuts. It appears that this conflict between green versus financially lean is at the heart of DECCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposals to make considerable cuts to the tariffs. The question that the coalition government must ask itself, however, is not whom the tariffs are seeking to incentivise, but who is best placed to provide the levels of green, renewable energy that the country requires. Although the cuts to the tariffs may not impact significantly on the smaller domestic projects, the reduced tariffs have the potential to make future larger projects financially unviable, as the returns will simply not justify the capital outlay required. Paradoxically, it is those projects that would be most effective in producing Solar PV energy which are most likely to be deferred or abandoned as a result of the tariff cuts. So, large buildings such as warehouses, factories and other manufacturing premises would be ideal for Solar PV equipment, but projects of this size would almost always fall within the new, less attractive tariff regime.

Please contact Philip Gray, Associate, Thomas Eggar LLP on 01635 571024 or philip.gray@thomaseggar.com for more information

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Defenders of the realm DSEi puts on a show despite economic gloom

Defence and Security Equipment International at London’s Excel in September was a lavish showcase of futuristic, precision-made, and often UK-made military kit. Despite dwindling defence budgets, 1,390 exhibitors were bullish about today’s and tomorrow’s opportunities in emerging markets, security applications, cyber solutions and space. Will Stirling reports.

BAE Systems’ Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer, delivered to the RAF in September, will improve fighter pilot training by merging real flying with virtual aerial warfare.

here are few places in the world where 155mm artillery and invisible tanks line up alongside Royal Navy frigates, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, virtual rifle simulators and ‘smart’ combat helmets. Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi) is the world’s largest fully integrated defence and security exhibition. Whatever your personal view on the arms industry, it is an impressive spectacle of products and companies from all over the world and a statement that, despite being under pressure, the defence industry is in pretty good health. Of the 1,392 exhibitors at this year’s exhibition, 560 were SMEs and 400 of these were British companies, according to the show organisers. This is the highest proportion of SMEs at the show to date. One of the drivers for this change is the gradual, but sometimes rapid, switch from ‘plain vanilla’ defence products to those used for security applications. As defence budgets in the industrialised world diminish, this is a race that has consumed big OEMs and smaller companies alike. Also, more straight defence companies are working hard to access the remarkably upbeat civil aerospace market and more will follow – think that in 2011 to date, Airbus has received 1,015 orders for commercial aircraft, while it received just 574 orders in the whole of 2010. Here TM reveals some of the stories about the UKmanufactured equipment on display at DSEi 2011:

BAE Systems and Tinsley Bridge specialise to deliver UOR on time

mong all the awe-inspiring hardware from BAE Systems at DSEi, the CVR(T) has an interesting tale. The CVR(T) family of vehicles has been around since 1972. Better known by the Army as Scimitar, Spartan and Samaritan, they are now being upgraded in a £30 million programme to equip them more suitably for theatre in Afghanistan. The upgrade is being driven by an Urgent Operational Requirement, or UOR, which was predominantly to provide protection from mineblast. UORs need a fast response and indeed the first cohort of Scimitar II vehicles have been deployed to theatre already. Such a big upgrade – covering, in this case, blast attenuating seating and more headroom, a new lighter aluminium alloy body and improved ceramic Appliance Appliqué

armour – can take several years to plan and deliver. The UOR gave CVR(T) 18-months. How did they do it? Part of the solution was working with supply chain partners to outsource non-core competencies. For example, engineering firm Tinsley Bridge of Sheffield worked with BAE Systems Telford on key components like the torsion bar in the suspension, which is built with a high tensile material that Tinsley uses all the time. Tinsley Bridge worked closely with engineers at BAE Telford to create the first component for this application made from this material. First prototypes were delivered within a year, shaving several months off the expected project timescale under BAE’s original CVR supply chain. The project is a good exemplar of BAE Systems’ tendency to

Leadstory DSEi 2011

Cyber opportunities and ‘off-the-shelf’ conversations – Finmeccanica

erhaps the company that best exemplifies the diversification race as defence budgets shrink is Finmeccanica. The diversified, high tech conglomerate has a very large defence component and big footprint in the UK – 10,000 people in the UK work for the company, about 13% of its global workforce. Finmeccanica is represented across Britain from Edinburgh, to Basildon, in a portfolio that includes radar, sensors, systems integration, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters. UAVs are a growth segment for international defence as more military services get access to reliable surveillance technology that avoids putting humans at risk. The UK MoD recently backed a largely Anglo-French group to develop a UAV platform, a blow to Finmeccanica who is a big player here through its SELEX Galileo subsidiary. Senior company bosses including the UK chief executive pointed out that while BAE Systems and Thales are responsible for most of the work, Finmeccanica is involved in some of the capability of the system and is hopeful that there is enough potential in the future UAV space to take a larger slice of the market. At the end of 2010, Finmeccanica invested several million pounds into its UK-based cyber

outsource an increasing number of non-core competencies, in an effort to save money and deliver UOR programmes on time. Elsewhere, during the show the company’s information intelligence division BAE Systems Detica released a report with Chatham House, on cyber security. It said that while government and the military have a strong record of advanced cyber security, large companies are increasingly faced with balancing the cost and practicality of implementing a suitable level of security for low probability but high risk attacks. BAE’s cyber and intelligence services represented about 6%, approx £1.37bn, of group revenues in 2010.

Image 1 DNVS-4, a new wideangle indirect observation camera made by Selex Galileo in Edinburgh. Image 2 Compact Test Range Area at missile maker MBDA in Bolton.

1 2

Image 3 £30m has been spent on upgrading the CVR(T) vehicle family

Visitor comment A walk around DSEi never fails to impress upon me the sheer ingenuity and capability of our defence industry - it also serves as a reminder of the important role that it plays in supporting the UK economy. I was also very pleased to see one of our clients, a small manufacturer of highly sophisticated equipment which offers, among other things, superior protection to military personnel. Their product has been trialled alongside leading international companies and came out on top. They are currently busy negotiating contracts but subsequent orders will be fulfilled here in the UK. Peter Russell, Head of Manufacturing, Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking

solutions. Archangel is the snappily-titled Security Operations Centre (SOC). The place looks like a huge call centre but has a much more serious mandate than selling double glazing. Archangel offers organisations a constant remote Protective Monitoring Service that detects when an information breach occurs and seeks out and analyses anomalous events, building patterns which protect against and actively respond to complex and persistent cyber security threats. “In the UK we’re doing business with financial institutions, online gaming companies and others who are increasingly worried about how they both protect UK customers and make sure that people can see their data is well protected,” said Michael Clayforth-Carr, chief executive of Selex SI UK. “The opportunity for Finmeccanica Cyber in the UK is immense.” Concerns have been voiced by many in the defence industry that a government policy to move toward ‘off the shelf’ defence procurement will endanger the industry. Indeed it is just this policy which has been blamed for BAE’s intention to cut 3,000 jobs in the UK. When asked about the risk to Finmeccanica however, Alberto de Benedictis, Finmeccanica UK’s CEO said: “When it comes down to it, for UK Armed Forces hardly ever is anything bought directly off-the-shelf. The role and scope of the industrial base is very important to achieve this – we are talking to [the Government] and we are very open in our discussions about what are the options that they can really consider. The key question is can defence contractors actually react quickly to a specific requirement in the time available?”

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SULSA, the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft, was manufactured in a week

Testing out a UAV design? Have one printed in a week Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s a plastic UAV, printed using a 3D sintering process. The Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft, or SULSA, on display at DESi went from drawing board to flight in just seven days. With a 1.2m wingspan, SULSA is the world’s first published “3D-printed aircraft”. Developed by Professors Keane

and Scanlan at Southampton University, in partnership with Newbury-based 3T RPD, the aircraft was designed with features that would have been impossible or prohibitively expensive using subtractive techniques, like turning, milling and boring. Southampton University produces the design, the 3T RPD team design the clipping features, trays, and hinges, “to make it viable to manufacture, so it would work

‘Britishness’ essential to General Dynamics’ SV contract

The UK is fast developing a comparative advantage in the application of AM to many fields Ian Haliday, CEO, 3T RPD

straight out of the machines,” says Ian Haliday, CEO of 3T RPD and a big advocate of additive manufacturing’s (AM) potential. SULSA cost under £3,000 to build and flies at 75kts (90mph), with a cruise range of 45km at 38kts and a flying time of 40-minutes. Mr Haliday says that the company is in talks with several other organisations about buying the technology for UAV applications but can’t provide names. 3T RPD has also designed and made an AM heat exchanger designed to fit in the side of a Formula 1 car. The structure of the component makes it impossible to machine from a single billet. With companies like EADS in Bristol recently revealing a 3D-printed working bicycle, AM has the potential to become a strong specialism for the UK. But we need to act quickly says Haliday. “The UK is fast developing a comparative advantage in the application of AM to many fields,” he says. “Companies with these AM machines and university departments need to collaborate more with perfecting techniques and new applications to best our foreign competitors – the US is pouring millions into AM technology.”

General Dynamics UK, a subsidiary of the US-based General Dynamics Corp, employs 1,600 people in the UK mainly in South Wales and Hastings. Banners showing SV Family (‘Special Vehicle’) adorned the main hall at DSEi and the British Army’s Scout SV, for which the General Dynamics is the prime contractor, is a perfect example of a pan-European, integrated supply chain for a defence product with the UK at its heart. The hull and tracks are fabricated in Spain, where the jigs and line are already set up, the turret body comes from Rheinmetal in Germany, many of the electronics and monitors are made by French company Thales in Glasgow. But the vehicle will be assembled and integrated in the UK at DSG in Donnington and Andrew Boyle, senior manager for media relations at General Dynamics UK, says that 80% of the value is UK content. “We are a UK-focused manufacturer,” says Mr Boyle. “General Dynamics UK is a limited company, we have P&L in the UK and we make the decisions about finance and suppliers, while reporting back to the corporation, but we have independence.” This ‘Britishness’ may have helped the company to succeed with MoD tenders in 2011 where perhaps other US or European-registered companies have been less successful.

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Leadstory DSEi 2011

C-MAC pushes into ‘space class’ with rugged electronics range

-MAC MicroTechnology began life in1943 as Erie Resistor and at one time was part of a group with several thousand employees. Headquartered in Bucks, today it manufactures from sites in Gt Yarmouth in the UK, Belgium and Canada. About 70% of its business is in bespoke solutions including fuel and power management systems, in theory installed in any vehicle, on sea, air or space. In aerospace and defence, C-MAC’s range of electronics are typically used in avionics equipment that relay information from flying systems to the cockpit. For example, one of its front end optical transceivers is designed for use in the Eurofighter Typhoon. “The database that the Typhoon uses is very specific. Pretty much all the computers on that aircraft are using this module to interconnect the fibre network around the craft,” says aerospace and defence division CEO, Karen Oddey. Typical products here are transceivers and bus-type products, built to the MIL-1553 standard.

Space is a strong growth area as the demand for mobile phones drives the production of satellites and C-MAC was recently awarded Class K accreditation for spacecompliant components Karen Oddey, Aerospace and Defence division CEO, C-MAC Micro Technology

Rigorous accreditation and devotion to reliability in harsh environments is the secret to success in markets like defence, aerospace, and increasingly space, says product marketing manager Chris Andrews. C-MAC has developed manufacturing techniques to produce electronics and opto-electronics like transceivers, manufactured in materials like ceramics, which are designed to protect the circuits and dissipate heat up to 225°C. A growing trend for manufacturers to offer through-life engineering services is driving the need for ruggedised products like C-MAC’s, and the manufacturing thought-process is critical, says Mr Andrews. “Ceramics are used to enhance the reliability of the multichip module. It helps to conduct heat away better than glass fibre and it almost eliminates out-gassing from any materials

that are used in the assembly. Using a typical PCBA material – the standard is the FR4, organic material – there would be many corrosive chemicals out-gassed that the product would fail long before its 20-year life.” This accretive effect can also come from materials used to attach the components, so the choice of adhesives in such modules is critical. “Experience in the materials and correct use of the materials is a key USP for C-MAC,” he adds. Space is a strong growth area, says Ms Oddey, as the demand for mobile phones drives the production of satellites and C-MAC was recently awarded Class K accreditation for space-compliant components. “It’s more satellites but also more electronics on satellites, which means more power for electronic use on board, which in turn means power management which is playing to a whole area of our capability,” she says. Earlier this year C-MAC launched an oil and gas electronics manufacturing services business, showing that its aerospace and other harsh environment expertise was suitable for the resurgent UK (and overseas) oil and gas sector.

Molex targets UK and European defence markets

hile many companies are moving sideways from defence into civil aerospace and security markets, global interconnector maker Molex is pushing further into defence. In Europe the company, which produces over 100,000 electrical products across all sectors from telecom and computers to automotive and medical, is focusing on the UK, Germany and France which represent about 65% of the European defence market. With manufacturing sites globally, its nearest base to the UK is Shannon, Ireland. Stephen Webster, European Industry Specialist, Military/Aerospace at Molex says that communicating the manufacturing process is important in what is a very competitive market. “It’s important to understand how they are made and present this to the customer,” he says. “We give examples of some of the white goods and

automotive products we make, the processes and automation we put into that, which can be replicated for harsher environment connectors. It’s not only essential for audit, but it’s a fantastic sales tool – we invite customers to our facilities, once they see the processes and the rigour, that sometimes seals the deal.” Molex has had recent success with its RF range of products, especially in homeland security, radio systems and monitoring systems for the military and its glass fibre optic products are also becoming popular in defence, as networks converge

and the demand is for ever more data. Molex is one of just a few connector companies that makes its own optic fibre, including the manufacture of the glass. In September it joined aerospace and defence trade group ADS, and Mr Webster says this has paid dividends: “It’s been a good move, for introductions and their white papers and reports on defence industry updates from government are excellent,” he says.

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Part of running a successful business is knowing what your competition is doing, better than they know it themselves learn

Prescribing industrial health

Nigel Brooksby’s journey from rustic youngster to successful industry leader to one of the UK’s most influential figures in the development of life sciences skills demonstrates what dedication to learning can achieve. Jane Gray talks to him about his career and his view of the challenges now facing his industry.

or a man born and bred deep in the Leicestershire countryside before launching himself into thirty years of busy industrial activity the central London hotel setting for my meeting with Nigel Brooksby was a long way from home in more ways than one. But, Mr Brooksby was soon at ease, reflecting on his professional turning points and speaking enthusiastically about his expectations for the future of the UK life sciences industry. A board member of the SSC for science based industries, Cogent, but also a ubiquitous presence on almost every life sciences industry council under the sun – or so it seems – Mr

Brooksby enjoyed a successful career in industry before ‘retiring’ just over a year ago. From his first position with Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) as a sales and marketing representative in 1972, Mr Brooksby rose through the ranks at many of the foremost global pharmaceutical companies, eventually finishing his industrial career as non-executive chairman and director of Sanofi UK and Ireland. But it turns out that promotion comes even more quickly after retirement and Brooksby soon found a new career’s worth of work following a personal passion – skills development.

Brooksby’s untiring enthusiasm for UK plc is obvious, something he says he shares with many contemporaries who have risen to senior positions in industry. “I think there is a real commitment among the Brits who have become senior in industry to give something back,” he says. But where does his own dedication to skills spring from? Naturally a certain awareness of skills challenges is unavoidable after a long career, but Brooksby reflects that, in retrospect, there may be something more to his fascination with the subject. “It’s only something I’ve come to think on more recently,” he says. “But when I was 9 I left my tiny village school to join one which was four times the size and it was quickly discovered that I could not read or write.” Wryly he continues: “I’d only been interested in learning all the things that seemed essential at the time – how to drive a tractor and ride a horse on my parents farm. Luckily, either the headmaster spotted something in me or he was an outrageous optimist. In any case, I got the help I needed – but I could so easily have slipped through the net. I think that is why skills development is so important to me now.”

Back to the future Whatever the motivation behind his dedication, Nigel Brooksby has certainly become one of the leading a lights for industry skills in the UK. Although he modestly declined to comment on this, a colleague from Cogent outrightly stated that he was their first choice for chair of the SSC’s Life sciences Skills and Strategy board when the position became available earlier this year. For Brooksby accepting this position meant the opportunity to be a part of the future of industry. “There are two key elements needed in order to let the UK remain competitive in life sciences,” he says. “You need to make it attractive to do research here, and you need the skills to make that research count.”

Interview Nigel Brooksby

Recounting some of his own experiences and observing different attitudes towards workplace skills, Brooksby comments: “Skills never stand still, any manager who tells you they know their job because they have been doing it for ever is talking rubbish. We never stop needing to learn.” As a whole Brooksby thinks this is something which is well recognised in life sciences companies. “The industry is good at developing people,” he says, “but you need the raw materials.” In part this is down to companies. Brooksby fondly remembers his own first career steps: “When I joined Wellcome I did so over the head of two other job opportunities. One with Pfizer and the other with Eli Lilly. I chose Wellcome because they did not just offer me a job. They took an interest in me – giving me a day shadowing a medical rep before I had made any commitment to them. They wanted to be sure I understood what I was entering into.” Brooksby is confident this kind of approach makes for more lasting and productive employment relationships. But finding the right talent and developing a framework for meaningfully qualifying it and preparing it for developing industry demands is not all down to the employer. Cogent have put a great deal of work, over recent years, into understanding what employability in an individual means for the sectors under its care. This is now something of which Brooksby is proud to be an active part. Just the day before Brooksby met with TM he had taken part in the launch of a new foundation degree in Life Sciences Laboratory Technology at the University of Kent. In 2012 this will form part of the first ever higher apprenticeship programme for life sciences.

Cradle to grave: innovation for a new industry outlook According to Brooksby the kinds of skills and business

UK life sciences industry: fast facts Growth of knowledge around life sciences technology and manufacturing has made it one of the fastest growing sectors of the 21st century. Biotechnology is swiftly becoming the primary area of focus for life sciences. By 2030, the OECD predicts that biotechnology will be responsible for 80% of pharmaceuticals, 35% of chemicals industries. Today, life sciences accounts for 3 million UK jobs across industry, higher education and the health service – in the private sector each of these jobs is worth around £190,000 a year more than six times the national average. With a combined turnover of £20 billion across UK-based pharmaceutical multinationals and medical biotechnology SMEs, life sciences is the fourth largest export category in Europe. understanding in companies is changing rapidly. This is happening in response to the changing role of companies from developers and manufacturers of medicines, to providers of

the provision of information, treatment and follow-up.” Add to this trend the fact that innovation, for the first time in decades, is slowing down in life sciences and there is a compelling reason to understand new skills requirements. Skills never stand still, any manager “After years of being a success story, who tells you they know their job creating treatments for because they have been doing it for diseases and medical ever is talking rubbish. We never stop conditions which have made huge impacts needing to learn on society we are now having something of a drought,” says Brooksby. integrated healthcare solutions. “The patents on the big “Pharma companies don’t blockbuster drugs are coming to just make medicines anymore,” an end and we are facing huge explains Brooksby. “They drops in revenues and profits.” have a wider social role and Despite this challenge responsibility in helping people Brooksby is optimistic: get healthy and stay healthy. “Everything happens for a This means they have to develop reason,” he says. “We now have capabilities in diagnostics, a chance to be innovative and

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Interview Nigel Brooksby

many companies are changing their R&D models from the traditional scientist-led research in which it takes 12-15 years to develop a new molecule and the attrition rate is high.” Just what the model is changing into is not yet clear. Companies are trying a number of different approaches, says Brooksby - many large organisations are taking a lead from the fact most innovation is coming out of SME manufacturers and are breaking down large R&D teams into highly specialised niche groups. There is also far more partnering for open innovation and a growing emphasis on bio-technology as an area for development. What is clear though is that this sector, famed for its high investment in R&D, is becoming a little more reluctant to sign off the £9m a day for product development that it did in 2005. Indeed recent data from Reuters

Right: Global pharmaceutical R&D investment declined for the first time ever in 2010 dropping 3% on the previous year

After years of being a success story, creating treatments for diseases and medical conditions which have made huge impacts on society we are now having something of a drought

Biography Nigel Brooksby 1972:

Graduated with a BSc in Biological Life Sciences

1972-1980

Worked at Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline). Positions included: sales and marketing director and general manager, Iran

1980-1991

Worked for Pfizer rising from regional director to vice president global

1991-1992

Worked for Walsh as group managing director

1992-2008

Worked at Sanofi UK and Ireland as chairman and managing director

2006-2008

President of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry

2008

Ranked 12 in The Telegraph’s Top 1000 business people in chemicals and healthcare

2008-2010

Held the position of non executive chairman and director at Sanofi Ltd

2010- Present

Appointed to various industry boards and advisory councils. Key roles include: board membership for the sector skills council for science-based industries, Cogent; chairman of the Cogent Life Sciences Advisory Council; member of the Department of Business Innovation and Skills Industrial Development Advisory Board; member of the Imperial College London Clinical Research Board

Nigel Brooksby was born in Leicestershire where he now lives with his wife. They have three grown up daughters.

2011 Pharmaceutical R&D fact book shows that in 2010 pharmaceutical investment in R&D declined for the first time ever. Global investment was down a whole 3% on 2009. With this shrinking pool, the ability of the UK to demonstrate that it has the best opportunities for research, backed up with the brightest minds and the most forward thinking skills programmes become more important than ever before. For Brooksby the potential advantages the UK has to offer in

all these areas are unique. While acknowledging that there is always more that could be done by government he is flattering of their efforts to consult with industry on industrial policy formation. He says too that NHS data in the UK offers an almost unprecedented opportunity to carry out in depth clinical trials – if only an unusually high red tape barrier could be overcome. “The UK is certainly under a heavier burden of red tape than many other countries in which I have worked,” says Brooksby. In his view this is not competitive. “Part of running a successful business is knowing what your competition is doing, better than they know it themselves.” He concludes: “This applies to our international standing as much as it does to corporations. We need to keep up to date with what Germany and France are doing as well as India and China. We must retain the investment that we have in the UK and then win more. It is a competitive situation and we need to make sure we realise our opportunities.”

Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

EEFInsight Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the manufacturer STANDFIRST Oborperillam et dui tis el ilit vel ing ectet, veliquamet wis nis adit luptatum zzril ex erat wisim zzrilla augait nonse ea augait iustrud duis accum digna faci blamet, quisit luptat. Wisisit, qui eril eugait dolorper iure ea facilis niam, sustie magna at. Esto commolorpero od modignim volorperit vel ent irit am iniat at prat lum zzrit, quis alit at iriure moluptatum del ullan velis nostrud dolor sis ecte del enisi.

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Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

lutat, vel incillaortie min hent erillaoreril dolor ilisisit iriusci tat. Pisim iurem zzriuscillam del ea feugiam, ver sed mincili quatuer se ea faccums andipisci bla feum quat, cons exerat. Unt lum atet, quatie euis dion eum dolut laorem adit augiat. Dui tin elisis aci tio dunt ea feugait wisi tin hent lum at. Ignit lut lut dolor sequipit ametums andionullaor aut prat acipsum dolor iusci eril dio consecte dolore ming el dio odiatin ullandit lorper sumsan ea augiam quat nullaor eetuero essequisl exer sed do odip eugiat, si ting euis

eugait augait praesectet ilisim vel doloreet wisl erostin heniscilisi. Et, quipit erit velit utat. Alis nonum dunt adit la feu feu feugue vero odit aut augait, quatet vulputat aut num vent nulput ipsusto eu feuis nissit, velenit augiam nonsequisit autet illaorem ex eu feugait enim delesto exerit auguer sequatum del ilit, quate enis ad te faccum digna facin velesto del iustie exer ing ex euiscip esed delisi bla con heniamet iurero odipsus cipsusci bla facilis sequis ad tionsenim zzrit prat, sim nulla faci blamcon et iustrud molobor percin henim

EEFCompetition

o r e h r u o y e r u t Pic aring your rector at EEF, says by sh Kathy Riley, awards di es or inspiring people, plac s g’ rin tu ac uf an m of images rceptions of lp change outdated pe he n ca u yo s, se es oc pr me amazing prizes. the industry, and win so Professional

anufacturing is the engine driving the UK’s economic recovery. Our industry is not about dirty, dusty, dangerous old factories. It’s lean, clean and innovative, producing quality and technology which we are proud to export the world over. At EEF, we think it’s time the images which illustrate manufacturing reflect our contemporary, booming industry more accurately. Through the EEF Photography Competition, professionals, amateurs and young people now have the chance to expose their heroes of modern UK manufacturing, to improve the way people view our sector. Your hero could be anything from components or products, individual people or teams, or the places and processes which you feel illustrate the evolving landscape of manufacturing in the 21st century. Last year’s winning photo in the professional category was of the quintessentially British Aston Martin. The photograph, taken for use in Aston Martin’s marketing material, cannot help but spark feelings of homeland pride and nostalgia thanks to its links to James Bond, 007. The winning photo in 2010 for the amateur category was taken at Sheffield Forgemasters, of a huge ingot mould standing proud in the foreground, set against a terrific, dramatic skyline and vertical lines of the factory chimneys. The judges said the image clearly demonstrates the UK’s ability to manufacture large, world class components. For the young person’s category (for people aged 14 – 19 years), the winning photograph last year was taken at missile manufacturer MBDA. The photograph illustrates young people standing united beneath a product they helped to build, embodying the spirit of manufacturing’s future through its young people.

m Winning images fro hy ap gr oto Ph 10 20 the n: Competitio Amateur

d 14-19) Young person (age

What are the judges looking for? The judges will be looking for strong images that raise questions in people’s minds. Does the image provoke surprise or admiration? Will people look at it and say: “I didn’t realise that was part of our UK manufacturing base.” Because we want to find a new set of iconic images portraying the boldness and creativity of UK manufacturing, the quality of its output, its people, products and

Enter the competition free by

October 31, 2011 Entry levels: Professional Amateur 14-19 Year Olds

Category criteria: Enter as many photos as you like, addressing one or more elements of the following areas to meet the competition theme ‘heroes of modern UK manufacturing’: Component or product Person or team Places or processes

If you’d like to learn more about the competition or upload a photo for entry go to www.eef.org.uk/photo

processes, we want your images to reflect a new and contemporary identity which showcases a modern UK manufacturing industry. Use your creative licence and send us photos of whatever you feel reflects the theme: ‘heroes of modern UK manufacturing’.

What could I win? Win up to £5000 worth of photography equipment from our partner Canon You and your business will get high-profile media exposure - a showcase of the best images will be used in EEF’s print media and public relations activity By entering your own images into our competition you will be helping to re-define the public perception of manufacturing

£5000 worth of Canon equipment up for grabs From this month, Canon enhances its leading product portfolio by unveiling an exceptional new range of digital still cameras and inkjet printers, including a selection of PowerShot and IXUS cameras, and five new PIXMA models. Winners of the EEF Photography Competition will be able to select their prizes from these amazing new models, and other innovative camera equipment from the Canon range.

For more information visit www.eef.org/photo

Developing smarter networks

Sustainable networking e IT is ubiquitous in today’s world and it has transformed the way we work. As pressure grows for businesses to become more environmentally sustainable a better understanding is needed of the part technology can play. Manish Sablok, head of marketing for Northern Europe at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, explains how this is possible.

Manish Sablok, Head of Marketing for Northern Europe, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

nterprises need a more dynamic approach to reducing the environmental impact of their technology, across the network, workforce and existing business processes. There is a lot of talk about building more sustainable enterprises, but before you can make a difference, you need to understand environmental impact from a whole business perspective. The three key building blocks of a sustainable enterprise are: Networks – build an energy efficient network infrastructure to support collaboration People – enable a workforce which can work effectively within those networks Business processes – ensure that these support carbon reduction In all three cases, new technology is a key enabler.

There is a new energy efficient LAN switching technology on the market that is making a significant impact on reducing overall energy consumption in businesses. By using this new generation of modular switches, enterprises can build a dynamic energy management network which is ‘tuned’ to cope with an individual company’s users, applications, devices and locations. The technology is available from a variety of vendors though AlcatelLucent Enterprise’s own offering is called OmniSwitch 10K. The result of using this technology is not just in better services, streamlined operations and lower management costs for IT – the switch itself delivers the lowest power consumption on the market at less than 1.5 watts per non-blocking gigabit per second bandwidth. So, taking the example of a network for 15,000 users, our OmniSwitch solution consumes, on average, 8.7 GWH less than the nearest competitor. Data centre consolidation is a well documented IT. It can allow an enterprise to better leverage resources and at the same time it brings environmental benefits. This latter element of data centre consolidation is not thoroughly understood in business and is often underestimated in terms of the efficiencies it can bring. The demands being made on networks are becoming increasingly complex as users of corporate networks bring in more in personal devices requiring access to the company network from remote locations. By having both a powerful and an energy efficient network in place, enterprises can support a flexible infrastructure while retaining clarity on the carbon footprint that dynamic network represents.

Supporting a flexible, low carbon workforce Technologies like OmniSwitch give an organisation agile network switching power, but the ability to

Energy & Sustainable Manufacturing

support flexible working methods across the enterprise is also essential. Your workforce must communicate and collaborate effectively. The dramatic increase in the use of multiple personal devices and changing user habits such as remote working, are driving the need for businesses to put in place a unified communication and collaboration strategy. Again, a new generation of communications software is driving the change: Unified Communication and Collaboration, or UC&C as it is referred to by the techies, enables anywhere, any time and any device application access – vital for an enterprise looking to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. But what exactly does this mean? Enterprises need to be able to offer employees the same user experience everywhere, regardless of whether they’re based in the office, working from home or are at another remote location. Organisations need to allow employees to achieve the increased productivity and efficiency critical to any company’s survival today. The workforce must also be given the opportunity to reduce each individual and everyday carbon footprint. Giving employees the option to work from home can be a complicated process and if a strong UC&C infrastructure is not in place productivity is likely to decrease as employees are further away from site for longer periods of time and without reliable access to important business applications. UC&C should support multiple channels of communication – email, voice, social media, IM, video, web conferencing and so on – across any enterprise. With the introduction of advanced visual collaboration technology, employees can be provided with high-quality, cost-effective video across the enterprise, eliminating the need for costly and environmentally damaging travel.

Creating eco-friendly business processes

With the introduction of advanced visual collaboration technology, employees can be provided with high-quality, cost-effective video across the enterprise, eliminating the need for costly and environmentally damaging travel Manish Sablok, HeadW???????? of Marketing for Northern Europe, ????????????? Alcatel-Lucent ????????????? Enterprise

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The third and equally important part of building a truly sustainable and dynamic enterprise is business processes evolution. Processes must change so that they intrinsically encourage more eco-friendly use of unified communication technology. There are three particular areas where improving business processes can encourage increased sustainability: Within the enterprise and across enterprises: By holding virtual meetings, employees can communicate effectively from wherever they may be, meaning that travel can be significantly reduced and the enterprise’s total carbon footprint reduced. If you have the UC&C infrastructure in place, all you have to do is encourage employees to understand how effective meetings can be held – both internally and with suppliers and customers – without the need for costly travel, document printing, and personal phone calls. In customer service. By enabling the correct tools for remote agents to work from any location, enterprises can cut down on even more travel costs and emissions in another area of the company, while still providing customers with effective core services. Build products to last – or to be upgraded, or to be able to work alongside other products. When upgrading or changing key parts of existing network infrastructure, there should be no rip and replace. Instead, technology must have the capacity to be upgraded with minimum disruption, and any that is discarded should be safely disposed of. (New REACH and WEEE regulation updates will make liability for failing to do so even more significant)

Achieving greater efficiency and sustainability These three key areas of the enterprise – network, people and business processes – are the building blocks to improving efficiency and sustainability. There is now a new generation of technology and infrastructure solutions that are enabling and driving change. As part of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s mission to promote sustainability within the enterprise, the company is a member of the Green Touch™ Consortium, a global

research initiative dedicated to dramatically improving the energy efficiency of ICT networks by a factor of 1,000, to fundamentally transform global communications and data networks. It is clear that, by understanding your network, workforce and processes, and the issues which need to be addressed in each area to grow your business, environmental impact assessment become easier and more meaningful. Each area has an important part to play in developing more dynamic, modern and eco-friendly enterprises.

Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

Energy Solutions

2011

The manufacturing industry is taking positive steps to prepare for the rise of the low carbon economy. In response, Energy Solutions an industry event dedicated to showcasing the latest strategies for sustainable business - is to be bigger and bolder than ever in 2011.

ccording to a recent McKinsey survey, more than 50% of executives consider sustainability; the management of environmental, social and governance issues as very or extremely important. Manufacturing products that use non-polluting processes, conserve energy, are low cost and utilise natural resources, are just some of the steps the manufacturing industry should be working towards. So too are optimised supply chains with fuel efficient transportation of goods and modified infrastructure. Developing an integrated, intelligent infrastructure is vital to the manufacturing industry. Older manufacturing plants use up to six times as much energy than newer, more energy efficient plants, proving that stagnation is unsustainable in more ways than one. Jennifer Eastman, marketing manager, eSight Energy, explains: “A number of drivers encourage companies to actively

reduce energy consumption: legislation, corporate social responsibility, increasing pressure on resources and spiralling energy costs. Energy is a key input to any business and makes up an ever-increasing proportion of overheads – it is therefore now a key target for companies looking to reduce costs and improve profitability.” Innovative and sustainable activities can boost the manufacturing industry and help achieve the substantial task of establishing a low-carbon economy on a global scale. Those responsible for taking these steps should visit Energy Solutions 2011 - widely regarded as the UK’s leading energy event - where they can gain access to authoritative advice.

Energy is a key input to any business and makes up an ever-increasing proportion of overheads – it is therefore now a key target for companies looking to reduce costs and improve profitability

Attractions and value-adds

Jennifer Eastman, marketing manager, eSight Energy

With innovation and knowledge driving the sector, Energy Solutions is set to return with its much anticipated Energy Academy

Above: The packed out exhibition hall at Energy Solutions 2010

seminar programme. Also back by popular demand is The Renewables Theatre. The 2011 programme will focus on micro-generation and sustainable power, complimented by The Green-Tech Theatre which, year on year, highlights the key success factors and learnings from the latest energy saving programmes. Demonstrating its unrivalled support from industry leading organisations, Energy Solutions has called on the Carbon Trust, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Environment Agency, Carbon Clear and the Major Energy Users Council (MEUC) to create the most instructive and authoritative free educational line-up. The definitive Energy Academy seminar programme sees Harry Morrison, general manager for Carbon Trust Standard, deliver ‘UK 2050 – Converting to a low carbon economy,’ while Paul Wilson, head of the CRC Energy Efficiency Team at DECC presents

Energy & Sustainable Manufacturing

the keynote session: ‘The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme - Supporting the transition to a secure, safe, low-carbon and affordable energy system in the UK.’ Alongside industry leading exhibitors such as EBM-papst, FLIR, STC, UPL, eSight, Bayat Energy and ENER-G, Energy Solutions provides the ideal opportunity to engage with key decisionmakers and industry experts, network with top-tier professionals and is home to a number of exciting feature areas. New to Energy Solutions for 2011 and run in association with the Major Energy Users Council (MEUC), Energy Question Time will focus on the key energy procurement issues relevant to UK businesses. Attendees are invited to put questions to the panel of respected industry professionals participating in the most anticipated energy-related panel debate. With innovation key to the manufacturing sector, the Innovation Showcase returns to Energy Solutions for its second year, providing a platform for pioneering industry experts to present the latest sustainability innovations. Additionally, the Innovation and Sustainability Awards will highlight the success stories of the year, celebrating the people, products and services that have made a real difference in their industries.

Right: Energy Solutions 2010 was packed out and a great success with delegates

The 2011 programme will focus on microgeneration and sustainable power, complimented by The GreenTech Theatre which, year on year, highlights the key success factors and learnings from the latest energy saving programmes

Fast facts about Energy Solutions 2011 Where: London Olympia When: October 11-12 How much: FREE Number of exhibitors: 300+ Content: 150hrs+ of educational content Visit: www.energysolutionsexpo.co.uk for information or to register. Twitter ID: @energysol_expo

MSc Sustainable Manufacturing Developing future manufacturing leaders Developed with leading manufacturing organisations, this innovative course will enable you to become a future business leader, able to apply state-of-the-art manufacturing theory and expertise to sustainable manufacturing projects and initiatives. There is growing evidence that the manufacturing sector is responding to the challenge of sustainability. Increasingly Cranfield’s manufacturing research projects are focused on the promotion of renewable material use, remanufacturing, lower energy use and the minimisation of waste. With an acknowledged skills shortage in this area, graduates from the MSc in Sustainable Manufacturing are highly sought after by industry worldwide. For further details, and an application form, please contact:

T: +44 (0) 1234 754086 E: appliedsciences@cranfield.ac.uk W: www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/msustm

Visit www.energysolutionsexpo.co.uk for more information

You are invited to join over 600 manufacturers to this year’s Manufacturer of the Year Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner – the biggest night in the manufacturing calendar!

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY Accolade Wines Alumet Systems (UK) CNH UK J.J. Churchill PZ Cussons (UK) Responsive Engineering Group

IT IN MANUFACTURING ANM Electronics C & J Marine Drallim Industries Fairfax Meadow Europe KTC Edibles R.H.H Franks (New Milton)

INNOVATION & DESIGN Ashwoods Automotive G’s Marketing - G’s Fresh Beetroot Polypipe Civils Ricardo Rolls-Royce Motor Cars UltraVision CLPL

SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE Cinch Connectors Snorkel Lifts The Royal Mint

PEOPLE & SKILLS Apex Linvar DavyMarkham Hampshire Cosmetics Hi-Technology Group R&R Ice Cream Sheffield Forgemasters International

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE Apex Linvar Bespak Europe Fenner Dunlop Inspirepac Premier Foods PZ Cussons (UK)

You are invited to the biggest night in the manufacturing calendar! The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester Book now to be part of it 09/11/2011 SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING Alumet Systems UK) Avon Metals Boots Contract Manufacturing Camfil Farr Crown Paints Muntons

MANUFACTURING IN ACTION CNH UK Coca Cola Enterprises Samworth Brothers Thorntons

WORLD CLASS MANUFACTURING BAE Systems, Samlesbury Camfil Farr CNH UK Herman Miller Howard Hunt Group Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK & Ireland)

SME MANUFACTURER Beagle Technology Group Cosworth Group Drallim Industries Farecla Products Morgan Motor Company The Authentic Food Company

YOUNG MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR Kai Burkitt, BAE Systems, Samlesbury Daniel Butler, Bentley Motors Joe Miller, Drallim Industries Oliver Jones, Honeywell MK Electric Rush Garfitt, Tata Steel Speciality Thomas Woods, Tata Steel Speciality

Reserve your place at the manufacturing event of the year, and raise your glass to the best of UK manufacturing! Join us at this prestigious black tie event, as we’ll be celebrating the success of our finalists. Guests will enjoy a drinks reception followed by awards ceremony, three course dinner and entertainment to the small hours. So come along for a spectacular evening of industry celebrations and networking. Booking information: Tables of ten: £1,250 + VAT Individual tickets: £150 + VAT Contact Benn Walsh, telephone: 0207 401 6033 or email: b.walsh@sayonemedia.com

Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner Programme Sponsor:

Researched and developed by:

Corporate sponsor: Co -sponsor:

www.themanufacturer.com/awards

A blood lust

he Bloodhound project to Back in 2008 an initiative build a supersonic car that was started with the will reach speeds of 1,000 remit of snaring a miles per hour has been new generation of running since 2008. It sprang off the manufacturing talent first successful attempt at breaking the sound barrier in a land vehicle and enthusiasm. Today back in 1997, but Bloodhound that project has matured is more than just an engineering into an engineering project or record breaking mission. The central remit and raison venture which is d’etre for Bloodhound is to inspire changing the way a new generation of leading engineers think about engineers with top level skills and land travel, embracing a thirst for competitive innovation. Richard Noble is head of the network of manufacturers project and is well known for his which might never passionate views on the profile of otherwise have crossed industrial careers in the UK. But he paths and enthralling is not alone. schoolchildren around The collaborative the globe. Jane Gray community talks to participants in In addition to the core the record breaking Bloodhound team of 44 engineers, communications professionals, Bloodhound project. educators and managers the project now embraces a community of around 240 companies who are interested in contributing to the project with

Above: Bloodhound aims to exceed the current land speed record by 31%. The car has been designed to combine immense power with stability

When we had projects like Concord, TSR2, Bluestreak, Apollo in the US, the way in which engineering projects were pushing the boundaries of the possible had a very high profile and consequently there were many young people wanting to enter into STEM careers Daniel Jubb, Falcon

some form of engineering or manufacturing expertise. Around 90 of these are now contracted. These organisations, on making contact with Bloodhound, have been inspired by its commitment to engineering innovation, scientific advance and, most of all, to its potential to put a shine on the public image of manufacturing. The Falcon Project was the first collaborative partner to Bloodhound (see box) and Daniel Jubb says that he knows the project can do for engineering what the iconic projects of the 70s did for enhancing the reputation of engineering professionals. “At Falcon we constantly hear the companies we supply complain of the difficulty in sourcing engineers of the quality that they need in the numbers that they need,” says Jubb. “When we had projects like Concord, TSR2, Bluestreak, Apollo in the US, the way in which engineering projects were pushing the boundaries of the possible had a very high profile and consequently there were many young people wanting to enter into STEM careers.”

Specialfeature Bloodhound project

Bloodhound is an extraordinary, once in a generation engineering event. It is the fastest moving laboratory on Earth Conor La Grue, engineering lead for commercial and product sponsorship, Bloodhound SSC

Becoming more optimistic about the present, Jubb continues: “Even though we have only just started building the Bloodhound car, we appear to be having a notable effect on young people.” Having a genuine commitment to the educational objectives of Bloodhound is very important for any company hoping to become involved. Conor La Grue is engineering lead for commercial and product sponsorship at Bloodhound. It is his responsibility to identify engineering requirements for the project and to source the right partner to fill that need. “As we identify components and parts of the car that gives a very clear indication of the kind of technology or manufacturing ability needed,” explains Mr La Grue. “I then go out and identify a number of potentials and visit them to asses first if they have the necessary capability and

secondly to test whether they have the appetite and the passion to get involved.” Despite the pressures companies are under thanks to the recession, increasing regulation and diminishing margins, La Grue says Britain is relatively blessed with appropriate enthusiasm. “The flow of support for the project has gone against the flow of the recession,” he says. He explains further, “This is because companies recognise the benefits to their own growth and sustainability that involvement offers. Bloodhound is an extraordinary, once in a generation engineering event. It is the fastest moving laboratory on Earth. It is a task which can stimulate staff and stimulate a market place. If your products have an application here there will be no better opportunity to showcase them.”

The Bloodhound rocket engine also on board the Bloodhound car. This immensely powerful F1 engine will solely be used to power the rocket pump, shooting high test peroxide (HTP) into the rocket combustion chamber at a speed of 11,000 rpm. Falcon is a specialist in the design and manufacture of rocketry, primarily Whereas your everyday hydrogen peroxide in hair bleaches and solid propellant rockets, which it medical products might be around 3% supplies to a variety of civil and concentration, HTP is around 70%. The military applications. HTP is the rocket oxidiser. Falcon was the first company Because of the importance of to become a product sponsor to the pump efficiency to the rocket Bloodhound and Daniel Jubb, Falcon’s MD, is proud of his company’s performance Falcon has been partnership with the initiative. He is also working closely with the Cosworth confident that it has brought otherwise team, led by professor John Davies. Collaboration with the manufacturing unattainable benefits in terms of teams for the Bloodhound car itself profile and industry networking with relevance to elements like the opportunities both for his own gear bos and the HTP tank which have company and others. direct relationships with the rocket – “I was introduced to the project are also ongoing. back in 2005, well before it was in As Bloodhound begins its long the public domain, when it was awaited fabrication and build process, realised that a pure jet engine would Falcon is just about to carry out the not be powerful enough to achieve first static test of the complete rocket Bloodhound’s target speed. It would need a rocket,” explains Jubb. “Initially system. This will bring together the combustion chamber, HTP pump I was just offering advice on oxidisers etc but now we are responsible for the and Cosworth V8 for the first time. complete design and manufacture of Whereas the only previous test of the combustion chamber has taken place the rocket system.” in the US, this integrated trial is due to On being asked what it is like to be take place in the UK. a part of Bloodhound Mr Jubb was As the company prepares for this brief but enthusiastic. “It is simply a challenge Jubb makes clear just what fantastic programme, “ he says. level of challenge and achievement The hybrid rocket will have to work they are facing. “With a diametre of 18 in conjunction with the Cosworth V8

The Falcon Project is the company responsible for manufacturing the unique hybrid propellant rocket system for the Bloodhound SSC.

inches this is the largest hybrid rocket of its type ever built anywhere – and the largest of any type to be built in the UK. Trying to understand the hybrid combustion cycle better has been our focus in this project. Whereas solid and liquid propellant rockets are well understood and are governed by established mathematical laws we have had to create new models, validate them and use them to create a design which will perform as Bloodhound needs it to.” The integrated rocket firing is due to take place in late October. We wish Jubb and his team the best of luck and hope that congratulations will be in store when Bloodhound representative join us at the Manufacturer Directors’ Conference on November 9.

Specialfeature Bloodhound project

The Point – Lanc ashire County

Of course as well as offering lots of benefits Bloodhound offers the allure of a challenge to its partners. “The tolerances we are working with go beyond those in space, aerospace and F1,” says La Grue. “We will be going quicker than the low altitude speed record, we have to build in more stability than has ever been achieved in the nearest relative environment.” But although Bloodhound itself is unique there are lessons to be learned through involvement that will strengthen day to day innovation approaches in mainstream industry says La Grue. “Bloodhound is arguably a model knowledge transfer network,” he explains. “We have a group of companies working together here that would probably not have communicated under any other scenario and, due to the openly innovative ethos of the project, we are now the largest problem solving group on the planet – we are not looking to generate IP, only to inspire – and the experience of taking part will stretch the staff of the companies involved, advancing their view of problem solving in a way that will undoubtedly have tangible benefits for their organisation.” In other words, involvement is a way of catalysing the creation of new IP and products in the design and manufacture for the mainstream. La Grue lists a few markets that are most likely to gain from the projects, “Defence, marine, medical technologies, new sustainable technologies – these are all industries which we touch and which will benefit from the exploration this project is leading.”

Cricket Club, manchester 8 – 10 november 2011

Richard Noble

Director, Bloodhound SSC

Richard Noble, head of the Bloodhound SSC project, will be speaking at The Manufacturer magazine’s flagship conference in Manchester on November 9 where he will share his thoughts on the untapped potential in industry for inspiring collaborative projects. Other speakers at this year’s event include: Maasaki Imai, Founder of The Kaizen Institute Juergen Maier, Head of Industry Sector UK, Siemens John Oliver OBE, Chair of the Northern Leadership Academy and author of The Team Enterprise Solution Neil Parker, RBS Chris Horton, VP Operations at Linpac

more information and for booking at MDC visit www.themanufacturer.com/mdc or call Benn Walsh on 0207 401 6033 or emailAd_N11MANU_AD b.walsh@sayonemedia.com The Manufacturer #Page 1 27/01/2011 09:51:45

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Bloodhound is targetting 1000mph

A milestone After three years of fundraising and design development Bloodhound has finally started manufacture. “We are now cutting metal for the rear chassis metallic parts with Hampton Industries up in Wigan,” says La Grue. Advanced discussions and design meetings are also now underway with the Advanced Composites Group in Heanor, Derbyshire. This organisation will be manufacturing the large composite monocog nose, the intake tube and the rear wheel bearings. “We know where all the big chunks of the car will be coming from now and the manufacturing process has started.” Under the terms of the Bloodhound challenge the team now have 18 months to complete manufacture before putting the car to the test in the South African desert. The clock has started ticking!

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Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

Nil sine labore Nothing without work It is widely recognised that the availability of skilled workers is one of the most serious challenges facing industry in the UK. While the problem has certainly not been swept under the carpet by the far reaching hand of government austerity measures, from an industry perspective, champions are increasingly picking up the mantel to tackle industry skills development head on.

his month will see WorldSkills take to the stage as the latest in a line of industry led events aimed at encouraging the younger generation to consider a career in engineering. Despite these efforts, according to a recent statistic from the 2011 Engineering and Engineers brand monitor, the number of 12 to 16 year olds that claim to have knowledge of what engineers do has decreased from what was an already measly total of 19% in 2010 to a pitiful 11% in 2011. While the figure for over 17 year olds improved slightly (males up 5% to 36% and females up 3% to 14%), the overall low numbers are disheartening; clearly more effort is needed to support the work of the big events and help promote manufacturing to young people in a consistent style. Unlike highly visible professions such as teachers, doctors, nurses or plumbers, the engineering profession does not form part of a student’s daily life. Two gentlemen from the opposite sides of the UK are trying to improve students’ understanding of engineering and introduce the concept to them at an earlier age.

the number of 12 to 16 year olds that claim to have knowledge of what engineers do has decreased from what was an already measly total of 19% in 2010 to a pitiful 11% in 2011

The Isle of Man Awareness of Careers in Engineering (ACE) intitiative has delivered lessons to over 8,000 schoolchildren. It delivers around 250 lessons, designed to enthuse and educate youngsters in engineering skills, every year.

An ACE up their sleeve In 2008, the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce Manufacturing and Technical Industries Committee (MTIC), through their Engineering Sector Skills Group, created Awareness of Careers in Engineering – or ACE for short. While the concept is not revolutionary, the delivery of the programme into schools is functional and has the support of companies including GE, Strix, CVI Technical Optics and Manx Engineers. According to Engineering Sector Skills Champion, Adrian Harrison, the main element of ACE involves the delivery of an engineering type lesson in school classrooms from year six all the way through secondary school. Since its inception, the programme has delivered around 250 lessons a year and Harrison says that figure will increase to about 350 lessons per year by 2013. Impressively, since 2008, between 1012% of the island’s population (approximately 80,000 people) have participated in at least one ACE lesson. While the lesson plan differs from year to year, initially the programme is designed to generate maximum interest from the students. “Initially we thought, ‘What on earth could we do to try and bring these kids alive when talking about engineering?’. We then came up with the idea of using a Playstation. So in the year six class we take apart a Playstation and look at its internal mechanics, electronics and lasers. That really lights people up.”

Leadership & People and Skills

Wising up to work In the older classes the ACE programme takes a more academic approach, looking at products made locally such as kettles and valves. ACE also highlights other engineering topics that are locally relevant such as electricity generation. Harrison says that, overall, the course is about giving students “more knowledge of: engineering and manufacturing; the career choices that are available; and also what subject choices need to be made to ensure those choices are available”. In combination with the lessons, the ACE initiative also involves an apprenticeship programme, a work placement programme and the team also attends careers events and parent evenings. The apprenticeship programme has seen applications for positions increase by a factor of 10 and its work placement programme has been developed to assist individuals that Harrison refers to as having been “left out of the education system” as well as assisting more mature participants that are looking for a change in career. For anyone on the Isle of Man looking to get involved in the programme, Adrian Harrison says he is happy to be contacted directly via email at cloud-nine@ manx.net or by phone on 01624 834843. “We want to keep it personal,” says Harrison, “and that is why the lesson programme works well because we are actually physically in the classroom. That way we are actually able to personify engineering rather than have it taught through a text book or something that can be a bit cold such as a website.”

As managing director of Sheffield-based heavy engineering firm DavyMarkham, Kevin Parkin became increasing frustrated with his inability to attract suitably qualified apprentices. The level of education of applicants became such a problem at the company that it had to put applicants through its own mathematics classes before they came up to a level considered acceptable to even start their apprenticeship. Although he has now moved on from DavyMarkham, Parkin says the lack of aptitude in core subjects still remains a national problem. In his opinion, apathy towards maths and science in particular is a result of not sufficiently demonstrating the practical applications of these subjects in the business world – both to the general public and to students in the classroom. In addition to this failure, Parkin says that for some students whose family members have been unemployed for as many as three generations, the concept of work is completely foreign. By combining the idea of practical experience with a first introduction to work, Parkin, along with Jackie Freeborn of Business and Education South Yorkshire, developed the Workwise scheme. Essentially an industry work placement, Workwise provides students aged 14 to 16 with an opportunity to be totally immersed into a manufacturing business for up to four weeks over a three year period. The programme involves the students rotating through each department of a business including accounts, manufacturing, sales and reception. In addition to developing work skills, the programme gives many students their first insight into industry.

Read this article to: This article looks at two schemes aimed at developing the interest of school-aged students in manufacturing. The ACE scheme is based in schools on the Isle of Man. The Workwise scheme is a Sheffieldbased work placement scheme for 14-16 year olds.

Workwise provides students aged 14 to 16 with an opportunity to be totally immersed into a manufacturing business for up to four weeks over a three year period. The programme involves the students rotating through each department of a business including accounts, manufacturing, sales and reception

“The pitch we make to the students is to ask them whether they’ve ever been to see anything made,” says Parkin. “Most of them haven’t. They have not seen components being made. They have not seen components put together. They don’t understand infrastructure or importance of total punctuality. They don’t understand the quality implications of what has been made. They don’t understand the administration that goes into manufacturing a component.” Parkin says that since the project was created 18 months ago, the results have been encouraging. Already 100 companies have signed up and the initiative is run in conjunction with Business Education South Yorkshire. “It is a very structured programme where we provide training manuals to the employers and we safe-guard the workplaces before the kids go in. The students have to keep their own log books which act like a continuous CV that they write. At the end of the training period, the log book is signed off by the managing director of the company. We hope that the kids that have been part of a Workwise programme will become part of company at which they have been trainees or, alternatively, if they go for an interview, they have probably one of the best references they could ever have.”

Workwise extends from Barnsley through to Rotherham, Doncaster and down to Chesterfield and the Hallam region. For companies, schools or individuals looking to get involved, contact Workwise representative John Barber at john.barber@be-sy.co.uk

Leadership & People and Skills

The other supply chain It is expected of manufacturers to understand customer and supplier relationships both internally and externally across their organisations and to be able to consider their supply chain as a whole when making strategic decisions. Ian Tindle, director at engineering and maintenance specialist Sora Group, says that the same rigour needs to be applied to the education system across schools, colleges and into companies.

“I

f we consider career development as a value stream”, explains Tindle, “it is very interesting to see some of the pitfalls in the supply of appropriately educated young people into employment.” According to Tindle companies often find that apprentices are missing some of the key skills required to perform effectively, both from a technical and motivational perspective. As such, its common to hear of companies investing in “retraining” staff once they join the company.

Where is the root cause? Furthermore, asserts Tindle, the problem of qualification is further than one pass of the buck back down the education system. “FE providers, and colleges frequently complain that students do not have the required basic literacy and numeracy skills to progress beyond the fundamentals of their subjects,” he says. In industry related courses, a lack of awareness as to business and competitive needs are identified as particularly lacking alongside general problems with motivation and aspiration.

If we consider career development as a value stream, it is very interesting to see some of the pitfalls in the supply of appropriately educated young people into employment Ian Tindle, Director, Sora Group

Tindle puts forward a new perspective on the capability gap: “It could be argued, that schools aren’t close enough to their end customer (employers) and so are not working to achieve the objectives which will add benefit to companies and the economy as a whole,” he says.“In lean terms, familiar to us industry hands, if we were to apply root cause thinking, where would we focus?” The quality of the teaching staff, the role of parents in helping influence children to make informed decisions on the future, the relevance of the national curriculum to the economic and social needs of the future and perhaps predominantly at the moment, reductions in funding are all possible culprits according to Tindle. But while admitting that the problem is complex Tindle urges industry thinkers to focus instead on the cost of not getting education ‘right first time’.

Apprentice development In an attempt to address this right first time failure in the employee development supply chain Sora have started working with a number of colleges and companies on the delivery of their apprenticeship programmes.

“Sora have developed a number of additional coaching and training packages to enhance the quality of apprentice delivery at a range of colleges and have seen great benefit,” explains Tindle. “If we consider engineering and maintenance,” he continues, “the apprentices we work with are shown ‘why’ we need to maintain, along with ‘how’. This is a different approach to traditional developments. We are showing young people techniques that are massively important to business while they are still in the training.” The techniques Tindle refers to include root cause analysis and data management. Apprentices are also shown lean production techniques, giving them a grounding in basics such as 5S, standard operations and waste identification.

Strategic thinking within education But improving apprenticeship delivery is just the first step for Sora. Inspired by the positive feedback from this apprenticeship development the company is now working with a number of education establishments to introduce a similar joined up approach to employability development into the curriculum delivery in schools and colleges. “Manufacturing leaders need to play a role here,” says Tindle. “They need to view schools and colleges, from a professional and leadership perspective, in the same light as they would disjointed departments within their business.” There needs to be a greater will to work toward mutual “cross functional objectives”, he concludes.

For more information, please visit www.sora-group.co.uk or email info@sora-group.co.uk

Factory of the month Company name

f o e e y o l Empmonth the er 2011 b Octo

Rachel Carr Flight systems engineer, BAE Systems Rachel Carr is part of a team of engineers from BAE Systems currently competing in the WorldSkills 2011 competition. Here she talks to TM about her involvement in the competition, her hopes for her career and her views on the future of manufacturing in the UK. TM: What does the WorldSkills competition demand from you? RC: I work within a team of three people competing in the Manufacturing Team Challenge; there are approximately eight other countries up against us. We have 22 hours to re-design – using CAD, manufacture and test, a Minimoto bike; undertake a rolling road test bench exercise and complete a surprise project. I am the electrician within the team, however for our competition you have to be at least dual skilled, if not multi-skilled, and so I can also do fabrication work and conventional lathe work. TM: What do you consider to be your biggest personal success with BAE Systems so far? RC: There are a few things that are on par for me as successes at BAE. The first is that I was chosen to be apart of the team working on Demon FLAVIIR UAV, from its initial conception, right the way through until its first successful UK flight. To have your name against the first flight of anything is amazing, but to have it while you are still training is phenomenal. The second is being apart of Team UK for WorldSkills 2011. Being able to say that I am representing my company and my country is something that I am very proud of. Finally, being selected as BAE Systems Apprentice of the Year 2010; it was a huge shock to me but I am very grateful that I was selected for the award. TM: What are the most rewarding parts of your job? RC: What I find most rewarding is talking to others about what I am doing and passing on my enthusiasm. I am a Schools Ambassador for BAE and going to schools and telling young adults about what we do and what we have to offer as career,

not just my company but the sector as a whole, is something that I find extremely rewarding. TM: What will be your next career move? RC: I want to complete all of my further education, including my degree and simply work on and up within my field. I would also like to gain Chartered Engineer status. TM: How do you think best to get more young people interested in manufacturing? RC: We have to educate them from all angles. Firstly, get the parents familiar with what engineering and manufacturing means in terms of a career. Next, the teachers – most teachers now aren’t much older than myself Rachel Carr and have been in education Age: all their lives. They don’t have 23 much knowledge or experience of the manufacturing and Education: BTEC ND in Electrical/ engineering world. I think that Electronic Engineering if they had more tours/trips/ NC in Aerospace Engineering placements around different HNC in Aerospace Engineering facilities, they could at least HND in Electrical/Electronic have a small amount of Engineering knowledge with which to guide Career: and advise their students. Started within BAE Systems in The last angle is simply Sept 2006 as a Technical Apprentice, completed my apspeaking to the young people prenticeship in March 2010, themselves. Doing all the things worked as a Wind Tunnel BAE Systems is doing now Engineer until January 2011 with the school trips and roadand now training full time for shows but try to do more of the World Skills 2011 them and get more companies Interests: involved so that they see a Fitness wider range of what is going on Socialising in their country.

CV in brief:

Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

39 39

Leadership & People and Skills

years of excellence

Jane Gray talks to Dr Palie Smart, course director of the Operations Excellence programme at Cranfield University, as the unique masters degree celebrates its tenth anniversary, about the motivation for investing time and money in post graduate industrial studies.

en years ago senior representatives from taught elements. One of the most striking areas Rolls-Royce realised that some important of development within the MSc over the past ten changes were hitting the manufacturing years has been that of innovation management. An industry and that these changes were creating understanding of open innovation approaches is new knowledge and skills requirements for the becoming a stronger theme for both research company’s manufacturing engineers. and teaching.” What was required was a means for enhancing One of the most dramatic changes to the course arguably unparalleled technical capabilities with dynamic however, has undoubtedly been its opening the more advanced leadership and management to non-Rolls-Royce employees in 2005. While The course skills demanded by complex manufacturing the intake each year is still dominated by Rollsincludes systems. With this in mind Rolls-Royce approached Royce students, and thereafter by other aerospace essential academics at Cranfield University with a proposition professionals from organisations such as BAE management for a new course. The result was the formation of skills in human Systems and Selex Galileo, companies like Weetabix the Cranfield Operations Excellence MSc, run in and Dairy Crest are now throwing their experience resource collaboration with the Institute for Manufacturing at and challenges into the mix. “This year we even have and financial Cambridge University. a shared company project in which three Rolls-Royce management Dr Palie Smart is course director for the students will be working on a Weetabix assignment. techniques Operations Excellence MSc and as Cranfield It will be a completely different manufacturing which are celebrates the course’s 10th birthday, she talks to unlikely to have environment for them.” TM about the way the course has developed and Dr Smart says the MSc is an ideal opportunity for been covered in undergraduate talented engineers looking to progress their careers. why it remains a valuable qualification for both the engineering ambitious individual and the competitive organisation “The course includes essential management skills studies in today’s industrial landscape. in human resource and financial management “The Operations Excellence programme is a parttechniques which are unlikely to have been covered Dr Palie Smart, time, two year course,” says Dr Smart. “Like many in undergraduate engineering studies, but which Cranfield Univesrity Cranfield MSc courses, forty per cent of the content they will need as they progress and become is taught and sixty per cent is based on in-company responsible for bigger budgets and bigger teams” project work.” says Dr Smart. Dr Smart explains that this structure means Over the past ten years Roll-Royce and others have that the course is extremely flexible. “It evolves as selected some of their most promising employees company needs evolve. For instance, reflecting to sponsor through the Operations Excellence the fact that Rolls-Royce has been investing in programme. For Cranfield however, it is extremely manufacturing capability abroad, we have seen important to make sure that expectations are student projects at Rolls begin to grapple met on the course and that each in-take with some challenging theoretical is made up of the appropriate mix of concepts around the management people. A thorough interview process Cranfield University’s of national cultural differences.” undertaken by the University in Operations Excellence MSc Moving on to consider addition to company selection how the taught element of policies protects the integrity of Course duration: 2 years part-time the course has changed these considerations and the Average course intake: 15 Dr Smart continues: “Our reputation this course has so Aimed at: Middle to senior middle module lecturers are rightly accumulated over the management and engineering professionals constantly updating their last decade.

looking increase their understanding of how to use manufacturing operations strategically.

Cost: £17,000 (course requires company sponsorship)

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Solid Edge. Design Better. 41

The risks of

Product recalls make good sensational news material for journalists but far from happy reading for any firm involved in the process. The effects can be disastrous, smashing hard earned reputations and incurring crippling operational costs. What can be done to mitigate this risk? TM asks the experts. IGF is a commercial finance provider specifically focussed on the needs of SMEs. IGF provides advice and financial services to companies of up to £10 million turnover and Tracy Ewen, managing director of IGF says that for this segment of manufacturing product recalls can be particularly problematic.

“A

product recall for a smaller manufacturer is an extremely dangerous situation as far as financing goes – and there are no easy answers in terms of solutions to the problem,” says Ms Ewen. “Most commercial finance providers will have advanced monies against the products that need to be recalled and will not appreciate being asked to chase toxic debt.” Ewen continues: “Prevention is much, better than cure in this instance. Manufacturers need to do their utmost to ensure that the risk of product recalls is reduced as much as possible. If disaster strikes, get in touch with your finance partner immediately and be completely transparent about the situation so that they can do their best to help you through the crisis.”

Jim Sherwood, a partner in the product liability team at national law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer gives his advice on how to prepare for the worst case scenario.

roduct recalls are increasingly a fact of life across the manufacturing industry. Handled well, reputation and brand can be protected and relations with customers and suppliers may even be enhanced. Handled badly, a business may take years to recover from the financial and reputational damage, let alone potential criminal prosecution. Sound advice on this matter should be sought well prepared in advance of any issue arising. Agree, implement and test a policy and procedure for corrective action – remember recall is the last resort. Create a corrective action team comprising: quality control officers; legal advisors; insurance managers; PR; marketing; and distribution. In the event of a recall this team should ensure swift and co-ordinated action led by senior management with the power to take key decisions and ensure an effective and prompt response. Check compliance with sector regulations on product safety, or the general product safety regulations. Familiarise management with EU guidelines for risk assessment and get to know local trading standards officials so that in the event of a safety issue you have a point of contact if urgent action is required. It is essential to check that affected customers and suppliers can be identified and contractual arrangements and audit trails are in place. Regulations require manufacturers to be able to trace products, identify batches and know their supply chain.

Finance Insurance and Professional Services

Tom Buchanan, senior manager for risk and business continuity at PricewaterhouseCoopers talks about the place of product recall strategy within the wider business approach to risk management.

“I

nevitably different sectors will have different levels of awareness when it comes to product recall,” says Mr Buchanan. “It is however important that, whatever your sector, you have a strategy in place. The number of manufacturing sectors in the UK that are not highly regulated is quickly diminishing.” Mr Buchanan emphasises however that even in the most highly regulated sectors, recall may not always be necessary when a quality issue is discovered. Referring to the recent mix up of Nurofen Plus, manufactured in the UK by Reckitt Benckiser, and the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, made by AstraZeneca, Buchanan pointed out that very often defects can be counteracted through public announcements and safety warnings.

The investigation into the cause of the Nurofen Plus mix-up is ongoing – police have said they suspect sabotage of the drug packets and a manufacturing error has been ruled out. But the swift action and advice issued by both the pharmaceutical companies from the most senior levels and also by the Healthcare products Regulation Agency ensured there was no damage to brand reputation or sector confidence. Apart from having ownership of product recall strategy from the very top of an organisation and effective outward facing communications Buchanan says there two other key approaches that PwC would advise when planning a strategy. “Firstly, particularly in the UK, there are rigorous compliance standards that must be met and companies should document their

Read this article to: Get a range of views on the strategies needed to protect against product recalls Learn what action to take in the event of a product recall to mitigate financial and reputational damage Understand the different perspectives of large and small companies, brand owners and suppliers in product recall scenarios Read about what technology can do to support efficient product recall practices

compliance processes. In the event of a recall it is important to be able to avoid any appearance of negligence by showing this documentation.” Buchanan continues: “Secondly the recall process should be practiced. This is particularly important in sector prone to product recall – such as FMCG – but it is often slow moving industries that are most unfamiliar with how to regain control of their products. A recall should become an accelerated version of a standard refund practice.”

GXS is a global B2B e-commerce company. It provides cloud based document exchange and management solutions which bring better visibility throughout supply chains. Managing product recalls effectively is an important part of the GXS offering.

radheep Sampath, product management director at GXS says: “When faced with a product recall, it hardly matters to a brand owner or a retailer if it was their fault or their supplier’s that caused it. The key priority is to ensure that entire supply chains can react swiftly and cost effectively. Savvy brand owners are transforming supplier relationships into supplier alliances in order to better manage the risk emanating from product recalls.” Ms Sampath advises establishing the following strategies and behaviours in order to mitigate product recall risk:

Evaluate and Accept: Undertake due-diligence of prospective suppliers including analysis of financial status, resources and technology investments. Understand what percentage of their sales will come from you and from your competitors. A working rolodex: Invest in a supplier information management platform to ensure transparency and accuracy of data. An accurate contact list including points of escalation for your supply chain partners is critical during a crisis. Drawing board to distribution center: Retailers, manufacturers and their suppliers must be synchronised throughout the product’s lifecycle –from product design and material sourcing to packing and distribution. This enables all parties to quickly isolate specific components that trigger product recalls.

Automate and monitor: Setup technology platforms that automate the routine exchange of product data as well as transactional data. Make it easy to track recalled products down to the plant, production lot and batch. Communication Plans: Design and implement a robust communication plan that involves everyone involved in the product supply chain. This should range from issuing the news of the recall to dealing with governmental bodies, regulatory agencies, stock markets and the reverse logistics involved in product returns and customer refunds. Insure: Consider insurance policies that will be automatically triggered by the recall of the product if it is found to contain ingredients that are subject to a recall. Ensure that this covers supply chain participants global and local.

Have your say at www.www.themanufacturer.com

Specialfeature Kingston Smith

Capital Allowance are the sands of time running out for you? Daniel Martine, manufacturing partner at Kingston Smith, clarifies the purpose of and regulation around Capital Allowances, highlighting important changes to the tax system due to come into effect in 2012.

roadly speaking, capital allowances provide an equivalent, for tax purposes, to the depreciation charge shown in accounts. Successive governments have contemplated simplifying the system so that commercial depreciation becomes an allowable expense when calculating profits but in reality there is no serious prospect of this. Capital allowance rules have become something of a political football over the years. Various Chancellors have claimed the moral high ground both for increasing the rates of allowances (to encourage investment) and for decreasing them again (to prevent distortions of what is commercially sensible). The manufacturing sector was historically given favourable treatment, principally by way of Industrial Buildings Allowances. But the terms of these allowances were deemed “anachronistic” in 2007 and a period of phasing out began. In April 2011 industrial and agricultural buildings’ allowances were withdrawn. The most familiar allowances are those given for expenditure on plant or machinery used for trade purposes. Perhaps less well understood is that plant and machinery allowances are available in respect of certain elements of capital expenditure on buildings, whether on original construction, or on acquisition –

the so-called ‘fixtures’ regime. Significant sums have historically gone unclaimed where purchasers of buildings have been unaware of their entitlement, and a significant industry has grown where specialist advisers have made retrospective claims in respect of property acquired, sometimes many years previously.

Start the clock

The changes are aimed at situations where freehold or leasehold interests in property change hands, and the property includes fixtures. Daniel Martine, manufacturing partner, Kingston Smith

Earlier this year HMRC published a consultation document proposing significant changes in the operation of the capital allowance rules as they relate to fixtures. The changes are aimed at situations where freehold or leasehold interests in property change hands and the property includes fixtures. HMRC’s position, perhaps unsurprisingly, is that changes are necessary to make the rules work as originally intended. Currently, where a property incorporating fixtures has been acquired for a qualifying purpose, the purchaser is, with some limitations, entitled to claim capital allowances on the proportion of the cost attributable to the fixtures. Where the price for the fixtures is not specified in the contract, each party is entitled to use a “just and reasonable” approach to determine that part of the sale/purchase price attributable to fixtures. Where the vendor is within the charge to tax, they must bring into their own calculation the disposal value on which the

purchaser claims allowances. Frequently however, sellers and purchasers do not agree an appropriate value for the fixtures. Indeed purchasers may not have any idea of the disposal value applied by the seller. At the moment there is no mechanism whereby HMRC can match up the disposal value with the amount claimed, and the perception is that this leads to multiple claims on the same expenditure, or claims on amounts which exceed the original cost of the fixtures concerned. In addition, there is currently no time limit on entering claims for fixtures acquired as part of a building. The most significant of the new proposals made in the HMRC consultation document is that businesses must pool their expenditure on fixtures within a short period of acquisition in order for the expenditure to qualify for capital allowances. The second proposal is that it should become mandatory for seller and purchaser to agree and record the relevant amount. While any changes in the law will not emerge until the 2012 Finance Bill at the earliest, there is no doubt that change will happen, and the opportunity to make claims in respect of buildings already acquired will be lost. Companies who might be in a position to make a claim should consult their tax advisers as soon as possible, as the sands of time are inexorably running out.

To find out more about Capital Allowances contact Daniel Martine, manufacturing partner at Kingston Smith on 01708 759759 or dmartine@kingstonsmith.co.uk

liquidity The power of

Creating sound cash management strategies

The financial crisis forced a radical overhaul of short and long-term liquidity strategies throughout manufacturing. Peter Russell, head of manufacturing, UK sector coverage, and Conor Maher, head of liquidity product and pricing at RBS, outline how many companies have been continuing to refine those strategies in the context of economic recovery that remains uncertain and volatile.

ew CFOs and Heads of Treasury in manufacturing companies can have escaped the enormous challenges for cashflow, creditworthiness and competitiveness exerted by the recession. Companies were content to carry more debt, or leverage, on their balance sheet but many have repositioned themselves, paying down debt and curtailing investment activity. Liquidity has become an even more highly prized commodity.

Swift response, lasting impact As trading conditions improve, albeit sporadically, the approach of many manufacturers to liquidity has markedly changed. However, few finance chiefs intend to return to pre-recession behaviours, even if the economy improves dramatically. Lessons learned when times were tough mean that refinements and wholesale changes to liquidity strategies are likely to endure. Those changes have in many cases extended the reach and influence of heads of treasury, now presiding over much more tightly disciplined cashflow forecasting, stronger liquidity infrastructure and improved metrics. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not only about giving senior management more accurate realtime visibility on cash positions. Treasurers also provide intelligence to support decision-making on maximising returns on current cash reserves, liberating working capital for medium-term spending and preparing for capital investments once recovery looks more sustainable.

Just in case: liquidity for contingency A key priority for treasurers has been to bring about changes in mindset that impact on liquidity. Where an awareness of the cash imperative is successfully embedded into the culture, managers more instinctively question themselves about the liquidity implications of their decisions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not just their impact on profitability. For instance, a heightened focus on levels of capital investment means that the potential consequences of moving ahead too quickly are brought to the fore. A number of manufacturers are exercising greater care investing in fixed assets to avoid depriving themselves of the ability to withstand trading shocks or sudden competitive pressures. However, on occasions, others have accepted the risks of financing a major capital project, in the belief that it will generate welcome extra cash (at low interest rates) to use as a cushion against unexpected short-term setbacks and help them to create something of an edge over their competitors.

Cash in the bank: short-term optimisation Many manufacturing companies are keeping a watching eye on the impact of their liquidity strategies. By retaining sufficient headroom, they can change course swiftly and easily, allowing them to reduce debt, improve cashflow, enhance their purchasing power and secure competitive advantage. For many CFOs and treasury chiefs, especially in cash-rich, privately owned companies, the competitiveness argument is compelling. Manufacturers anticipate steep rises and volatility in the cost of materials over the coming year. Tactical management of surplus cash can therefore significantly boost their ability to procure trading benefits, through negotiating better prices in exchange for early settlement. In markets where margins are being squeezed and commodities scarce, this represents a trump card over less liquid competitors.

Specialfeature The Royal Bank of Scotland

Beyond the immediate horizon: managing credit risk Conversely, companies with strong liquidity are in a better position to offer extended settlement terms to their own key customers, thereby helping to preserve profit margins and strengthen relationships. In those sub-sectors of manufacturing which typically exhibit higher debt impairment, a number of CFOs say liquidity strategies have helped to mitigate credit risk. If cash is available, solid, regularly-paying customers can be rewarded with first refusal on any surplus of top-quality goods or valuable components, cementing the business relationship with little threat of those transactions becoming bad debts. Manufacturing companies able to engineer such happy situations can therefore see funds cleared faster with little or no extra risk.

3select3protect3

Reflect

A liquidity checklist

Re-evaluate current debt structure and investment

programmes – how well-positioned are you to handle emergencies or seize opportunities? Calculate the value of using surplus cash to: Reduce debt Withstand volatile prices Boost purchasing power Reward creditworthy customers Assess your global liquidity position Promote a liquidity culture amongst budget-

holders and sales teams

A cash culture: ingraining the liquidity agenda

Crossing borders: liquidity for aspiring global players

CEOs and CFOs in manufacturing understand only too well just how crucial it is for all those whose work results in the flow of cash in or out the company to grasp the nature and reach of sound liquidity. Many have invested significant resources in educating and communicating with sales and account management teams – people who might otherwise focus primarily on winning business, without due regard for when (or if) monies might be collected. Likewise, our customers say that remuneration structures, especially for cost centre managers and budget-holders, increasingly link to behaviours that improve liquidity. Schemes which, prior to the recession, rewarded only sales and profitability, now take more prudent factors into account. These might include net cash generated, returns on capital employed or gross contribution, establishing greater connectivity and understanding between revenue and actual business written.

Amongst companies with global aspirations, cash management strategies must take into account the often considerable differences in attitudes towards liquidity, even between neighbouring countries. The security and sophistication of individual nations’ banking systems, their corporate tax regimes and restrictions on repatriating cash back to the UK are also likely to vary, with significant implications for liquidity. Geopolitical factors might also have a bearing. Most manufacturers with overseas operations (and supply chains) already keep their international cash portfolios under close scrutiny, especially in high-risk countries. And while larger companies may be able to safeguard their own global assets sufficiently, it’s by no means the case that smaller overseas suppliers or customers are as robust. In turbulent times, the most effective liquidity strategies are those which are adjusted for local factors.

Thinking ahead: liquidity today, growth in the coming years Depending on the skill of their planning and execution, liquidity strategies have the potential for positive and adverse long-term impact. Manufacturers may well continue to invest capital in plant, machinery or property. But at this stage of the economic cycle, transactions of the magnitude associated with acquisitions or international expansion are relatively few. That doesn’t mean, however, that liquidity objectives focus only on cash in hand and emergencies. Appetites for immediate M&A activity in the manufacturing sector may be somewhat suppressed – but executives are monitoring long-term liquidity closely, with an eye to organic or acquisitive growth when the time is right. Some are focusing intently on deleveraging their balance sheets and building cash reserves, so that when market conditions change and target companies become available, they can move fast, outpacing less well-resourced competitors.

A liquid future The coming months may well see manufacturers tightening their liquidity strategies, especially amid so much market uncertainty. And apart from commercial and competitive considerations, a quickening in the pace of change in domestic and international banking and financial regulation might also shape discussions. The challenge for manufacturers seeking to take advantage of the upturn will be to ensure that liquidity stays firmly on the agenda, long after the financial crisis is behind us.

Find out more

Looking to strengthen your company’s liquidity position? Talk to RBS about the most appropriate short, medium and long-term options. Contact: Peter Russell, head of manufacturing, UK sector coverage (tel: 020 7672 1007; email: peter.russell@rbs.co.uk) or Conor Maher, head of liquidity product and pricing, (tel: 020 7672 0702; email: conor.maher@rbs.co.uk).

Visit www.rbs.co.uk/corporate

Jane Gray talks to Professor Pam Thomas, director of the Science City Research Alliance about advanced materials for manufacturing. How are innovations here changing the shape of industry and who can benefit from being the first to embrace them?

he Science City Research Alliance comprises expertise from Warwick and Birmingham Universities, two of the UK’s leading industrial research centres. With many millions received by the Alliance from both Advantage West midlands – the regional development agency – and the European Regional Development fund, the Alliance has established facilities with cutting edge equipment for testing and developing advanced materials.

What are advanced materials? The term advanced materials covers myriad innovations but for the uninitiated it may mean little. Prof. Thomas explains: “We are talking about a range of exciting new ‘intelligent materials’; materials which can sense changes in their surrounding environment and respond to them.” For the construction industry this might mean building materials which can help with heat regulation. In solar panels new organic advanced materials are anticipated to reduce the cost and weight of photovoltaic cells. “Of course there are also lightweight composites which are already being applied in the aerospace and automotive industries” adds Prof. Thomas.

As well as creating new material the Alliance’s work also covers development of existing advanced materials. “We have recently developed a new, very cheap, temperature sensor effective down to the millikelvin range. This is fundamental research into advancing the use of a material which is already technologically important” comments Prof. Thomas. Advanced materials are essential for companies looking to prosper as the UK moves to a low carbon, high tech economy. They will differentiate products and processes as well as enabling smart new through life-service offerings.

Who is using advanced materials? A key aspect of the alliance is that it must be outward facing, we are more than an ‘ivory tower’ academic research project Professor Pam Thomas, director of the Science City Research Alliance (pictured above)

While the Warwick-Birmingham alliance is pioneering blue skies research into material which will be future game changers for industry, it also has a strong remit to work with firms on developing solutions for today’s challenges. “A key aspect of the alliance is that it must be outward facing,” says Thomas, “we are more than an ‘ivory tower’ academic research project.” Indeed as Thomas explains, the funding received from the European Regional Development Fund means that The Alliance is focused on working with businesses in the West Midlands; particularly SMEs who would not otherwise be able to afford access to the calibre of equipment the Alliance can offer (nearly £20m worth of it!). The Alliance now works with over 200 companies across the West Midlands region. The collaborative projects between the Alliance and these organisations have sometimes come

Specialfeature SCRA

about following a request from a company to leverage Alliance expertise for a specific business problem. “The work we are doing with Unilever, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are examples of this,” says Thomas. But other projects are created as newly patented technologies, like the new sensor referenced above, are licensed for application. “This particular temperature sensor will be useful for all sorts of hostile environments,” says Thomas. “It might be miniaturised for use inside the human body, measuring temperatures next to the heart or for recording patient temperatures inside MRI scanners. In industrial applications it could be used in microwave driers which are difficult to monitor with conventional methods, or perhaps used for monitoring conditions inside oil wells.”

How can a company get involved? Engaging with advanced materials testing and development is easy for West Midlands companies. Organisations are free to take propositions to the Alliance to work on problems relevant to their products or markets. Sometimes companies carry out their own research but approach the Alliance in order to gain access to their equipment. 3-Cs, a Malvern-based manufacturer of process technology for next generation electrical machines is one such example. The small firm needed access to high specification x-ray analysis equipment in order to progress with materials development for its own superconductor technology. Support from the Alliance has been critical here (see box). But the onus is not all on companies to go to the Alliance.

We ask what problems businesses are facing and investigate the extent to which there are technical aspects to these problems and consider whether we can help Professor Pam Thomas, director of the Science City Research Alliance

A team of business development managers at Birmingham and Warwick are responsible for finding likely technology adoption partners in the midlands region. These professionals are sensitive to the difficult times manufacturing are working in but innovative and flexible in finding ways to fund beneficial research says Thomas. “If we were to go to companies selling our expertise and asking for their cheque book we would get a very poor response,” she says. “Instead we ask what problems businesses are facing and investigate the extent to which there are technical aspects to these problems and consider whether we can help. We then discuss flexible ways or funding the research. This is always listened to with interest and largely ends up with positive action.”

About the Science City Research Alliance The Science City Research Alliance (SCRA) is a strategic union between the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick. The Alliance was formed under the Birmingham Science City initiative and has benefitted from a multi-million pound investment by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the technology areas of Advanced Materials, Energy Futures and Translational Medicine. The investment has funded joint equipment and research infrastructure at both institutions, as well as specialist personnel such as technical facility managers and business engagement managers. The principal aims of this Alliance are to pool expertise and work collaboratively on research and to engage with business and industry, giving access to the latest research, thinking and equipment.

What SCRA can offer businesses and other Higher Education institutions: Contract or Collaborative Research Consultancy Analysis Licensing Joint research funding applications Knowledge Transfer Advanced Materials Areas of Expertise: Diffraction Microscopy NMR, EPR and Optical Spectroscopy & Spectrometry Physical & Mechanical Properties Deposition & Growth Surface Analysis Microfabrication Chromatography Particle Size & Shape Bioanalysis

Testimonials Ihsan Al-Dawery PhD, programme coordinator at Sandvik Hard Materials “Working with the Science City Research Alliance has proven to be a valuable asset; drawing in external expertise and resources. We have received great help and support from all the technical team at the University of Birmingham to ensure the project addressed our main objectives and Sandvik will be looking forward to further joint collaborative work with the Science City Research Alliance.” Howard Quinn, Director Xerital Ltd “The work carried out be University of Birmingham has given us an insight into the services offered by these establishments and the company will look to make greater use of these resources in the future.“ Ezat Khoshdel, Unilever Research “We have worked with the Polymer Chemistry experts at the University of Warwick in the past and the facility made available via Science City has met our needs perfectly. We are currently exploring further work with Warwick which will help us greatly in developing our products in the personal care marketplace.” Dr Eamonn Maher, MD - 3-Cs Ltd “We have supported the concept of Science City right from the beginning and now that we have been able to benefit directly from the scheme we have no hesitation in recommending it to any small business needing access to the facilities and expertise at the universities of Birmingham and Warwick.”

For information and enquiries please contact: University of Birmingham Email: businessteam@bham.ac.uk Tel: 0121 414 3898 University of Warwick Email: Advanced.materials@warwick.ac.uk

Oracle

overhaul A story of market diversification and the transformation of a hardware manufacturing supply chain

It’s not every day you’re asked to reinvent an already highly successful and high-tech manufacturing company. But that’s exactly what Ewan Burgess, Sun Microsystems’ Director, global process owner for order fulfillment has been working towards since the company was acquired by Oracle in January 2010.

evamping Sun’s operations and systems in order to integrate with and add value to Oracle’s rapidly expanding business was not for the fainthearted. Burgess’ staff examined every aspect of the manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem. They modernised areas they could and cut out huge chunks of the core infrastructure whenever there was a chance to save money or improve efficiency. Such a monumental undertaking could easily take years to complete, but Oracle has become well versed in efficient acquisition procedures and by January 2011 - less than a year after the acquisition of Sun became official - all the pieces were in place for alignment and improvement. How did this extreme makeover accomplish

so much so quickly? Some powerful incentives drove the project. The first was significant ROI: the overhaul is on track to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year in excess and obsolete inventories, freight costs, and other related expenses. Secondly the effort had buy-in from management. “Larry and Safra said the Sun supply chain was too complicated” Burgess recalls, referring to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Oracle President Safra Catz. “We wanted to drive out the costs associated with this complexity and at the same time produce high-quality products with competitive lead times.” With catalysts like these, Burgess and his staff quickly started re-engineering the manufacturing operations by focusing on four primary links in the chain.

Specialfeature Oracle

Throw out inventory Burgess’ team overhauled Sun’s strategy of stocking large, expensive, volumes of components for its SPARC and x86 servers and its StorageTek tape products. Instead, they opted for assemble-to-order (ATO) manufacturing. “We used to build to a forecast and wait for the orders to come in. Now we don’t build anything until we have a customer order,” says Kurt Doelling, vice president of supply chain operations at Oracle. In the past, Sun would stockpile products to keep delivery times to 3 or 4 days compared to the industrystandard 7 to 10 days. “We thought this would give us an edge,” Burgess says. “But customers weren’t making a decision on who to buy from based on a couple of days’ lead time.” Meanwhile, the inventories were costing Sun a bundle - tens of millions of dollars each quarter in overhead costs and write-offs for obsolescence, not to mention the managerial headaches caused by the attempt to forecast the optimum inventory volumes for thousands of items in a volatile economic climate. By building products to order, Oracle will give customers acceptable response times while also squeezing out excess costs from the manufacturing operations. Oracle is also shrinking the manufacturing operations from a high of 21 final assembly and test locations to just five facilities, consisting of one internal manufacturing plant and three external suppliers. “This was a key enabler for implementing our model,” Doelling points out, explaining that ATO requires each supplier to meet high performance standards. Assuring that 21 different locations were all meeting those requirements would have been extremely difficult to manage.

Make deep cuts Building to order and eliminating finished-goods inventories set

The Point – Lanc ashire County Cricket Club, manchester 8 – 10 november 2011

Ewan Burgess

Director of Order Fulfilment, Sun Microsystems Hear Ewan Burgess speak at The Manufacturer managinzine’s High Tech Manufacturing Masterclass and Dinner on Novemebr 8. Other presentations at this event will be delivered by IDC Manufacturing Insights and BAE Systems

Tickets to this exclusive workshop and dinner start at just £45.00

To learn more or to book you place call Benn Walsh on 0207 401 6033 or email b.walsh@sayonemedia.com

We used to build to a forecast and wait for the orders to come in. Now we don’t build anything until we have a customer order Kurt Doelling, vice president of supply chain operations, Oracle

the stage for Oracle’s boldest move: strategic changes to Sun’s existing distribution system and network of sales channel partners. Sun’s previous approach relied on distribution centers in Asia, the U.S., and Europe to act as staging areas for large customer orders. Once the various pieces of an order flowed in from the 21-facility assembly and test locations, the distribution center bundled the order and shipped it in a single delivery to the customer. “That was a difficult supply chain to manage because managers had to ask one external manufacturing partner to sell to another,” Burgess explains. “We had to broker the deals for all the components.” After the Oracle acquisition, Burgess and his team took a hard look at this approach and concluded that the costs didn’t justify the benefits. Now Oracle uses an internal sales staff to cultivate business and ships products directly from the three manufacturing plants. To aggregate products within a single shipment, Oracle relies on what Doelling calls “natural consolidation.” Each external supplier is responsible for only one product line: SPARC, x86, or StorageTek.

Modernize the technology Business process changes - even seismic ones like these - aren’t enough to guarantee success in today’s highly competitive, global marketplace. Oracle also had to update and expand the underlying applications that were managing the manufacturing and supply chain activities. “Without the right ERP and distribution tools, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off,” Burgess says. The reason: consolidating production lines and building to order means that Oracle staff are spending more time in planning and forecasting talks with key suppliers. “We replaced inventory with information and effective communication,” Doelling says. As a result, the manufacturing operations will use every part of Oracle’s E-Business Suite, from its core ERP functions and Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning to the supply scorecard tool and the Demantra RealTime Sales and Operations Planning logistics module. At the top of the modernisation list was upgrading Oracle E-Business Suite to the latest Release 12 version to generate invoices, export paperwork, and handle other essentials for completing transactions.

Business Intelligence Conference 09:00 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 17:00, 6th December 2011 Ambassadors Bloomsbury, London Whether you are investigating areas of business intelligence for the first time or you are at the mature stage and looking at predictive analytics and moving into the cloud, attendance at this one day conference will ensure you are one step ahead of the competition.

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Take your Business Intelligence to the next level

Specialfeature Oracle

The new ERP system has helped Burgess’ team retire another antiquated business process that sent transactions to a non-Oracle application used by a third-party logistics partner. That system generated the actual paperwork for export licenses and other documentation. But for this twostep process to work, Sun had to write custom interfaces between the two systems. Not only were the interfaces costly to create and maintain, but they often created processing bottlenecks. “When problems arose with the interfaces, you couldn’t get a transaction through,” Burgess recalls. That delayed shipments and made accurate financial accounting difficult. Oracle no longer has to worry about unweildy communications between platforms. Burgess’ team recommended reducing the number of logistics suppliers from five to one. The new logistics partner, Kuehne + Nagel, uses Oracle technology so integration will be tight. “They will enter the transactions directly into our Oracle system without any interfaces,” Burgess says. Another change to the application lineup is Oracle’s Agile product lifecycle management (PLM) applications, which replace an old PLM system that was too complex for anyone other than specialists to use. Early reports on this change are also encouraging. “I get e-mails from people saying how it’s so much easier to write a change order or to collaborate with external partners,” Burgess says. “Our ability to move a lot faster as an organisation has gotten so much better since we implemented Agile.” The full implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 12 is scheduled for completion this year. Extensive early testing is already showing transaction volumes at significantly higher rates. “We’re also seeing vastly reduced amounts of excess and obsolete goods, reduced levels of rework, and reduced levels of premium freight and supplier

I get e-mails from people saying how it’s so much easier to write a change order or to collaborate with external partners.Our ability to move a lot faster as an organisation has gotten so much better since we implemented Agile Ewan Burgess, director, global process owner for order fulfillment, Sun Microsystems

overtime expenses,” says Doelling. “Putting in the Oracle software is giving us a tenfold payback,” Burgess adds.

Continuously improve Although Burgess’ team is still bringing the makeover to life, lessons learned will guide future modernisations. Among the most important is a decision to do away with an old practice Burgess calls the “infinite right of appeal” for people wanting to customise new software. Sun used to entertain suggestions from business users about how to tweak new applications to accommodate individual business processes. That would result in extensive modifications that delayed implementations, added to software maintenance costs, and produced headaches when it was time to reconcile the customizations with new releases of the programs. “Now the mandate from the top has been to put in place the vanilla software, and if there are areas where we really need something different than vanilla, we’ll go in and change the

software itself so it’s available to every customer that uses it,” Burgess says. “We haven’t had many of those situations.” Instead, Burgess has found it beneficial to get people to change their business processes before changing the underlying software. He admits that this hasn’t always been easy, especially for something as large and important as an ERP implementation but his staff forged support by pointing to real-world examples of how other high-tech manufacturers were using standard software to solve similar problems. Listening to alternative ideas and concerns was another key to drumming up support. Three times a week for the past six months, Burgess’ team has been sitting down with the end users to review business processes, discuss concerns, and decide how best to use the new resources. “A project like this requires not only my direct attention but also that of all the vice presidents and directors who work for me,” Burgess concludes. “All of the management staff has to be in there listening to people.”

For more information visit www.oracle.com

Hacked off

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Flawed IT security costs British businesses £21 billion a year, discovers Malcolm Wheatley. So how much is your company losing?

n late September, just a few short weeks before the date of publication for this issue of TM, Japan’s largest defence contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, acknowledged that its computer systems had been breached by hackers. In late September, just a few short weeks before the date of publication for this issue of TM, Japan’s largest defence contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, acknowledged that its computer systems had been breached by hackers. The cyber miscreants evaded firewalls and security measures to plant malware in 45 Japan-based servers as well as numerous individual PCs. Systems in the nuclear and missile guidance businesses at Mitsubishi were among those compromised by the hackers who certainly succeeded in obtaining IP addresses before the assault was identified. So far Mitsubishi has not discovered any actual data losses but has also been unable to identify the perpetrators of the attack. Chinese hackers are suspected. This attack on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is however, only the latest in a string of attacks on high profile organisations with the intent to thieve, damage or cause mischief. In May this year the world’s largest defence contractor, Lockheed Martin, succumbed to a similar invasion which

raised serious concerns over the vulnerability of vital defence technology secrets. Lockheed liaised closely with the Pentagon to try and identify exactly what data might have been compromised and to identify the hackers. Eventually it was discovered that the breach had been achieved using data stolen from another US defence company RSA Security but there the trail went cold as far as hard proof is concerned. Despite advances in IT security in recent years, the past few months have repeatedly shown that the threats from hackers, ‘malware’ and other IT nasties is far from receding. What’s more, it’s clearly no longer purely organisations such as banks and online retailers that are on the front line. For with their supply chains, administrative systems, and factory operations increasingly linked to the outside world, manufacturers too are more vulnerable than ever to breaches of their IT security. And the dangers are also more diverse than ever - ranging from outright fraud, to loss of intellectual property and damage. Overall, in fact, a report undertaken in conjunction with the Cabinet Office by IT consultants Detica - a subsidiary of defence contractor BAE Systems - put the cost of cybercrime to UK businesses at a whopping £21 billion a year, with hi-tech manufacturers ranging from

aerospace to electronics and pharmaceutical manufacturers most at risk. Yet equally clearly, the IT security industry has a vested interest in over-hyping the risks.

Threat level If people haven’t got access to data, they can’t leak or steal it David Emm, senior security researcher, Kaspersky Lab

threat is always the internal employee, inadvertently or intentionally leaking data Robert Rutherford, chief executive of QuoStar

But just how real are the dangers lurking in manufacturers’ corporate networks? Where are the biggest areas of vulnerability? And what can manufacturers do to protect themselves? The scenario at Lockheed Martin appears to confirm that the hype is probably justified. Indeed Bill Trueman, CEO of fraud specialists UKFraud.co.uk, says the hype from the IT security community largely serves to compensate for the all too common sense of complacency found in many organisations. “The impact of a security breach on business can be catastrophic - and if over hyping the risk compensates for this complacency then so be it,” he stresses. “In general, most of the hype is justifiable, and in point of fact is probably best practice.” It is certainly difficult to balance necessary warnings and alerts against the desire not to induce panic. In the wake of last year’s Stuxnet virus attack on the Siemens microcontrollers and SCADA systems operating Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, pundits were predicting that factories worldwide would be beset by all

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manner of doomsday scenarios. In fact, the attack - which contained no fewer than four ‘zero day’ hacks, and which has been popularly ascribed to Israeli intelligence operatives - appears to have been a one-off. Certainly, there have been no similar attacks reported since. Were commentators playing a dangerous game of ‘cry wolf’? Alex Ayers, director of operations at SAP security specialist Turnkey Consulting, denies this. He sees Stuxnet as “a shot across the bows of manufacturing industry”. And while microcontrollers won’t necessarily be the next target, he believes that it can no longer be assumed that ERP and other core corporate systems won’t be targeted in a similar fashion. The bad news is that those attacks may have already have started - and manufacturers worrying about viruses, ‘scareware’ and ‘distributed denial of service’ attacks may be fighting yesterday’s war, not tomorrow’s.

Security risks don’t stay static: they change over time, and evolve Stephen Smith, chief operating officer, Invictis

Inside knowledge Take a look at the details underpinning that £21bn cost of cybercrime to UK businesses - a figure endorsed by the Cabinet Office - and it’s very clear where the principal threats lie. A whopping £9.2bn comes from the theft of intellectual property (IP), with a further £7.6bn coming from industrial espionage - which can involve IP theft, but which can also include snooping to identify how companies might

Chart below: Cost of different types of cyber crime to the UK economy All types of cyber crime

bid in tender auctions as well as the identification of about-to-bepublished information that might affect share prices. Add in the £1bn attributed to the theft of customer data, and it’s clear that the financial consequences of outright fraud, extortion and ‘scareware’ are relatively minor in nature. “There are growing instances of cyber criminals offering their services to manufacturing firms,” says Detica’s technical director, Henry Harrison. “There’s no question that there are a fairly large number of incidents taking place: what’s less clear is where the information is going.” And a widespread blind spot prevents many manufacturers from waking up to the risk that they face, adds Christian Toon, head of information security at information management specialist Iron Mountain. “Companies generally have very little idea of what they possess in the form of intellectual property,” he stresses. “They think ‘patents’, and stop there. They don’t think about equally valuable information such as customer lists, supplier details, bills of material, process routings and sales statistics, for example. In the right hands - or rather, the wrong hands - all of these are potentially very valuable.” Nor need the threat to intellectual property come from outsiders hacking into manufacturers’ systems.

“The biggest threat is always the internal employee, either inadvertently or intentionally leaking data or bringing security risks into the environment,” warns Robert Rutherford, chief executive of QuoStar, a specialist provider of IT services, consultancy and support to UK manufacturers. “We’ve seen a director leave a company, and start up his own competing business just down the road and getting sales databases and designs sent to him by existing employees.” So what can manufacturers do to protect themselves from intellectual property theft? Start by putting in place security policies and procedures to govern who has access to specific pieces of information, advises David Emm, a senior security researcher at security specialists Kaspersky Lab. “You have to consider levels of access, and levels of connectivity,” he advises. The logic? If people haven’t got access to data, they can’t leak or steal it. And don’t just pay lip service to policies once they are put in place, adds QuoStar’s Rutherford: audit, monitor, and enforce compliance. “The simplest and most cost-effective way to boost security is always a strict policy, backed by clearly explained sanctions in case of breaches,” he stresses. “Employees have to know that you mean business.”

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IT in manufacturing

That said, he adds, employers can do a lot to make it more difficult for employees to accidentally or deliberately leak data. “USB sticks make it easy to copy material, but these can be prevented from working on employees’ computers by end-point device controls, which render inactive specific ports on employee machines - or which send alerts when people do try to plug them in,” he says. “Similarly, it’s easy to set up corporate e-mail systems so that e-mails containing specific key words - such as ‘quote’ - or attachments such as Excel spreadsheets are sent into quarantine for checking.” Nor should employers always rely on their security policies and practices operating successfully, adds Detica’s Harrison - especially in the case of intrusions by external hackers. “Don’t just focus on preventing access,” he warns. “Assume that sometimes you’ll fail, and go looking for evidence that an intruder has gained access. Having a compromised machine isn’t the same as instantly losing data to intruders able to drill down and find the specific pieces of information that they are looking for: sometimes it can take an intruder weeks or months to locate the specific pieces of information that they want.” Finally, say experts, a new generation of security and assessment tools makes it easier than ever for manufacturers to obtain objective assessments of their vulnerability to security threats - without relying on the opinions of security solution providers with a vested interest in finding such threats. “It is now possible to access a vendor independent, product agnostic service that allows manufacturers to measure their risk from security threats quickly and effectively,” says Stephen Smith, co-founder and chief operating officer of Invictis, a security benchmarking provider. Invictis’ own approach to benchmarking, for instance, uses a proprietary methodology and mathematical algorithms to generate a security

profile of the business in a variety of contexts - and also embraces external factors such as security standards, legislation, regulation, and best practice. And among manufacturers, hi-tech companies are especially keen on regular benchmarking, says Smith, owing to the perceived

threat of loss of intellectual property. “Security risks don’t stay static: they change over time, and evolve,” he warns. “And as the threat doesn’t stand still, neither should manufacturers.” In short, the price of freedom from data theft is eternal vigilance. Just ask Mitsubishi. Chart left: Cost of IP theft by industry sector IP theft – most likely economic impact by business sector

Process excellence When an international Fragrance house, headquartered in the UK needed help with its implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX, it turned to Columbus. Malcolm Wheatley discovers why.

eadquartered in Bishop’s Stortford, innovative fragrance manufacturer CPL Aromas serves customers around the globe from 17 factories and offices spread across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. In 2010, the fast-growing international fragrance manufacturer was brought to realise that the sustainability of this expansion would require a change of IT infrastructure. It was time for an industry specific, up to date enterprise system which would support both local insight and global strategy for the very best in customer service. And inevitably, says ERP project manager James Monilaws, the spotlight soon fell on Microsoft Dynamics AX. While Microsoft’s

This case study shows why: Process industry challenges are best tackled by fully-integrated ERP process capabilities Choice of implementation partner is critical The careful selection of pilot stage setting is important

flagship product wasn’t the only one in the frame, he relates, it had emerged as the front-runner during a year-long investigation of the market that embraced most of the leading systems and implementation partners in the market. But by January 2011, when Monilaws – a veteran of 20 or so previous ERP implementations – arrived to spearhead the move to Microsoft Dynamics AX, it became clear that relations with the selected implementation partner were holding the project back from its full potential. CPL needed a flexible partner; large enough to cope with a global roll out, but also able to work with small specialist teams on a local level.

Rapid review Knowing that fast footwork was required, Monilaws’ first task was to review the initial decision to go with the Microsoft solution. Was it, in fact, the best choice? Then, finding that the decision was valid, he turned his attention to the question of an implementation partner, inviting a selection of potential partners to join an evaluation process. Very soon, a shortlist of four top contenders emerged, which subsequently boiled down to just one global name and one far more UK centric option. “Columbus struck us as very thorough and competent, with skilled and experienced people, a proven implementation track record in process businesses like ours, and the geographic reach to support our overseas operations,” he says. “It was clear that they knew what they were talking about, and had the resources and commitment to deliver, using people with a process industry background who had implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX many times before.” And Columbus also had the edge when it came to two further aspects of the proposed implementation: an ‘inside track’ to Microsoft’s prestigious Technology Adoption Programme, and a growing

Specialfeature Columbus

familiarity with Microsoft’s Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 which, at the time, was yet to be released. Getting a head start on understanding this new iteration of AX was a deal clincher for CPL.

Integration “With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the process industry element of the solution is a fully-integrated part of the system, and not an add-in as it was in earlier versions,” Monilaws explains. “Similarly, the quality control requirements for process industries are subtly different, and these, too, were fully integrated. Likewise, the 2012 version builds upon Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 in terms of in-built collaboration, and support for Microsoft Sharepoint and other Microsoft Office technologies.” It was clear, too, that Columbus were as excited about Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 as Monilaws was, he relates. “A team from Columbus went to an AX 2012 event in Seattle, and within a couple of days I received a complex but fully customised report back from them,” he explains. “It was a good, competent, presales analysis of what exactly Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 could offer us, cogently pieced together by three or four specialists closely cooperating together.” And being part of the Technology Adoption Programme would help the business to see its needs reflected ‘as standard’ in the still being-finalised software code for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, as well as offering close contact with Microsoft developers and product specialists. “Columbus were very willing to go the extra mile to facilitate our inclusion within the Technology Adoption Programme, while some of the other potential implementation partners were fairly noncommittal about it,” he relates. CPL formed its own view that Columbus’ competitors

either lacked the clout to deliver it, or simply weren’t bothered.”

Pilot stage

Columbus struck us as very thorough and competent, with skilled and experienced people, a proven implementation track record in process businesses like ours, and the geographic reach to support our overseas operations James Monilaws, ERP project manager

In short, within a few weeks a two-fold decision crystallised within the business: to go with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, and to go with Columbus as the preferred implementation partner. And a few months on, with board approval now granted for a global implementation, led by a pilot stage, there only remains the question of which of the company’s sites to use as the pioneer, says Monilaws. While one of the company’s main production sites is in Brixworth, in Northamptonshire, there were definite operational attractions to piloting the new system in other manufacturing or sales sites. Meanwhile a programme of familiarisation is taking place, with key users getting to grips with a ‘generic’ Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 system.

This will be followed by the issuing of formal requirements documentation led by Columbus business and AX consultants. “The reaction has been favourable,” reports Monilaws. Some staff have even said that the system has exceeded their expectations. “We don’t have a firm ‘go live’ date for global roll out yet, but we do have a group of employees who are very much looking forward to it!”

Backing up this enthusiastic sentiment CPL chief executive, Chris Pickthall says: “This major investment in new ERP is fundamental to providing increased levels of customer service for CPL Aromas and we are very pleased to be partnered with Columbus in this vital project. It will help drive our business forward in the years to come.”

For more information please visit: www.columbus.co.uk

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IT in manufacturing

ITnews... CAD

SolidWorks 2012 adds 200 new functions Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks has revealed the latest version and 20th release of its CAD software, SolidWorks 2012. A variety of improvements have been made in areas such as assembly and drawing capabilities, built-in simulation and a design costing module. The latter is designed to be a flexible tool that automates manufacturing cost calculations for sheet metal and machined parts. According to the company, 90% of enhancements have been user driven. “SolidWorks 2012 focuses on the areas that will help our customers drive their businesses to

higher productivity and profitability,” said Austin O’Malley, executive vice president, R&D, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. SolidWorks Sustainability’s new interface means users can more accurately model products with “what if” scenarios and better support unique and custom materials. Users can also closely model processes with parameters such as recycled content and duration of use. Its advance material search tool can be used to find alternative materials with similar attributes such as strength.

Large Design Review is another inclusion which aims to increase the speed by which large assemblies (over 5000 parts) can be opened and interrogated. This functionality has previously required specialised view/markup software outside the CAD platform.

ERP

SAP delivers smarter carbon management

Microsoft launches Chemical Reference Architecture initiative

SAP has announced growing demand for its CDP Reporter Services carbon disclosure software, which is based on its tie-in with the not for profit Carbon Disclosure Project.

Companies are increasingly wanting to use analytics to assess the return on investment in cost-saving greenhouse gas reduction activities, and SAP’s CDP Reporter Services enables them to do just that. Since its debut in 2010, the software has been adopted by more than 40 enterprise customers, including Cisco, DuPont, E.ON, Boeing and Hess. It combines dynamic reporting based on analytics from SAP with the Carbon Disclosure Project’s database containing information from over 3,000 companies on their greenhouse gas emissions, water management and climate change strategies. Using it, manufacturers can benchmark their business performance relative to their peers, identify risks and opportunities in operations, and analyse the findings across corporate entities and geographies. With reliable information regarding its carbon footprint, a company using the software is then able to make the right decisions for both carbon reduction and profitable returns. “Using the Carbon Disclosure Project’s analytics tool to benchmark other sustainability leaders highlighted useful information to share with our internal strategy teams,” said Dawn Rittenhouse, director of sustainable development at chemical giant DuPont.

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft Chemical Reference Architecture (ChemRA) Initiative – an effort to develop, along with its partners that provide solutions to the chemical and oil refining industries, a reference architecture framework that will help address business and technological needs for customers in these industries. ChemRA will benefit customers by allowing them to implement interoperable IT solutions built on a solid, secure and reliable foundation, as well as allowing for easy collaboration and business processes automation. Microsoft partners endorsing and participating in the ChemRA Initiative include Accenture, Aspen Technology, Invensys, OSIsoft and Siemens. “The need for collaboration among chemicals professionals is great, driven by a push for faster innovation and the pressing need for knowledge transfer from retiring workers,” notes Ellyn Foltz, managing director for worldwide process manufacturing industries at Microsoft. “ChemRA provides a response to the business and technology challenges our customers and partners face today.”

Marshalling your

resources Marshalls is the UK’s leading manufacturer of superior natural stone and innovative concrete hard landscaping products. It was established over 130 years ago and supplies the construction, home improvement and landscape markets, specialising in a wide range of products, design services and technical expertise. This study explores its selection of and implementation journey with Microsoft’s Dynamics AX ERP solution with their partner eBECS.

he Marshalls Group, which had an annual turnover of £323 million in 2010, operates a diverse portfolio of business interests from managing its own quarries through to manufacturing goods and running regional service centres. It employs around 2400 people across 54 sites, not just in the UK, but also overseas. This diversity is one of the key reasons that Marshalls relies heavily on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and after many years of using Baan software the company was looking for a solution that would fit better with its business strategy. Because Marshalls largely grows through acquisition – this meant that the solution had to be scalable to accommodate new businesses and their systems quickly and efficiently into the Marshalls model, primarily to ensure a smooth transition, and to realise the financial benefit of the acquisition more rapidly.

Marshalls had a clear idea of what it wanted from a new ERP solution and assessed both SAP and Oracle, before selecting Microsoft Dynamics AX. “We were using the integrator eBECS to support our Baan solution, and because they understood our business we were able to work closely with them to select the best solution” said Paul Thomas, group information systems director at Marshalls. “They recommended Microsoft Dynamics AX and having assessed it for ourselves we could also see that it would provide the right levels of flexibility and scalability.”

Integration Implementing the new software was carried out in partnership with eBECS and, enabled as they were with a ready knowledge of Marshall’s processes, it was achieved with the utmost efficiency. “eBECS get to know your company inside out,” says Steve Donnelly, AX programme manager at Marshalls. “This is a massive benefit, because we can send them into any one of our businesses and they can talk directly to all the relevant managers and come back to us with their recommendations.” In addition to the solid eBECS support the implementation of AX was eased by its familiar interface and interoperability with other Microsoft products with their familiar look and feel and navigation. This helped with the training process which had previously been lengthy, allowing everyone within the company, to get up to speed with how to use the system very quickly. “I’ve got over twenty years of experience using ERP packages, and I would say that Microsoft

Specialfeature ebecs – Marshalls UK

New AX generation launched On September 13 Microsoft officially unveiled Dynamics AX 2012 – the latest version of its ERP offering. At a well attended event in London delegates from across a range of manufacturing sectors, as well as service industries, were guided through the added functionality and flexibility of AX 2012. Major advances in the technology focus around enhanced manufacturing execution capabilities and also easy to use tools for facilitating alterations to organisational structure – essential as companies adapt to changing markets and to mergers and acquisitions. A spokesperson from PwC identified this latter enhancement of AX as “a defining strength”. A full write up of the AX 2012 launch will be featured in TM November

Dynamics AX is easily the best,” continues Steve Donnelly. “This is because of its flexibility and its general usability – it is simple to customise – and this reduces lead times. By using more of the Microsoft stack, there are clear gains to be obtained in terms of total cost of ownership and return on investment. ”

Benefits to Marshalls One of the major advantages of Dynamics AX to Marshalls is that its use is intuitive. This reduces difficulties with staff buy-in and has encouraged Marshalls employees to use the new system to its full potential.

Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a flexible solution that can be adapted to meet the individual needs of your business. I would recommend it to anyone Paul Thomas, Group Information Systems Director, Marshalls

The AX system has the ability to adapt screens and menus as well as forms, so internally labels have been applied in a way that people understand and this makes them feel comfortable with the system. But what about the more tangible returns, so important in today’s climate, when every spend must be justified.

Marshalls reports real results in terms of business costs, productivity, efficiency, customer service and more: Cost reductions – Because visibility is possible across all companies and departments, Marshalls can assess its common suppliers and customers and negotiate better deals across the group. It is able to leverage the economies of scale by having centralised functions that require fewer people to manage them. Finance - AX has enabled Marshalls to standardise finance processes across the Group, removing the task of consolidating many disparate systems and allowing them to reduce their reporting timescales and increase the accuracy of their reporting. Better sales focus and increased productivity – The solution integrates with Microsoft’s Business Intelligence software to provide sales analysis, detailing which products have sold, in what quantities and the level of margin – this is helping the company to keep track and plan its product line-up for the future. In addition, raising of sales orders is much quicker because AX integrates smoothly with Marshalls ‘fast quote’ system which allows the sales team to convert a quote into an order. This gives the internal sales staff more time to follow up leads, talk to customers and generate new business, rather than just processing data. Document management – Marshalls previously had to file reams of paperwork, but by using AX, all files are now held electronically and access is available to everyone. Information is fed into Word documents, which provides the businesses with layouts that are specific to customer needs, and instead of having to re-type documents, the information is available directly from the central files held in Dynamics AX. Customer service – the greater visibility that Dynamics AX affords Marshalls has improved the customer experience, reducing errors and rectification costs.

Since Marshalls implemented AX, it has used it to support its growing ecommerce activities. “We were able to put together a web company within AX,” says Paul Thomas, “and we built a front-end using Microsoft.Net and integrated the two together so that pricing, stock, product descriptions and catalogues are all driven in real-time from Dynamics AX. It automatically does all the confirmations, delivery notes and picking notes without any manual keying-in from our staff.”. For Marshalls, Dynamics AX has achieved everything that was promised in terms of flexibility, integration and usability and the company is aiming to ensure that all its existing businesses and all new businesses that are acquired will be using AX moving forward. Paul Thomas concluded: “It provides a flexible solution that can be adapted to meet the individual needs of your business. I would recommend it to anyone.”

For more information and to watch the case study video please visit www.ebecs.com/customers/marshalls

20TH October Haydock Race Course, Junction 23, M6 09:00 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;16:45

Connect with like-minded manufacturing professionals looking for growth and opportunity through advancing their IT systems.

The Manufacturer magazine is delighted to invite business, financial, operational, supply chain and IT manufacturing professionals to ERP Connect. At ERP Connect you will:

Case presentations including: Derek Wilson

Chief Information Officer - Origin Enterprises PLC

Get up to speed with the latest developments in enterprise system thinking through a series of keynotes and breakouts. Benchmark your project, learn from best practice case studies and deliver on expectations and demands of your organisation. Network with fellow manufacturing professionals who are engaged in ERP projects. Seize a unique opportunity to debate, share and build on your knowledge base with peers facing similar challenges. Accelerate your project by engaging in one to one meetings with a select group of leading ERP vendors that can provide expertise by sector and organisation size.

Dave Mooney

Managing Director Drallim Industries Ltd

Keith Ross

Ipeco - Company Secretary

Insight and inspiration from:

Map out a robust ERP strategy and ensure ROI.

Jeegar Kakkad

Three ways to register: 1: Book online by visiting: www.themanufacturer.com/erpconnect 2: Telephone Benn Walsh on: 0207 401 6033 3: Email: b.walsh@sayonemedia.com

Senior Economist â&#x20AC;&#x201C; EEF

Pierfrancesco Manenti Research Director - IDC Manufacturing Insight

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IT in manufacturing

ITnews... CRM

Infor launches three social enterprise platform CRM applications ERP and application vendor Infor has announced that it will deliver three applications built on Force.com, Salesforce.com’s social enterprise platform. Through the partnership, Infor will build and deliver InForce Everywhere, a native Force.com application that brings ERP data into Salesforce; InForce Order Management, a quote, order and proposal management application; and InForce Marketing, which will leverage Infor CRM Epiphany, a leader in recommendation engines, for global marketing automation technology – all on Force.com.

PLM

ERP

BAE Systems signs multi million pound contract with Siemens PLM Software

ERP systems can hamper productivity and business agility, says global study

Siemens PLM Software has announced that submarine builder BAE Systems Submarine Solutions has signed a contract to standardise on Siemens PLM’s Teamcenter software for the development of its next generation submarine.

A global study carried out by analyst firm IDC on behalf of ERP vendor IFS reveals that less than a third of companies find their enterprise applications intuitive and easy to use.

This commitment, say BAE Systems’ executives, will enable the company – presently under pressure from defence cutbacks – to drive productivity improvements, establish common processes, and enhance global collaboration across the lifecycle of what is an important new programme for the business.

Teamcenter will serve as the information backbone of BAE Systems’ product development process, managing all of the information generated and needed to design, build, commission and support a nuclear submarine. “BAE Systems decided to deploy a PLM approach to the future nuclear deterrent submarine programme as part of developing an Integrated Product Delivery Environment, which will enable the design process to be managed more effectively and predictably, in what is one of the most challenging new product programmes in UK industry today,” said Tony Johns, BAE Systems’ Future Submarines director.

Examining the importance of usability and flexibility in enterprise applications among companies in the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Benelux, Scandinavia and India, the survey clearly highlights that ERP providers must improve their software in order to meet these demands. Among the most notable findings was the discovery that less than one third of respondents found their enterprise applications intuitive and easy to use; more than half consider some tasks a waste of time when using the enterprise applications; and that 44% believe their enterprise applications have a negative impact on their business agility. “The study proves what we at IFS have known for many years: usability and agility are vital for companies in terms of productivity,” added IFS chief technology officer Dan Matthews.

Have your say at www.themanufacturer.com

IT in manufacturing

IDC Manufacturing Insights will spend 2012 investigating a powerful emerging trend in manufacturing technology. Piefrancesco Manenti talks to Jane Gray about ‘operational ERP’ and the impact it is likely to have on existing ERP users.

In the future it is quite likely that we will see companies with two individual ERP systems, one for the back office and one for operational concerns Pierfrancesco Manenti, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights EMEA

Pierfrancesco Manenti is head of IDC Manufacturing Insights EMEA. IDC conducts leading industry research into emerging trends including; technology, product management and supply chain management. Mr Manenti will be sharing more insight into operational ERP; what it means for technology implementations and the way business networks function, at ERP Connect 4 on October 20. His presentation will be titled ERP is dead; long live the new ERP.

Operational ERP core model Collaboration Decision Management Analytic Integration

Workflow Management Transaction Integration

Control

nterprise Resource Planning technology is the most widely adopted IT system in manufacturing companies across Europe. IDC research recently showed that 75% of manufacturing companies in Europe already have a system in place and 22% more are planning to implement – just what the remaining 3% think they have up their sleeves remains to be seen, perhaps they are waiting for what Pierfrancesco Manenti, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights EMEA, sees as being a new era for and approach to ERP. Despite the prolific use of ERP systems in manufacturing companies, it must be pointed out that, as it stands, ERP is not a manufacturing technology. “What we typically see now” says Manenti, “is what IDC would call ‘financial ERP’ – a transactional system which is essential for the smooth running of the back office in a manufacturing organisation. What this kind of traditional system does not cope with very well are; manufacturing operations, business to business integration, transportation, and so on.”

Results from research indicate that this failing is leading to considerable dissatisfaction with traditional ERP. According to IDC, 43% of manufacturers interviewed said they had received only minor or no improvement at all to their business as a result of implementing ERP. A further 35% said they did not expect to recover the cost of implementation and 30% said they knew they required some form of ‘best in breed’ application for concerns such as manufacturing execution and supply chain management. For Manenti this data is unsurprising, but he does see an answer emerging from the market – something IDC have labelled ‘Operational ERP’. “In the future,” says Manenti, “it is quite likely that we will see companies with two individual

Corporate

metamorphosis

ERP systems, one for the back office and one for operational concerns.” This operational ERP must be suitable for a new generation of globally integrated businesses. According to Manenti’s vision, backed up by developments IDC already see in the vendor market, it will work in real time across multiple enterprises and multiple sites. In this real time system employees will be alerted to events in supplier factories as they take place. Although the development of operational ERP is still in an early stage Manenti says that vendors have recognised the term and, he hopes, will adopt it for future technology releases. The acquisition of Stirling

Data Management

Commerce

Commence and ILog recently made by IBM is indicative of a move toward operational ERP in Manenti’s view and as are developments at Infor. “Many organisations are now trying to converge into this empty space,” he claims.

This latest iteration of The Manufacturer’s successful series of technology events will take place at Haydock Park Racecourse, Lancashire. Other speaker will include: Derek Wilson, Origin

Enterprises PLC Neil Whailin, ERP System

Development Manager at MacTaggart Scott Dave Mooney, Managing

Director at Drallim Industries

To book your place at this established forum for ERP selection and education call Benn Walsh on 0207 401 6033 (b.walsh@sayonemedia.com)

1 0

NOVEMBER

FACTORY TOUR

The MDC factory tours are an ideal opportunity for MDC delegates to witness, first hand and in action, sites that have award winning business improvement, culture change, lean manufacturing and to learn more about the innovative solutions used to solve the issues facing manufacturers today.

Siemens Motion Control, Congleton Thursday 10 November Areas discussed on the tour will include: Innovative manufacturing Lean Cell Design system Total Quality Management Insight into the Siemens Production Method Sustainable manufacturing Chance to meet value stream team members

Siemens Congleton celebrates not only its 40th anniversary this year but its busiest and most successful year to date. Established in 1971, the company now manufactures in excess of 1.3m electronic devices (specialising in 0-15Kw variable speed drives) per annum, of which 98% are exported globally to 78 countries. The company has experienced rapid growth over the last decade, doubling output whilst maintaining the same physical footprint. Employing 500 people including 60 R&D engineers, Siemens Congleton is proud that 70% have been in the company for at least 10 years. Management attributes its ongoing success to four factors; high levels of productivity, innovative products, high quality standards, underpinned by extremely motivated and dedicated employees.

MAXIMUM DELEGATES: 25 KEy FAcTS:

Number of employees at site: 500 Manufacturer of motion control drives & baggage handling equipment Research and development facility on site Focused on continuous improvement as part of the working culture

S E l E CTi Ng Th E TO U R : The full list of factory tours is available on the MDC website. Priority will be given to delegates who register early. For safety and security, only delegates travelling on tour coaches will be permitted entrance into the host site. Some attendees may be excluded from tour sites due to the nature of information released.

www.themanufacturer.com/mdc2011

To reserve you place at this or any of the best practice tours telephone Benn Walsh on 0207 401 6033 or email b.walsh@sayonemedia.com

essentially a promise towards our customers that we will meet their expectations. The paradox is that the more we deviate from the prevailing paradigm to produce a more innovative concept and a more differentiated product, the more uncertain it is that we will deliver the required performance.

How to manage innovation risks for creativity without the leap of faith

Key elements of technological risk are related to the following five questions:

In what way and to what extent are we differentiating ourselves from competition?

What is the promise that our concepts or designs hold in terms of performance vis-à-vis the criteria that matter to our customers?

Nicos Raftis, director of IP Research, outlines key elements of innovation risk and how it can be managed. He explains that risk and uncertainty are two sides of the same coin.

Nicos Raftis, director, IP Research

Technology changes with new enabling technologies opening up exciting possibilities, and with emerging technologies presenting new opportunities and threats

he essence of innovation is novelty. A solution may be more or less innovative depending on whether it operates within the prevailing paradigm or whether it breaks away from the prevailing paradigm. In common usage, innovation tends to refer to new product development or new product introduction. It is driven by the desire to gain a competitive advantage by delivering superior value to customers.

What does superior value mean? There are two key components: differentiation and performance. Different is only meaningful in comparison to what is already there. Customers appreciate a new product or service when they compare it- and the benefits it provides- to other alternatives. Companies have to answer the question “in what way do we want to be different from competition and how do we achieve that?” The second component of performance is

3 4

Can our concepts and designs be protected against copying?

Are our concepts and designs likely to infringe other’s intellectual property?

Is the technological platform(s) that we have adopted sustainable in terms of being able to support high performance in the future without becoming obsolete in the short term?

Technological risk is related to our ability to provide reliable answers to the above questions. Risk and uncertainty are essentially two sides of the same coin. To answer these questions, it is essential to know: what is the current ‘state of the art’, to know what others are doing, to know what matters to different groups of users, to know how relevant technologies evolve and where they are heading. Figure 1 shows an ecosystem that is continuously evolving and involves four main actors: the company, its competitors, the users, and the technology. All of these actors are interacting with each other and continuously evolve over time. Good decisions that reduce innovation risk are

Innovation design and the product lifecycle

taken when management has a clear view of this ecosystem and its evolution path. A determining factor in all these interactions is time. Everything evolves over time. Users change their preferences; what was previously an exciting feature may now be taken for granted, what were previously unmet desires may now be standard inclusions. Technology changes with new enabling technologies opening up exciting possibilities, and with emerging technologies presenting new opportunities and threats. The competitors of yesterday change in their orientation and their capabilities. New competitors are emerging that could be our most serious challengers of tomorrow. Likewise, as competitors acquire or develop and protect new technologies, they change the technological directions in which they are moving and may become non-competitors. Users evolve in the way they interact with technology, and competitors change their focus on user groups and on the user needs they seek to address. The approach to innovation risk management has to be characterised, in the first place, by a solution neutral problem statement that starts by focusing on what the system needs to be as opposed to what it is. This is important in order to be in position to examine alternative directions for a solution in an unbiased manner. Inevitably, when we take a functional approach to

Figure 1: Ecosystem within which decisions are made

Systematic scanning means that one identifies all possible directions for a solution, either within the prevailing paradigm or outside the prevailing paradigm, within one’s own industry and outside one’s own industry Nicos Raftis, director, IP Research Figure 2: Incurred and committed costs

the problem, we find that many diverse industries share what is essentially the same problem. Identifying and transferring solutions from other industries to ours is one of the best ways to reduce innovation risk because such solutions are likely to be well proven, albeit in another environment. A second necessary characteristic of the approach to innovation risk management is systematic scanning of relevant data. Systematic scanning means that one identifies all possible directions for a solution, either within the prevailing paradigm or outside the prevailing paradigm, within one’s own industry and outside one’s own industry. A process that relies on serendipity or has inherent biases is unreliable and hence introduces a huge amount of risk. A company would rely on serendipity if it only occasionally checked the internet to find out about new developments; if they rely on occasional attendance to industry conferences, or if they rely on the knowledge of a small team where some members have a louder voice than others. A systematic approach would have to ensure in the first place that the problem is sufficiently abstracted to cover multiple applications, and secondly that relevant sources of data are scanned to retrieve all relevant data and only the relevant data. This data then needs to be organised so that specific answers are produced.

The key issue is whether manufacturers have the processes, tools, and skills to get the necessary information about technologies, competitors, and users so as to make good, well-informed decisions. More and more companies realise that and turn to specialist information providers to work with their development teams. It is the responsibility to ask the questions that matter and then provide answers to those questions. Prompts for the right questions include patents, scientific publications, and the deep web (forums and sites where consumers can provide feedback). There is an ocean of data and without the proper tools and skills it is easy to drown. It is important that reliable information is available early on. The development cycle includes the steps of strategic analysis, opportunity identification, problem definition, conceptual design, licence/develop decisions, detailed design, manufacture. As shown in figure 2, at the early stages where actual incurred costs are minimal, the most important decisions are taken that commit the organisation to much larger investments. Companies who develop processes that guide them to ask the questions that matter, early on, and then apply a systematic and unbiased approach to seeking answers to those questions are able to effectively manage innovation risks. They may take risks but they don’t take chances because they are in the know.

IP Research carries out technology analysis in supports R&D and strategic management. IP Research is sponsor of The Manufacturer of the Year Awards’ Innovation and Design category for 2011. A more extensive article on innovation risk management that explores the different questions at each stage of product development can be obtained directly from the author. He can be contacted at nraftis@ip-research.net

Health and safety regulation

Health and safety regulation under alteration Health and safety regulation is changing. Reporting practices for work place accidents are have recently altered and more amendments are on the horizon according to Helen Devery, cohead of the corporate risks team at Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP. Are manufacturers in the know and prepared for compliance? Terms of RIDDOR Employers are currently required to submit a report under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 if an employee is unable to return to work for more than three consecutive days after suffering a work related injury. Under new proposals, employers will not be required to report work related injuries until the employee is absent for more than seven consecutive days. This amendment is likely to come into effect from April 6, 2012. EEF welcomed the Health & Safety Executive’s consultation and the speed with which it acted upon Lord Young’s recommendations in his ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’ report. EEF stated: “The present reporting threshold of three days is unrealistically low. This results in unnecessary costs to businesses and regulators.” At present, only a small proportion of over three day injury reports are investigated by the regulator 99% of reports result in no action.

A welcome move? There has been a mixed reception from industry. In addition to an obvious decrease in the number of incidents employers are required to report, the amendment will also bring regulation in line with the

While in principle EEF supports amending the reporting threshold, it is concerned at this change being made in isolation Helen Devery, co-head, corporate risks team, Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP

number of days an employee is absent before they are required to obtain a “fit note” from a GP. Critics have however, argued that removing the need to report accidents under the current three day rule may not only lead to a lowering of standards but also limit the HSE’s ability to build a clear picture of the risk profiles of different workplaces. While in principle EEF supports amending the reporting threshold, it is concerned at this change being made in isolation. ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’ suggested a need for a wider review of regulation, looking in particular at ill health and dangerous occurrence reporting. Less controversial are changes to the ways in which employers can report incidents to the HSE. These came into force on 12 September 2011. Reportable incidents must now be notified to the HSE using one of seven online forms available online. Those reporting major incidents are still be able to speak directly to a HSE representative by telephone, however, notifications by email, fax and post are due to be phased out.

More changes to come Lord Young’s report also recommends that the HSE should conduct a wide ranging review of all aspects of RIDDOR and

For more information, please email helen.devery@blm-law.com

so more fundamental changes could soon be on the horizon. Whatever those changes are, it is likely that those advocating a reduction in the bureaucratic burden on business will remain in the ascendancy.

Andrew Jackson is head of the manufacturing team at law firm Thomas Eggar. Here he summarises his views on the recent changes to RIDDOR. “The underlying principle of the changes to RIDDOR is to reduce the burden of health and safety obligations on employers and increase the level of compliance. However, the effect could in fact result in lower levels of compliance. “One of the purposes of recording workplace accidents is to provide evidence and statistics to identify trends for future policy making. Under the changes, employers would be under no obligation to report any incident where an employee is incapacitated for over 3 days but less than 7. This would result in a misleading picture of falling reportable incident numbers. Ultimately companies could use such statistics to justify spending less on and becoming more complacent in respect of health and safety across their business.”

Manufacturinginaction Putting UK manufacturers under the spotlight CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

Miller UK 72 Supplies multinational OEMs such as Volvo, Komatsu and Hitachi Entered a joint venture agreement with a foundry in Northern China in 2004 Manufactures the PowerLatch coupler – the only one of its kind CEO Keith Miller founded the company in 1978

FLUID SEALING

James Walker 76 James Walker’s first ever product, produced in 1888, was crucial to British locomotives and steam ships Manufactures over 200,000 different fluid sealing components Operates in a variety of large sectors – supplying OEMs in the nuclear, renewable and marine sectors Since 2010, James Walker has invested more than £2m in its Cockermouth production and research site with 60 new production staff plus new plant and equipment

FURNITURE

Daval 82 In the past three years, Daval has expanded and now fits bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens The company invested £2 million in “Option-I” technology: allowing its customers to customise orders – a capability they did not have before Workers are now multi-skilled and work on projects from start to finish New, dedicated product development team meets weekly

All companies featured will be entered into the MIA Award 2012

The PowerLatch coupler is manufactured in the UK and China

Heavyweight

lifting

Northumberland-based Miller has carved out a niche for itself over the past three decades. As well as producing buckets for diggers and loaders, it specialises in producing couplers and special attachments for the diggerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hydraulic arms. George Archer finds out how the company is doing after the recession. 72

While

Miller manufactures the kind of bucket you see on the front of your average JCB digger, its main focus is the dealer networks of large, multinational OEMs such as Volvo, Komatsu and Hitachi. While itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relatively uneconomical to export heavy buckets overseas, attachments and coupler devices are less bulky and thus easier and cheaper to transport. Miller not only produces parts for OEMs and their dealers, but it also provides a service to them. As well as supplying Miller products to its customers, the company installs services and repairs them. In fact, this is what the company began doing 33 years ago. The company is relatively young â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it was established by Keith Miller in 1978 who is still the group chairman today. After originally setting the company up as a mobile welding and repair service for quarries, mines and open cast coal sites, Keith moved to a rented allotment, and then after a

Construction Miller

couple of years he and his brother Gary bought their own factory on Tower Street, on Newcastle’s Quayside. It was there that Miller as it is known today was born. In 2004 Miller entered a joint venture agreement with a foundry in Northern China, and the company Miller JV was formed. While in the UK Miller tends to fabricate larger products from boughtin steel, in China the foundry is able to cast manufacture a large number and a range of different sized products. Casting gives Miller repeatability and allows the company to make lighter, tougher and stronger products.

Croft, who has been marketing supervisor at Miller for five years, can be credited with helping to lift Miller out of stagnancy. Reacting to the recession in the right way has helped the company to stay on the front foot since 2009. “We not only changed our marketing strategies, but our entire top level business strategy was thoroughly evaluated and adapted due to the unforeseen challenges that the recession brought,” she explains.

Bouncing back Miller had a particularly harsh recession, just like many other British manufacturers. Specialising in the production of special attachments for backhoe loading excavators and wheeled loaders is a somewhat dangerous trade when construction projects become scarce. The firm has bounced back over the past year or so, and told The Manufacturer that as well as announcing a turnover level twice as high as 2009, Miller is beginning to successfully explore new markets all over the world. “The recession hit us hard, and the published accounts results demonstrate that,” says Lisa Croft, marketing supervisor at Miller. “However, we have seen a good increase in our sales line in 2011, and the profitability performance of the business is improving, and we forecast this to continue to improve.”

Workforce losses When The Manufacturer last spoke to Miller in 2004, the company was actively looking to expand its workforce of 200. During the recession management was forced to cut the workforce, bringing the number back down to 120 from over 400 in 2008. “At the height of the recession we lost approximately 70% of our workforce through redundancies which was extremely difficult,” says Ms Croft. “Fortunately, we survived the worst of it and have begun to strengthen our workforce to cope with the new manufacturing demands,” she adds. After one of the worst recessions the company has ever faced, it is starting to strengthen its workforce in order to cope with increasing demand for its services.

The PowerLatch coupler undergoing a destruction test at the Cramlington site

Getting the best out of the supply chain Miller makes sure to invest time on continuous improvement, but rather than implement measures, Croft says that the company has “ensured that there is no alternative” to a standardised, efficient supply chain. Getting the most out of the company’s suppliers is vital, according to Croft. For example, rather than receiving long lengths of bar that the production team then has to cut up, the company has insisted to its supplier that the bars be delivered already cut up. This standardisation has allowed Miller to make a huge saving by reducing time spent on preparing the bars by 53% – saving money in the process.

Looking to the future When asked about any concrete plans to invest in new machinery at the factory in Cramlington, Croft makes it clear that although Miller hasn’t been able to invest much in this area over the past two years because of difficult economic conditions, as it continues to grow and expand into new international markets investment will most certainly be on the cards. Croft says that “Miller is a manufacturer that is keen on ensuring that it keeps up to date with the latest manufacturing technology,” – arguably essential for the company if it is to retain its status as a niche supplier of couplers and attachments for construction equipment. Croft moves on to talk about the company’s newest piece of innovation: a new range of Twin Locking quick coupler products. Miller has spent the last two years developing designing the new range and branding this product as the ‘PowerLatch’, and as Croft says, the aim of the new range is to focus on improving safety standards on construction sites globally.

“Now that we are 100% happy with the final designs, we have just started to cast some of the more popular high volume ranges in our Joint Venture Cast manufacturing site in China,” says Croft. “This means that we can free up some time in the UK to focus on fabricating the full bucket range including the very popular Scoop and bespoke coupler products, large scale mining products and our original repair service,” she explains. Adam Harrop, on the marketing team at Miller explained the basic manufacturing process behind the PowerLatch coupler: “The major line of products the company supplies are made from the base of a cast frame. A mixture of cast, finely machined parts and hydraulic components are then assembled and fitted to within the main machined frame with every coupler being tested for trouble free operation. The products are then painted and packed including all the fitting instructions and required certifications ready for delivery to the customer.” Arguing that Miller occupies a niche that no other company has similar expertise in, Harrop says: “The PowerLatch is by far the best designed, safest and most effective coupler in the market place at present, and has been independently tested as such. We are proud that it represents another technology leap from Miller.” At present, Miller’s PowerLatch coupler is being manufactured in both their operation in China and the UK, but Harrop makes it clear that as part of the company’s continuing efforts to get the best value for money, other locations are being explored as options for future production to serve the relevant markets.

Construction Miller

Miller UK’s headquarters at Cramlington, Northumberland

Miller at a glance Location

Two sites opposite each other in Cramlington, Northumberland

Employees

220 – 200 on one site and 20 on the other

Turnover

Annual company revenue £18m (2011).

History

Founded in 1978 by CEO Keith Miller, joined by brother Gary in 1979 and sister Jacqui in 1986.

Core products

Buckets, quick hitch couplers, special attachments and mining equipment.

Customers

OEMs such as, Volvo, JCB, CNH, Komatsu, Hitachi, their dealer networks and end user customers in the UK market.

Keeping it green The approach taken to keeping a sustainable factory in operation is surprisingly far-reaching at the two sites in Cramlington. As well as the standard energy saving measures such as ‘smart lighting’ and pressure sensor taps in washrooms, the company has modified its warehouse to increase the abundance of natural lighting inside – reducing the need for artificial lighting. Harrop says that a number of initiatives are in place to reduce the amount of electricity used. Employees turn off the machinery, equipment and lights on the factory floor during breaks and after shifts, timers are placed on central heating. Most important though are the methods Miller uses to get the best prices for their energy. “We use best cost brokers and compare suppliers in order to get the best prices for our electricity. We record how much energy we use so that we can determine the best rates that we can

get for our electricity,” says Harrop. “We also plan to introduce LED lighting – these bulbs are expensive but use drastically less energy and last for around ten times longer than your average energy-saving bulb,” he adds. The price of raw materials is becoming more and more of a headache for firms in the UK, because we import nearly all of it from abroad. Countries such as China continue to buy massive amounts of copper ore – often stockpiling it and raising the price as a result. “The issue of raw material price movements has been a real problem over the last four years with massive volatility in cost, both up and down. As you can imagine our biggest exposure is steel but in most of our agreements with the OEM’s we have a raw material price index factor which allows us to adjust price accordingly,” explains Harrop. “However, in reality raw materials are just one part of the jigsaw and market demand and price appetite has the biggest impact. Miller is constantly investigating and investing in taking every element of waste out of its process to ensure costs are kept to an absolute minimum. We are always looking for ways to invest in new cutting edge machinery, more efficient design through better material utilisation or products that are easier to build with ever increasing standardisation.”

Seals the deal

James Walker is a company working constantly at the forefront of fluid seal development. Its strategic focus on materials science has allowed it to provide many industries across the world with the top quality products that are vital to the safe, clean and efficient operation of plant and machinery. Ever since its first success in the 1880s with high pressure steam packings, the company has worked to deliver optimum solutions to a huge range of different industries. 76

ames Walker has a global reputation for solving industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fluid sealing problems. The company brings practical experience and leading-edge expertise of James Walker Technology Centre to the custom design of optimum sealing solutions to match customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; exact operational specifications. These are backed by the world-class manufacturing capabilities of the major production plant at Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK. The visual similarity of James Walkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products is deceiving. The company manufactures over 200,000 different fluid sealing products including gaskets, compression packings and precision-

Industrial seals James Walker

decompression resistant seals, for instance, have become a boon to the oil and gas industry.

History in the making

moulded seals of virtually every size and industry standard. Each is designed with sensitivity to the environment in which it will have to perform and the company has become expert in developing materials to suite almost any imaginable application. Its very own Materials Technology Centre, created with the help of funding from the North West Development Agency, has helped it to differentiate through product lifecycle management. Understanding of customer maintenance and downtime concerns is fed back into the work at the Material Technology Centre to innovate unique compounds and extrusions that will stand up to the harshest tests. Explosive

It was in London during the 1880s that Scottish engineer James Walker introduced his innovative Lion Brand High Pressure Steam Packing. This product was a vital player in the industrial revolution and the age of steam. The seal allowed greater efficiency and performance in the engines propelling steam ships and locomotives, but ultimately also powering Britain’s industrial domination of the early 20th century. The immediate success of the high pressure steam packing product settle Mr Walker onto a strategic path dedicated to fluid sealing products. With this influential introduction the company had found a lucrative niche since few others had previously paid much attention to the design specifications and peculiarities to packings for triple expansion engines. By 1898, Walker had outgrown his cramped warehouse in the back streets of east London. He bought a disused rope walk and then a second factory in the same street at the heart of London Docklands, close to the vessels that needed his products. At this stage the name Lion Works was created. As business rapidly increased, he established depots in the UK’s main industrial centres and principal ports, where packings and his new Golden Walkerite high-pressure jointing found ready markets in the marine, automotive and railway industries. James Walker’s outstanding success attracted competitors thick and fast, especially when his original patents expired. But, taking a proactive rather than protectionist or reactive approach to this challenge, Mr Walker was simply spurred to invest more and more heavily in research and development. Setting a pertinent example for companies facing IP difficulties today, James Walker campaigned hard against product piracy and innovated to keep ahead in his field. In 1910 Walker opened his first overseas depot in Antwerp, Belgium. Lion Packings were marketed in the USA during the early 1900s, however it was not until 1912 that a James Walker depot was founded in New York. James Walker died at the age of 73 in 1913. Although a major influence on the company’s growth until his death, day-today responsibilities had for some years been in the capable hands of George Cook. George was an early member of James Walker’s team who earned his spurs as a successful salesman working worldwide. The 1914-18 War severely tested the company’s abilities to meet production targets. Although sealing products were in great demand by every branch of the armed services, the company never faulted on deliveries. This kept it steadfastly independent as one of the few UK engineering companies that never came under direct government control during the Great War. War came again in 1939, so the company’s products and knowledge were again in urgent demand - and so were new skills. Chemists, metallurgists, tribologists and materials scientists were all needed to help develop the fluid seals and other components that would match giant leaps in engine and plant technology - and lead to the jet and nuclear ages soon to follow.

Industrial seals James Walker

With new products and services constantly constantly being added to its ranges, the company is exceptionally well placed to serve all industries efficiently worldwide Coming up to speed In 2004 the company relocated the remainder of its Woking-based production and technology facilities to Cockermouth in Cumbria. The brand new Materials Technology Centre had been built in readiness with well-proven logistics links worldwide. Several million pounds of investment also ensured that the Cockermouth plant was enabled with the latest technology in automated warehouse management systems and could support flexible manufacturing techniques. These investments now help the company meet the JIT demands of modern industry across the globe. In 2011, James Walker has over 50 production, engineering, distribution and customer support sites across the globe and a distribution network that accesses 100 countries. With new products and services constantly being added to its ranges, the company is exceptionally well placed to serve all industries efficiently worldwide.

Milestones in the growth of James Walker Group 1882 James Walker & Co founded in UK. 1892 Production moves to Shadwell, east London. 1898 Production moves to London Docklands. 1912 James Walker depot in USA. 1930 James Walker Australia. 1933 Production starts in USA. 1958 James Walker Italiana. 1959 James Walker France. 1969 Production starts at Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK. 1972 James Walker & Co granted Queens Award to Industry for Export Achievement. 1972 James Walker Ireland. 1991 James Walker Engineering Services. 2003 James Walker Oil & Gas, Houston, USA. 2007 James Walker Group celebrates 125 years of success. 2011 James Walker Singapore becomes James Walker Asia Pacific.

Industry specialities James Walker products are used in a total of 18 different industry sectors including: chemical and petrochemical; construction; defence and aerospace; engineering; food and beverage; manufacturing; marine; marine propulsion; metallurgical; mineral; nuclear; oil and gas; paper, pulp and board; pharmaceutical and bioprocessing; power generation and supply; renewable energy; semiconductor and electronics; and water and waste. Below are some more specific details about three of these sectors.

Marine James Walker has operated in the marine industry since the 1880s and has built a considerable brand reputation for reliability and quality. Today the company manufactures and supplies a diverse range of fluid sealing items and other specialised products to the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commercial and naval fleets, as well as to shipyards and OEMs. For customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; convenience, the company maintains a library of charts that give details of James Walker items against OEM part numbers for numerous separators, compressors and diesels. James Walker also work closely with design engineers of marine equipment to develop sealing products that can be used with confidence in all areas of maritime activity - and have a distribution network that covers virtually every major port across the world. Relevant marine products and services include: Flat gaskets and sheet jointings Metallic gaskets Gland packings for pumps, valves, rudder posts, stern tubes, etc Tank lid seals Walkersele radial lip seals Expansion joints and bellows Pipework support products Anti-slip deck coverings Refurbishment of mechanical seals, valves and pumps.

Government recently targeted growth in the UK marine industry. It hopes this will be worth ÂŁ25bn a year by 2020

Industrial seals James Walker

Nuclear With British nuclear new build prospects gaining greater clarity at the end of September, James Walker’s role in the nuclear supply chain has acquired additional focus and potential. In this market, where quality accreditation and the highest levels of product integrity are mandatory, James Walker already has extensive experience spanning more than 35 years. Nuclear customers for James Walker include power generation, fuel processing, fuel transportation and defence organisations. James Walker has an extremely competiticve offering for the nuclear industry with an extensive product range but also research and development capabilities, on-site and off-site technical advice, sales support and product training. The ranges of products and services for the nuclear sector include: High performance elastomers and mouldings for active areas Engineering plastics Flange gaskets and ‘nuclear grade’ sheet jointings Cork-elastomer gaskets and jointings Compression packings Expansion joints and bellows Anti-vibration mounts and slide bearings Tension control fasteners Technical support.

Renewable energy Ahead of the UK government’s push for leadership in the low carbon markets James Walker had already positioned itself to take advantage of this market with all its demands for new technology and cost effectiveness. The company’s vast ranges of fluid sealing products and associated components are widely used in hydroelectric and wind turbine applications. The quality and longevity of the company’s products are well appreciated by OEMs and operators who rely on their efficiency to help minimise plant downtime. Long-term reliability and low maintenance are vital features of the sealing products that are supplied to wind turbines due to the often extreme weather conditions that encountered, the expense of sending maintenance staff to turbine locations (particularly off-shore farms) and regulatory red tape around doing so – with regards to health and safety requirements. James Walker products for renewable energy markets typically have a life-in-service of around 20 years.

The range of products and services for the renewable sector includes: HydroSele S water turbine shaft seal Kaplan turbine blade root seals Turbine guide vane seals Walkersele radial lip seals for turbine shafts and slew ring mechanisms Gland packings for water turbine shafts Servo-motor seals for turbines and gates Butterfly valve seals Spherical valve seals Penstock expansion joint seals Fixed wheel gate seals Flange gaskets and jointings Cork-elastomer gaskets for heavy electrical plant Pump and valve packings Hydraulic sealing products Tension control fasteners Plant maintenance and refurbishment services.

Continuously improving and enabling staff to get the most out of equipment is core to the company’s success

Recent investment Since 2010, James Walker has invested more than £2m in its Cockermouth production and research site with 60 new production staff plus new plant and equipment. This includes five state-of-the-art moulding presses, adding to those installed just 12 months ago, to maintain the highest product quality while also boosting productivity and speed of turnaround. Capital investment at James Walker has also been backed up by staff development. Continuously improving and enabling staff to get the most out of equipment is core to the company’s success. Training in lean production techniques and philosophies has been a recent focal point and rigorous maintenance of 5S standardisation is now considered a way of life on the shop floor. R&D has also received significant investment with new test rigs being designed and installed. This has allowed the company to keep pace with increasing demand from customers to work in partnership with James Walker to test products and materials destined for critical applications. The investment most noticeable to visitors however, will be the redevelopment of the main office accommodation. A sparkling new reception area as well as new meeting rooms and technical suites are representative of a thriving business with an outward looking mentality. No one visiting the James Walker factory would go away with an image of UK manufacturing being a down at heel profession. Further development during 2011 will see the research, development and testing functions moving to a new purpose built unit within the site and a new production cell plus expanded tool machining department taking up the vacated space.

Fitted kitchens now contribute around 20-30% to Daval’s turnover

DavalFurniture The manufacture of furniture and fitted kitchens is hardly what springs to mind when hi-tech industry is mentioned. But Daval, a 30-year-old Huddersfield manufacturer of custom-built furniture has recently made some changes that defy preconceptions about its trade. Jane Gray talks to marketing and business development manager Simon Bodsworth to learn more.

o say the recession has made times tough for manufacturers is a pointless cliché. Of course it has. But there some that have undoubtedly been pinched harder than others. Manufacturers in luxury markets are certainly among those most squeezed, most under pressure to gain new understanding of customer spending habits and most in need of clever innovation strategies. Three years ago Daval’s major offering was in luxury bedroom furniture, a market which had brought it considerable success prior to 2008. But things have changed. “Fitted bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms are a high value spend and the market has been hard hit,” says Simon Bodsworth, marketing and product development manager at Daval. “Before we entered recession the vast majority of our business was in fitted bedroom furniture but when a customer’s cash is limited revamping the bedroom is simply less essential than other home improvements or changes.”

Fitted furniture Daval

Another important change in customer expectations was that the “reason to buy” included a desire to personalise orders to unprecedented levels. For Daval, this presented a problem. As with many traditional manufacturers the pre-recession company worked on batch production processes. There was some knowledge of lean principles but the company held a lot of stock. What this implied was that Daval held a limited range of sizes and colours to offer its customers and there was little flexibility to accommodate late changes to orders.

Transformation The transformative implementation of a new piece of technology has now changed all this however. And what is more, the automation has lowered administrative costs and allowed Daval to access midmarket customers as well as top-end consumers. “Everything we do is now made to order and made to measure,” explains Bodsworth. “Customers can now personalise their orders with Daval in a way that really sets us apart in the market. The ability to offer that kind of choice has been driven by the implementation of Option-I, the technology which makes our product development strategy work,” he continues. The Option-I system was custom written for Daval by Factory Control Systems, as bespoke software developer for industry. However, making a success of the system meant more work than getting company specific coding. Collaboration with RW Machines, a supplier of CNC and router tools, enabled Daval to make its manufacturing equipment responsive to the Option-I system while guidance from experienced independent lean consultant, John Pegg, meant that the system was implemented with customer value in mind. Daval now runs a highly automated operation with flexible mixed mode manufacturing techniques, quick change overs and more. Describing the improvement the new system has brought with it Bodsworth says, “The customer order is now entered, along with their individual specifications for colour, size and style. This triggers a seamless process which is not touched by another human hand until the order comes out the other end.” Daval now stands out

Give me a reason Looking into customer spending habits right across relevant markets Daval identified growing concern over value for money, whichever end of the quality spectrum was under the microscope. Mr Bodsworth also asserts that “People are looking for a greater reason to buy.” In part this meant more essential rooms were being prioritised by customers and in response Daval saw demand for its range of fitted kitchens, previously accounting for just 12% of turnover, more than double throughout 2008-2009. “Kitchens now contribute 25 to 30 per cent to our total turnover and the share is still growing,” comments Mr Bodsworth.

Daval at a glance Established

1978

Location

Slaithwaite, Huddersfield

Employees

Key products

Made to measure and made to order furniture for the home created with unique Option-I technology.

Key customers/ markets

Daval is driven by domestic sales in the UK although expansion into export markets is a part of the company’s long-term growth strategy.

Points of interest

As a user of scarce, natural resources, Daval’s policy is to source raw materials from suppliers with responsible attitudes towards the environment. This includes sourcing its timber from properly managed forests.

Fitted furniture Daval

against volume competitors who are unable to adapt quickly to accommodate customer trends but even more importantly Bodsworth says, “we are allowing our retailers to stand out against their competitors. We’ve been able to give them more up to date product. It’s not necessarily that the market has been growing. It’s simply that our product development and delivery is allowing them to win more business on the high street.”

Customers can now personalise their orders with Daval in a way that really sets us apart in the market Simon Bodsworth, Business Development Manager, Daval

Implementing and optimising Implementing the new software system has taken two years and represents a £2 million investment for Daval. This cost has included training and integration costs, perhaps the areas of investment, which will deliver most value in the long term. Training staff to use maximise the potential of the Option-I technology has meant some radical changes. Bodsworth enthuses: “The changes we have had to make to maximise the potential of the technology investment have closed the doors on the our old business and opened up an entirely fresh enterprise.” He continues: “We have gone back to scratch and have new ways of taking orders and processing them. We have new quality procedure and checks throughout manufacture and assembly and delivery practices have also been overhauled.” Bodsworth says that the re-education process for Daval’s 70-strong workforce amid all this change has been “fantastic.” Shop floor staff now have a far greater sense of job satisfaction, according to Bodsworth, since they have control over and ownership for the progress of personalised orders, each marked with the characteristics and preferences of a customer they can identify. “In batch production situations,” says Bodsworth, “all a shop floor employee is doing is moving components. Now our shop floor workers are making a product for an individual person, they know about the whole process – not just one part – and are multi-skilled.” The increasing level of skills on the shop floor have been match by increasing level of comradely and friendly competition as the new cell-based production team fight for top performance stats. Figures they are now responsible for capturing and monitoring themselves (see box). For Bodsworth and other long serving members of staff at Daval these recent improvement have been a long time coming. For although the implementation of Option-I has taken two years it was in the pipeline years before. “We’ve known what we wanted to do for perhaps six or seven years,” say Bodsworth. “But before, when we approached partners that capability, the technology, simply wasn’t out there.”

Measure it, manage it It is well-established wisdom within business that measurement facilitates management. But can you be sure that you are measuring the right things? Wasting resources on managing inappropriate performance indicators can be misleading and, frequently, damaging. Before implementing its Option-I system and gaining the assistance of lean consultant John Pegg, Daval had been working on traditional batch production schedules. The company had held a lot of stock to cope with fluctuations in demand and KPIs were focused on financial interests such as turnover. Thanks to a thorough education process in lean principles, spurred on by the desire to get the most out of the company’s £2m investment in its new IT system, this has now changed. KPIs are now customer focused and are measured daily on the shop floor by shop floor operators. The key metrics used to measure business performance are now Manufactured components per hour Rejects per department by reason code Units delivered first time “The business has always tried to keep simple,” says Bodsworth, but now that simplicity is better focused thanks to the enhanced transparency and information gathering capabilities of the new Option-I system.

Fitted furniture Daval

Feeding the flame Of course now that the system, along with all its added capability is in place there is a duty to push forward with innovations and feed the growth trend experienced over the last couple of years in the kitchen business. For this Daval quickly recognised that technology alone is not the answer. Considering Daval’s environment and background in a market which has been traditionally fairly slow moving in terms of product development, the changes actioned with regard to roles and responsibilities as well as the product development process are impressive. There is now a dedicated product development team, managed by Bodsworth and including the company head of IT, head of technical processes and head of design. This team meets once a week to review Daval’s offering and analyse developing customer trends. Such conversations used to happen perhaps once a year and proposed changes were time consuming to implement. Now they are immediately effective. Suppliers too are involved in Daval’s dynamic new culture of innovation at regular meetings with trend presentations.

Dividends For a company with an SME manufacturer rather nearer to the small end of the spectrum than the medium, the investment of £2m in a software system was not taken lightly. The company funded the spend from its own revenues at a time when other companies would have been reluctant to let any cash go. Happily the risk paid off. The system is already paying dividends. Indeed it has funded the establishment of a new 426m2 showroom at Daval in which the company’s diversified portfolio can be shown off to advantage. Impressively, Daval has side stepped the planning permission nightmares so often faced by expanding manufacturing firms, by converting space within its own factory walls for this new company asset. The space has been made available thanks to the move away from batch production and towards leaner operations. The reduction in inventory and re-structuring around more space efficient manufacturing cells paved the way for a £60,000 spend on converting the factory space.

In batch production situations, all a shop floor employee is doing is moving components. Now our shop floor workers are making a product for an individual person, they know about the whole process – not just one part – and are multi-skilled Simon Bodsworth, Business Development Manager, Daval

Rough with the smooth With so much talk of improvements and achievement it would be easy to assume that business is now plain sailing for Daval. Sadly this is not the whole truth. Like any other manufacturer operating in the UK today Daval is hampered by rising input costs and insensitive environmental policy from government. Bodsworth explains how the subsidies government has been given businesses to encourage the burning of biomass as a renewable energy source has caused the price of their raw materials to rocket. The effect is similar to that seen during the sudden popularity of rapeseed oil as a form of bio-fuel. Its application as an energy source priced it out of its traditional markets. There is little Bodsworth can suggest as a means of combating this trend except working closely with suppliers to arrange fair prices and ensuring that the company seeking cost cutting efficiencies everywhere it can. For instance the company now collects all of its chippings, offcuts and scrap to use in its own biomass generator. On the supplier side Daval is proud to say that it is the oldest UK customer of Egger, the Austrian timber supplier founded in 1961. Daval supports Egger’s sustainable timber sourcing practices and has a close working relationship with the company.

Despite difficulties In spite of the above challenges however Daval has ambitions for further growth and development. The process of exploiting the complete potential of the Option-I system is not yet over. Bodsworth says there is a new phase of development planned whereby the customer will be given ownership and direct control over the entry of their order. Furthermore, although company currently only sell to UK customers, long-term strategy does include the possibility of expanding into export markets. There is often scepticism among business people about the transformative power that IT systems can have on an organisation. It is very much a la mode to say that people power is the crucial element. This may be true but Daval has shown that in the right hands and with the right strategy behind it, technology really can change a company’s fortunes.

lastword The

By land, sea, air and optic fibre: September and October is trade show season and there was plenty on offer for manufacturers last month.

n interesting mélange of companies exhibited at The Energy Event in Birmingham, from utilities like RWE npower, to smaller companies who make energy-efficient stuff like lights and low voltage cabling. The Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change Charles Hendry spoke about the government’s devotion to both reducing carbon emissions and a “business-led recovery with manufacturing a key player”. This is an awkward, some say impossible, square to circle, but the Government will release a set of measures in November to mitigate some of the tax burden for high energy users – will it be enough to persuade big regional employers, such as Rio Tinto Alcan, not to up sticks? Aside from low carbon and energy focused events, much of September had a military and nautical air. The Defence and Security Equipment International at London Excel is the world’s largest exhibition of defence kit. And for anyone who likes guns, missiles and tanks, it is one hell of a show. The 10year old boy in many was stirred in the Vehicle Display Hall, where big beasts like BAE Systems’ CV90120 Adaptiv battle tank with its invisibility cloak – a technology developed in Sweden that helps the vehicle merge into its surroundings – were on full display. Some said the show seemed much busier than in 2009, when it was last held, and 1,392 exhibitors – 400 of them UK SMEs – is a show record.

Image: The BAE Systems CV90120 Adaptiv

but the Government will release a set of measures in November to mitigate some of the tax burden for high energy users – will it be enough to persuade big regional employers, such as Rio Tinto Alcan, not to up sticks?

Have your say at: www.themanufacturer.com

Former editor of TM, Will Stirling returns to deliver his observations, celebrations and indictments of developments in UK manufacturing.

While defence budgets in the West are squeezed, the Middle East and emerging market countries have cash to spend (just don’t ask about Syria and Bahrain) and the pressure is on to win business. Even the debt-stricken US Government is still a huge customer – when the US says it needs to cut its defence budget, even a massive 10% reduction would still leave a global market worth about $100bn. And British SMEs, like Kembrey Wiring Systems in Swindon and electronics manufacturer C-MAC, are important players in its supply chain. When the US sneezes the rest of the world does indeed catch a cold, but the sneeze hasn’t left the defence equipment industry reaching for the Lemsip despite what BAE’s job cuts might suggest. Instead, there is a global race with defence and aerospace OEMs to diversify into security and non-military applications. Finmeccanica is a good example. In Italy it has been providing cyber solutions (IT security monitoring and protection) to financial services and the Italian Government for years. Last year the company, which employs over 13% of its global workforce in the UK, invested several million pounds

in a Secure Operations Centre, in Bristol. Business unit chief executive Mark Clayforth-Carr says that the UK will benefit heavily from this Anglo-Italian investment. BAE Systems Detica, the company’s information systems division, published a report with Chatham House during the show that showed the best-practice adopted by government in applying cyber warfare defences has not yet permeated into some of the UK’s critical national infrastructure – in other words, the IT systems of utilities and large companies are not as heavily protected against cyber-attack as they should be: another huge business opportunity. What has this to do with manufacturing? As companies like Finmeccanica, BAE Systems and Thales invest in systems to monitor and neutralise cyber attacks, they are developing a capability that can not only be exported, but also creating jobs to soak up similarly-skilled people in defence jobs whose positions may become redundant following the final iteration of the Strategic Defence and Security Review. With such companies in the UK we have a small comparative advantage in cyber tech over some European peers, but there is no space for complacency as the race heats up.

By law, you need to be licensed to play music at work.

You probably haven’t thought much about it. You’ve just got music on for your staff or customers. But did you know you need permission from the music’s copyright owners if you play music at work? It’s the law. But don’t worry, to get that permission you simply need a licence from PRS for Music (and in most cases, one from PPL* too). PRS for Music is a not-for-profit organisation that acts on behalf of songwriters and composers to ensure they’re paid for the use of their work. So if you have music playing, ask PRS for Music how you become licensed to listen today.

Contact PRS for Music on 0800 694 7304 or at prsformusic.com/musicatwork

*PPL collects and distributes royalties on behalf of record companies and performers. Further info at ppluk.com. All music licences are required under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which stipulates you must gain the permission of the copyright owner if you play music in public (anywhere outside the home environment). You do not need a licence from PRS for Music if all of the music you play is out of copyright.

EEF PhotograPhy ComPEtition 2011 Heroes of Manufacturing. At EEF the manufacturers’ organisation we want you to capture the essence of what makes manufacturing great – its people, products, processes and places of work. Show us how you would capture the image of manufacturing heroes before October 31, 2011. Entry is free and open to everyone. For information and to upload your photograph visit

www.eef.org.uk/photo or contact Stuart Biddle on 020 7654 1501

Snap up your chance to win £5000 worth of Canon photo equipment.

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