The Manufacturer September 2014

HOT TOPIC Do technologists dream of electric sheep?

Strategising the rise of the robots

Special Feature Taking flight Who did what at this year’s Farnborough Airshow

Exports The truth behind the data Are UK exports as weak as we think?

Workforce & Skills Get on the right track Apprentices or graduates.

Which are most in demand from UK SMEs?

Manufacturing technologies Flexible compound growth A new plastic movement is reshaping the automotive world Banking on automation and the banks make automation credit applications easier

IT in manufacturing Are you ready?

Concerns and considerations for businesses tackling big data

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE The UK’s graphene race Strengthening the automotive supply chain In partnership with:

The flexibility of the UK plastics sector in an environment of intense global pressure

INTERVIEW Vince Cable Secretary of State for Industry

www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Vol 17 Issue 7

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Awards 2014

Welcome

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

I

n my first Editor’s Introduction for The Manufacturer, I pose to you one very brave question: Would this piece be better written by a robot?

Before you throw this magazine over your shoulder, quaff down the last of your brew and head back to whatever else you could be doing, hear me out.

08

38

44

Industrial automation is increasingly becoming one of the most talked about issues facing the UK manufacturing sector. Recent statistics from the ONS show productivity and output of UK manufacturing fell 0.2% in Q1 compared with previous estimates on 0.3%, 11% below its prerecession peak. Without trying to sound ostentatious, it is little surprise considering the UK is ranked 19th in the world for robots per 100,000 employees.

In saying this, I understand the concern voiced by many in the sector regarding the potential loss of jobs by mass automation implementation. But I also feel as though these claims are severely mislead.

An increase in automation will mean an increase in skills to maintain, operate and design new systems.

We should also expect to see more UK manufacturers focusing on the production of robots themselves - and this an important point.

Much of the debate around robotics, particularly in the manufacturing sector is about the implementation of robots in factories to assist in the production of goods. But what about robots to assist with everyday activities and procedures?

Can the UK plastics industry break the mould and thrive amongst surging global competition? P38

In this issue of , Victoria Fitzgerald examines the recently launched Robotics and Autonomous Systems Strategy (P30). The strategy is a collaboration of key stakeholders from government, industry and academia who met with the Technology Strategy Board to create the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group. The group is tasked with the mission of understanding the landscape and opportunity for RAS in the UK

and to produce RAS 2020, a national strategy to respond to what the UK Government labelled in 2012 as the Eight Great Technologies that support UK Industrial Strategy driving efforts to rebalance the economy.

What the UK RAS industry is already producing is two things: 1) Amazing technologies being built here in the UK to make life, industry and work easier, more efficient and more productive, and; 2) A new breed of entrepreneurs who are seeing this potential and going forth and producing these new technologies, successfully. If you want a fine example of these kinds of entrepreneurs, just have a quick Google for Q-Bot robotics.

But reader beware, the current downfall of these technologies can be seen in a recent article (bit.ly/1pEbKor) where self-proclaimed hacker Jesus Molina claimed he managed to take control of the home automation network in a 5-star hotel and then control every room from his laptop. However, as with every new technological advancement, safeguards will continue to advance with them.

Yes, I am excited about robotics, and I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether a robot could have written this piece better - I for one welcome our new robot overlords!

Callum Bentley Editor September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 1

Editorial Advisory Board

The Editorial Advisory Board ’s editorial advisory board provides insight and guidance to the editorial team on a regular basis, helping maintain the relevance and quality of the magazine’s content, both in print and online. The board also provides diverse and expert comment on key industrial developments.

Andrew Peters

Deirdre Fox

3rd Year Logistics Apprentice, MBDA and ’s Apprentice of the Year 2013

Ross Meikle

Tony Hague

2 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Richard Lloyd

MD, Power Panels Electrical Systems and Chairman of the Midlands Assembly Network

Andrew Churchill Managing Director, JJ Churchill

Simon Edmonds Director, the Catapults Programme

Steve Evans

Global Manufacturing Director, Accolade Wines

Ben Taylor Assistant CEO, Renishaw Plc

Dave Mooney Managing Director, Drallim Industries

Pamela Petty Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability

Philip Greenish CBE Quality Improvement Manager, Hayward Tyler and ’s Young Manufacturer of the Year 2013

Director of External Affairs, EEF

Director of Strategic Business Development, Tata Steel

Division Director, Drive Technologies, Siemens

Anna Schlautmann, 21:

Hywel Jarman

CEO, the Royal Academy of Engineering

Managing Director, Ebac Group

To find out more about our Editorial Advisory Board and the work they do to improve The Manufacturer magazine’s offering to its readers, go to: www.themanufacturer.com

A GREAT

BRITISH

BUSINESS

Business as usual, only smarter. EXEL COMPUTER SYSTEMS

ABOUT US

Meet the team Nick Hussey Chairman Nick has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry spanning titles in the UK, US, Asia and Australia. In addition to his commercial 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 among young people. He holds several non-executive directorships and is a founder member of the IET’s Manufacturing Policy Panel. n.hussey@sayonemedia.com

David Farrow General Manager David joined SayOne Media in 2012 managing the marketing across the business. He has nearly 25 years’ experience in the conference and publishing industry having worked for the likes of LexisNexis, Kaplan Hawksmere and Payroll World. In February 2014 he was appointed General Manager of SayOne Media. d.farrow@sayonemedia.com

Henry Anson Sales Director Henry is responsible for SayOne Media’s commercial activities, developing new concepts and products for ’s readership.

Henry is keen to build a bridge between the manufacturing community and the service sector which supports it. h.anson@sayonemedia.com

Callum Bentley Editor Callum joined Sayone Media in 2013 as editor of ’s sister publication, the Lean Management Journal, before taking over as in June. He has a background in Editor of news for web and print, working for major regional news organisations in Australia. Callum has a passion for the automotive and aerospace sectors. c.bentley@sayonemedia.com

4

info@sayonemedia.com www.sayonemedia.com

ISSN 1477-3201 BPA audit applied for June 2009.

Copyright © SayOne Media 2011.

BPA Worldwide membership Applied for August 2014

Production Editor Barbara Fitzsimons

b.fitzsimons@sayonemedia.com

IT Editor Malcolm Wheatley

malcolm@malcolmwheatley.co.uk

Contributing Editor Ruari McCallion

r.j.mccallion@btinternet.com

Reporter Andrew Putwain

a.putwain@sayonemedia.com

Victoria Fitzgerald Features Editor Victoria joined SayOne Media in January 2014 as editor of the Lean Management Journal after spending three years in New York City as a news journalist for an international online news as features organisation. She recently moved to editor where her focus has moved to industrial policy and initiatives driving the future of UK manufacturing.

As a former teacher, Victoria has a passion for apprenticeships and education. v.fitzgerald@sayonemedia.com

James Pozzi Industry Editor James joined in 2013 after working as a regional news reporter in the West Midlands.

With contacts spanning multiple manufacturing sectors, James provides the inside track on companies of all sizes across the UK and abroad, while contributing print and online content. j.pozzi@sayonemedia.com

Eva Lindsay Event Producer Eva joined in 2012 having worked in the events industry for four years across a number of sectors, with her primary focus on defence. Drawing on her broad experience, event content team Eva will be heading up the event and helping to grow and develop the programme, with special focus on the company’s popular Factory Tours. e.lindsay@sayonemedia.com

The Manufacturer in partnership with EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation.

Working together to secure the future of manufacturing.

Elizabeth House, Block 2, Part 5th Floor, 39 York Road, London, SE1 7NQ Tel: +44 (0)207 401 6033 Fax: +44 (0)844 854 1010

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Design

Art Director Martin Mitchell

martin@opticjuice.co.uk

Designers Alex Cole Katherine Robinson

design@opticjuice.co.uk

Sales and Events

Operations Manager Grace Gilling

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Project Director Matt Chilton

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Client Account Managers Benn Walsh b.walsh@sayonemedia.com

In order to receive your monthly copy of kindly email subscriptions@ sayonemedia.com, telephone 0207 401 6033 or write to the address below. Neither The Manufacturer or SayOne Media can accept responsibilty for omissions or errors.

Terms and Conditions Please note that points of view expressed in articles by contributing writers and in advertisements included in this journal do not necessarily represent those of the publishers.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in the journal, no legal responsibility will be accepted by the publishers for loss arising from use of information published. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of the publishers.

EEF is dedicated to the future of manufacturing.

Everything we do is designed to help modern manufacturing businesses evolve, innovate and compete in a fast-changing world. www.eef.org.uk

The Manufacturer is working collaboratively to drive innovation and manufacturing excellence in the UK. Our partnerships with leading industrial research centres, further education providers and trade bodies is an important part of this and is distributed directly to the alumni and membership of the following organisations:

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September 2014

CONTENTS

08 News and regular columns

Manufacturing Technologies

A summary of manufacturing news and events with commentary on industrial research and policy 26 Out & About visits CNH Industrial, Dr Martens and Herman Miller 28 Best of Online What you wanted to read most on ’s website in August 30 Hot Topic: Do technologists dream of electric sheep?

UK participation in robotics and autonomous systems is tipped to shape the next wave of technological advancement. Victoria Fitzgerald gets technical on RAS 2020 38 Sector Focus: The power of plastics James Pozzi profiles the UK’s plastics sector as it searches to increase its manufacturing competitiveness and sustainability in an environment of intense global competition 44 Interview: A question of manufacturing and industry Victoria Fitzgerald sat down with Secretary of State for Industry Vince Cable to discuss the future of the UK manufacturing sector 48 60 second interview: Philip Law, director-general of The British Plastics Federation, on the state of the UK plastics industry

72 The UK’s global graphene race With graphene tipped to revolutionise industry, James Pozzi reviews its development in the UK 80 Banking on automation Want to know what the banks want when applying for credit for significant automation systems? Hopefully ’s five key points can help you out Other topics in this section: Plastics in automation and features articles from PPMA, Mitsubishi Electric and PP Electronics

Pillar features Manufacturing Leadership 54 Rebuilding the UK auto supply chain Richard Hill, national head of automotive and manufacturing at RBS, explains the importance of banks working with the UK automotive supply chain 56 Learning to lean Lean Management Journal’s new editor Andrew Putwain looks into what makes lean a science

Workforce & Skills 50 Snapshots takes a look at the University of Bolton, Bombardier and Zero Hour Contracts 62 Get on the right track Do manufacturing companies prefer graduates or apprenticeships? Ruari McCallion reports Other topics in this section: Employee of the month, Jodie Sturrock, an apprentice at GE Oil & Gas

Finance & Professional Services 68 Holiday pay: the time-bomb continues to tick Pinsent Masons discusses the issue of the calculation of holiday pay

6 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

IT in Manufacturing 82 Back to the future It’s time to re-think manufacturing.

Colin Masson, Microsoft’s global industry director for manufacturing and distribution, talks to IT contributing editor Malcolm Wheatley 86 Are you ready?

Jane Gray reports concerns and considerations about big-data for business from ’s latest Directors’ Forum meeting Other topics in this section: talks to Columbus and the Edenhouse Group 84 Talk of the industry In his new column for , EEF and CEEMET CEO Terry Scuoler lays down an economic challenge to both government and industry

OUTBOUND REPORTS ERP Buyers Guide Simplifying your strategic ERP decisions

Automation and Robotics 2014

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All project-planning and programming tools for creating safety-oriented programs are integrated in the SIMATIC STEP 7 user interface in the TIA Portal. Existing programs created with SIMATIC STEP 7 and Distributed Safety can be migrated to the TIA Portal to optimally protect your investment. So you can use all the power of the TIA Portal for your fail-safe automation as well: Short safety-programming learning curve • F-sequence group is automatically generated with insertion of the F-CPU • Integrated libraries certified by the global inspection authority TÜV mean that safety functions can be configured – and not programmed • Library concept supports enterprise-internal standardisation and facilitates validation of safetyoriented applications

Intuitive operation • Project planning of F-system is the same as for the standard automation system • The Safety Administration Editor is a powerful tool for administering, displaying and modifying safety-relevant parameters • Uniform, consistent naming of all safety-relevant objects Telephone: GB: 08458 507600 IE: 1890 507600 E-mail us: Sales.gbi.industry@siemens.com (Product Sales, Quotes, Order & Delivery) Service.gbi.industry@siemens.com (Technical Support, Spares & Service Engineers) Website: www.siemens.com/industry

siemens.com/tia-portal-safety

NEWS

www.themanufacturer.com/news

Skills

creation: www.intermediatms.com

A-level results released in August showed a welcome increase in the take-up of STEM subjects. However the gender gap still remained a concern. While participants in STEM subjects did increase, the overall A-level pass rate dropped for the first time in 30 years. Exam board chiefs admitted the increase in STEM subjects, including more difficult and technical subjects, more than likely effected the number of passes as more students opted for these subjects to increase their career offerings.

EEF education policy advisor Verity O’Keefe said manufacturers would be “breathing a sigh of relief” after STEM subject participants rose for the 5th year in a row. However, O’Keefe claimed a “mixed bag” in the results, stating while the number of girls taking up STEM subjects was increasing, there was still a significant gap between them and their male counterparts.

Company announcements

Iain Gray will begin in his new position at Cranfield in March 2015.

Cranfield University has announced the appointment of Iain Gray CBE as director of aerospace. Mr Gray will join Cranfield in March 2015 from his current position as chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK’s innovation agency. He will lead the extensive aerospace capabilities across the university and its strategic relationships with the world’s major aerospace industrial organisations. As chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board since Nov 2007, Gray has created an organisation which plays a vital role in UK economic development by funding, supporting and connecting innovative businesses through a unique mix of people and programmes to accelerate economic growth. Through his leadership, the organisation has developed in strength and maturity with a growing budget, strong partner relationships across the UK, Europe and internationally and a pivotal role in the country’s future competiveness and growth.

Prior to the Technology Strategy Board, Gray was engineering director and then managing director at Airbus UK during the development of the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner.

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8 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

We don’t just make up the numbers.

MANUFACTURING NEWS

Awards

A record number of companies have entered The Manufacturer of the Year Awards 2014, with a 25% increase on last year. In the first half of the year the manufacturing sector benefited from one of its brightest periods in output, new order growth, exports and inward investment since the recession. Manufacturers have a new found confidence and are realising just how integral they are to economic recovery.

Judging is set to take place throughout August and shortlisted companies will be invited to meet and engage with each of the category judges for the second round of the competition on October 7 at Aston Villa FC. Those shortlisted in the World Class Manufacturing category will receive site visits by an independent industry panel as part of the process. The winners will be crowned on the evening of our flagship event The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference (bit.ly/TMDC2014) at The Manufacturer of the Year Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner on November 27 at The ICC, Birmingham.

Skills

Seven new University Technical Colleges with a focus around STEM subjects are to be opened around the UK. The new institutions will take the number of UTCs in England to 57 within the next two years. Serving more than 35,000 pupils aged 14-19, the centres will specialise in subjects experiencing skills shortages, including manufacturing and engineering. The centres combine academic and technical skills with the backing of some of industry’s biggest names. The new colleges will be located in Bromley, Crewe, Leeds, Scarborough, Sheffield and Solihull.

Last year’s The Manufacturer of the Year Awards drew almost 1000 manufacturers and industry heads to the ICC in Birmingham.

Company announcements

Polymer manufacturer Victrex is to build two new facilities as part of a multi-million pound development project. Building work has commenced on the new workshop and amenities building and a control centre for Victrex, which employs over 650 staff and has its global headquarters at Thornton Cleveleys in Lancashire. The project is part of Victrex’s current development for a third PEEK polymer plant, which is due to start commissioning in early 2015. The project is the fourth that Lancaster-based Harrison Pitt Architects has worked on for Victrex, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has a market value of around £1.4b. The practice previously designed its multi-million pound Victrex Technology Centre HQ building, completed in 2012, and extensions to two of its laboratory and manufacturing buildings on the same site.

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September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 9

NEWS www.themanufacturer.com/news

MANUFACTURING NEWS

Skills

SME manufacturers recorded the fastest pace of recruitment in the sector since records began in 1988.

According to CBI’s SME Trends Survey, the sector also experienced another strong quarter of orders and output growth in the three months to July, giving a balance of +14%. Domestic orders and output both rose strongly, for the fourth consecutive quarter, and are expected to grow robustly again in the next three months.

Manufacturing has outscored the construction and engineering industries for female representation.

The results were highlighted in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s annual skills report. In a survey of 400 firms, the existing gulf between male and female workplace representation was highlighted with 24% of manufacturing employees being female. But despite the unequal balance, this was in contrast to other industries including construction (11%) and engineering, which scored just six percent. With manufacturing second behind police officers (27%), the survey of 11 professions illustrated the continuing struggle for firms looking to recruit female engineers, with the six per cent figure unchanged since 2008.

Contract wins

More than 800 Scottish jobs are to be safeguarded as the Ministry of Defence announced a contract to build three new warships in Clyde worth £348m. The contract will include three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for the Royal Navy at BAE Systems Shipyard in Clyde.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon implied that the deal was on the condition of a “no” vote on September 18, saying: “UK warships are only built in UK shipyards.”

Predecessor to Mr Fallon, Philip Hammond, also said that British warships would not be built overseas, which could cost Scotland millions if it votes “yes” for independence. Keith Brown, Scotland’s minister for veteran affairs, argued that a split from the UK would be beneficial to Scotland and argued that the UK Government had already revealed these intentions last November. Scottish shipbuilding has become a bone of contention in the lead up to the vote on independence with both sides disputing whether the industry would benefit from being in or out of the union.

10 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Jaguar has unveiled the prototype for the remaining six Lightweight E-Types

Company announcements

Jaguar Land Rover announced the location of its new Special Vehicle Operations Technical Centre in Rologis Park, Ryton.

Set to create 100 new engineering and technician jobs, as well as house a further 150 employees, the facility will be JLR’s global centre for the creation of high-end luxury bespoke commissions and extreme performance vehicles including the F-Type Project 7. The announcement came after the marque unveiled the prototype of the first of six “new” lightweight E-Type models. Jaguar announced in May 2014 that it would recreate six new Lightweights, each built by Jaguar Heritage, part of Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Operations division.

Each of the six cars will be built to a specification originated from the last Lightweight E-type produced in 1964 and will be hand-crafted at the original home of the E-type, Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant in Coventry. The new cars are the ‘missing’ six vehicles from the Special GT E-type project, which originally started in February 1963 with the objective of building 18 cars.

Health

Kadcyla, a breast cancer drug marketed by Roche Products Limited has been turned down by the NHS drugs rationing body as it is too expensive. The drug has shown results that can give patients an extra six months of life. However it comes with a price tag of £90,000. Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said: “We are really disappointed that Roche were not able to demonstrate more flexibility to help us make a positive recommendation.

The company is well aware that we could not have recommend Kadcyla at the price it proposed.” Dr Jayson Dallas, general manager of Roche, declared it “an incredible injustice.” “Despite Roche offering a significant discount, we are once again disappointed that Nice has not shown any flexibility on access to Kadcyla. Refusing patients access to this drug is an incredible injustice and tantamount to turning the clock back in cancer research and development. We plan to appeal this decision,” he said.

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NEWS www.themanufacturer.com/news

Exports

The UK is the largest foreign investor in the US according to CBI’s sixth annual Sterling assets report. The report found UK investment supports nearly one million jobs across the US. As of 2012, the UK had invested $487 (£289) bn in the US – almost $200bn more than the next largest investor.

This represents over 18% of the $2.7 trillion in foreign direct investment held in the US. Of the 943,500 jobs supported

by British companies, almost one in four are manufacturing jobs. In addition, the UK is the fifth-largest destination for US goods and services, and the largest by a wide margin in the European Union, with exports totalling $109bn in 2013. All fifty states in the US have workers in jobs that are created and sustained by British firms, with New York leading the way in exports to the UK, shipping £5bn worth in 2013.

MANUFACTURING NEWS

The UK Government intends to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes to help discourage children from taking up the habit.

Health

Tobacco giant Phillip Morris announced it was prepared to sue the UK Government if plain packaging was to be introduced. The company said it would “seek fair compensation” through the courts should its branding be affected. The law intends to package cigarettes with graphic health warnings and plain packaging. The UK Government said in April that the law was created to improve public health by discouraging people from smoking, and hopes to cut down on the amount of children taking up smoking. In its submission to the Department of Health, Philip Morris said the value of compensation it would seek could total “billions of pounds”. It quoted a 2014 Exane BNP Paribas report, which estimated the value of compensation for tobacco branding in the UK could be between £9bn and £11bn.

*PRS for Music licences cover the vast majority of music originating from the UK and all over the world. However, if you play music that is outside of PRS for Music’s control, you may need an additional licence from the relevant copyright owner(s). You will require a TV licence as well if you are using a TV in your premises. You do not need a licence from PRS for Music in the unlikely event that all the music you play is out of copyright or is not controlled by PRS for Music. **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).

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12 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

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September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 13

www.themanufacturer.com/news

Contract wins

Sheffield Forgemasters International has won a $6.2m contract to supply castings for the US Navy submarine fleet.

The contract will see the company deliver 84 castings to the General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation, the company responsible for the design, construction and lifecycle support of submarines for the U.S. Navy. Sheffield Forgemasters, which has supplied the Electric Boat Corporation for six years and the US Navy for over 30, said it expects the first casting to be poured next month. The South Yorkshire firm is one of only a handful of companies around the globe qualified by the US Navy to produce the high integrity casting, having undergone an extensive qualification program involving both Electric Boat and the US Navy.

Company announcements

A European grant is set to open the doors to rapid growth for an expanding Atherstone manufacturer.

Profab Access, which makes a range of metal panels, riser doors, steel doors and loft hatches that allow access to services within buildings, has been awarded a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant of £20,775.

The firm, which has provided panels to the Shard, the Cheese Grater and the Walkie Talkie buildings in London, has put the grant towards a metal folding machine to enhance its manufacturing capacity to fit in with its ambitious growth plans. Profab was supported in its efforts by Helena Bassett, a business adviser at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and now hopes to double turnover over the next four to five years.

The right time Following the launch of the government’s 2014 Solar Strategy, there is an increasing emphasis on using commercial rooftops to generate electricity.

The right partner NWT Energy specialises in large scale commercial solar PV investments and advice.

Acquisitions

A second multi-billion-dollar takeover bid has been made for the world’s largest listed winemaker, Australian company Treasury Wine Estates. US firm KKR only recently made its own joint offer for the company alongside fellow US private equity firm Rhone Group. However the latest offer, believed to be worth A$3.8bn (£1.88bn) has come from another, as yet unnamed, private equity firm. Treasury Estate Wines owns brands including Wolf Blass, Rosemount, Lindemans and Penfolds. Despite an uncertain few years for the company including a restructure resulting in more than 150 job cuts, revenue last year tipped A$1.76bn with 385 million bottles of wine sold.

Investment group CorpAcq has completed its 10th acquisition with the takeover of a precision engineering business. CorpAcq, based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, has paid an undisclosed sum for Olympus Engineering, which employs 160 staff at its headquarters in Stoke. Olympus manufactures precision components for blue-chip clients such as Bentley Motors, JCB, Kawasaki and HydraForce Hydraulics. The £15m-turnover business was founded in 2000 by Neil Blood, who passed away last year following a tragic cycling accident in Jersey. Neil’s father Geoff then stepped in to run the business.

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MANUFACTURING NEWS

ENERGY

Wales’ first full-scale tidal energy generator has been unveiled at Pembroke Port. Unveiled by Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones as part of the Government’s Low Carbon Transition Strategy, the 150-tonne DeltaStream device developed by tidal stream technology company Tidal Energy will be installed in Ramsey Sound, Pembrokeshire.

As the first private marine project to be fully developed in Wales, the device will be amongst the world’s first grid-connected demonstration devices to generate green, sustainable and predictable tidal power.

Technology

The UK space industry has been handed a boost after Europe’s Rosetta probe mission became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet. After a decade-long attempt, Rosetta aligned with Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko some 405m km from Earth half way between Jupiter and Mars. The mission will see Rosetta follow the comet for over a year as it swings around the sun and back out towards Jupiter again, examining the object and exploring theories that comets may have helped seed Earth with water going back millennia.

Innovation monitor

UK manufacturers are reaping the rewards of high levels of innovation over recent years. However, internal resources are being stretched extremely thin as a result. The benefits are coming off the back of dynamic activity to develop products and services for new customers and markets, according to a major study published by EEF and NatWest (pxx). The 2014 EEF/NatWest Innovation Monitor shows strong demand is now putting pressure on manufacturers’ internal resources, from management time to working capital. As a result, manufacturers have focused on a smaller number of innovative activities aimed at satisfying existing customers. Manufacturers continue to prioritise innovation, indeed most plan moderate increases in expenditure, but as with all areas of business activity, resources are spread more thinly. This has led to an increase in the proportion of manufacturers who are concerned that their level of expenditure on innovation is not enough to keep pace with competitors, from 19% in 2013, to 26% in this year’s survey.

Dates for your diary September 30 September-2 October The PPMA Show 2014, the UK’s premier free-to-attend complete production line event for processing and packaging machinery, will take place over three days from September 30 at Birmingham’s NEC. Now in its 27th year, the event will showcase the latest innovations and developments across the UK’s manufacturing industries while attracting suppliers from the food and drink, pharmaceutical and electronics industries. www.ppmashow.co.uk

October

1-2

The Northern Manufacturing & Electronics 2014 exhibition dedicated to serving the needs of manufacturing and electronics industries in the North of England will take place over two days in Manchester. The exhibition gives the opportunity to see the latest manufacturing technology and production techniques across industries ranging from automotive, aerospace and defence. www.industrynorth.co.uk

8

The Manufacturing & Engineering Expo 2014 will be held in Maidstone and aims to support and showcase the engineering and manufacturing sectors. The all-day event enables industry professionals to assess and compare the latest products and services for engineering, electronics and manufacturing. Kevin Gaskell, former Porsche and BMW MD, has been confirmed as this year’s keynote speaker. www.manufacturingandengineeringexpo.co.uk

23

The Durham Oktoberfest, the engineering and manufacturing exhibition organised by the Engineering Forums in County Durham, returns to Newton Aycliffe this October. Now in its seventh year, 2013’s show attracted more than 1,600 visitors and almost 120 exhibitors to the Xcel Centre. This year is expected to produce similar numbers. www.durhamoktoberfest.org.uk

November

11-12

The Advanced Engineering UK 2014 events brings a host of industry showcases to Birmingham’s NEC over the course of two days. Industries represented include aerospace, composites, automotive, auto electronics and performance metals. www.advancedengineeringuk.com

11-13

Taking place at Manchester Central conference centre, RenewableUK 2014 will cover onshore and offshore wind, wave & tidal energy and small & medium wind systems.

The event is set to welcome over 4,500 delegates, 250 exhibitors and 190 speakers. www.renewableuk.com

13-15

Come and see how businesses within the manufacturing sector are furthering their commitment to the industry and working to bridge the sector’s skills gap at The Skills Show at the Birmingham NEC. The event aims to inspire and educate young people about the exciting opportunities in further education, skills and apprenticeships available to them. www.theskillsshow.com

See more upcoming events at www.themanufacturer.com/diary

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 15

UPCOMING EVENTS To see a full events listing please visit: themanufacturer.com/events

The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference 26 - 27 November 2014, The ICC, Birmingham

THE Manufacturer of the Year Awards Ceremony & Gala Dinner 27 November 2014, The ICC, Birmingham

ERP Connect 27 November 2014, The ICC, Birmingham

The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference will examine different business opportunities including the manufacturing trends for the next 10 years and the rapid growth of technology. The main themes of the conference include development and utilisation of technology, creating “out of the box” business opportunities and business innovation as well as creating engagement and business emersion. themanufacturer.com/tmdc2014 | #TMDC2014

Join us for this black-tie gala event where the winners of The Manufacturer of the Year Awards 2014 will be revealed. Over 1000 of the industry elite will join together for a night of recognition and celebration of the UK manufacturing industry. Secure your table at this year’s awards and be part of the biggest celebration of UK manufacturing! themanufacturer.com/awards | #TMAwards2014

ERP Connect is exclusively for companies looking to implement or replace their ERP system. ERP Connect has changed the way UK manufacturers approach software selection by minimising the overall time and effort involved in qualifying potential enterprise software vendors. This unique event offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for you and your team to see the premier enterprise software solutions in the world, in one place and at the same time! www.erpconnect.co.uk | #ERPConnect

MES Connect 4 December 2014, Aston University, Birmingham

FF Series: The Manufacturing Talent Challenge 24 February 2015, The Waldorf Hilton, London

MES Connect is a unique event providing delegates with the opportunity to meet with leading MES solution providers, condensing 6 months of research into a single day. Understanding how best to streamline production and access data in real time is critical to running a modern and dynamic business, MES will be key in achieving this. www.mesconnect.co.uk | #MESConnect

The Manufacturing Talent Challenge is aimed at providing practical, company size specific knowledge to close the gap on the skills shortage and gain advice on how to access highly trained employees.

It will focus on reassessing and implementing first class schemes, the benefits of building strong relationships with the local community and enticing the next generation of manufacturers. www.themanufacturer.com/talentchallenge | #TMSkills

Free to attend for Manufacturers*

FF Series: Automate UK 24 February 2015, The Waldorf Hilton, London Free to attend for Manufacturers*

16 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Automating your business reduces costs, increases quality, and helps attain higher health and safety standards. By attending this year’s Automate UK conference, you will learn how leading technology can not only help your company remain competitive, but also expand your business opportunities, increase consistency, and enable you to have reliable and repeatable around the clock production. www.themanufacturer.com/automate2015 | #TMAutomate

*Limited number of free places available for manufacturing companies. £995 +VAT per delegate - standard booking fee for delegates from consultancies/ solution providers. T&Cs apply.

Develop your manufacturing business leaders In its 11th year, the MSc in Operations Excellence is a part-time executive programme developed to help your manufacturing leaders realise their full potential and equip them with the skills to respond to change and advances in the operations supply chain.

Flexible, focused learning • Inspires professionals who will lead the development of the operations supply chain.

• Develops the knowledge required to initiate the implementation of change in business.

• Encourages contribution to the transformation of businesses into world class organisations.

• Fosters the skills to build a new strategic perspective.

“

Open Day Wednesday 12th November 2014

“

The Operations Excellence MSc course is challenging and rewarding. It has encouraged the team to explore and review aspects of our business with new understanding. It is great to be part of such a motivated and enthusiastic team of people

To find out more www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/opsex E: enquiries@cranfield.ac.uk T: +44 (0)1234 758008

Alison Price Principle Manufacturing Engineer Rolls Royce

Highly efficient businesses deserve highly efficient partners Help to drive down costs in your operation

Toyota quality forklifts & warehouse trucks

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National 24/7 parts and service coverage 01/08/2013 16:59:05

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 17

APPOINTMENTS

Graeme Grieve

BMW UK & Ireland

The BMW Group has named Graeme Grieve as its new managing director of its UK and Ireland operations, a position he will take up from October.

Mr Grieve succeeds Tim Abbott who has been appointed as managing director for the BMW Group South Africa. With experience of the motor industry spanning

Caroline Gumble

Importer business. Ian Robertson, member of the board of management of BMW AG responsible for BMW sales and marketing, said: “Graeme’s breadth of experience across the company has proved to be a great asset in his current position and provides an excellent foundation for his leadership of BMW Group UK.”

In her new position she assumes overall responsibility for EEF’s Business Services Division, which provides advice, consultancy and training across all business areas.

This includes HR and employment law, health, safety and environment, productivity

improvement, apprenticeship and skills training, learning and development and information and research. Prior to joining EEF, Caroline held senior positions in industry, including Lucas Diesel Systems and Ransomes, where she was international HR director.

Mohan joined Bibby Distribution in 1988 and has held various positions within the business, from operational roles through to the Business Development function. Roger Williams, UKWA’s chief executive officer, said of the appointment: “Tony bring a

wealth of third party logistics industry experience to the UKWA Chairman’s role which will prove highly beneficial to the Association and our members.”

to better understand their strengths and challenges, and develop follow-up plans to help them raise their performance. The F4N assessment allows manufacturing companies to test whether they are ready to enter the nuclear supply chain. Around 150

companies have completed the online F4N assessment over the past three years, with the majority receiving ongoing support and development from the Nuclear AMRC team.

possessesing over 30 years’ experience of the manufacturing industry across a broad range of engineering disciplines.

Commenting upon the appointment, Schunk Intec general manager Martin Kent said: “Customer service has always been

a key focus point for Schunk and I believe our new area sales manager, with his vast industry knowledge, will be able to service the challenging requests we receive from our customers.”

His broad commercial background includes working capital and risk management, bids and tenders, and M&A experience.

Commenting on the appointment, Gap Personnel’s founder and CEO, Gary Dewhurst said: “We are delighted to

welcome Lee into the Gap Personnel team, he is commercially astute, has an impressive track record, excellent qualifications and will provide our Board with a valuable strategic financial steer.”

EEF

The manufacturers’ organisation EEF has appointed Caroline Gumble to the new position of chief operating officer.

Ms Gumble, who joined EEF in 2003, has held a number of key leadership roles, serving most recently as executive director.

Tony Mohan

a range of markets, 53-year-old Grieve first joined BMW in 1990 and held a number of positions before being appointed sales director in 2001.

He subsequently joined Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in 2006 as global sales and marketing director before moving to Munich in 2009 to take responsibility for the BMW Group

UKWA

The United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) has appointed Tony Mohan as the Association’s new chairman.

Mr Mohan takes over from John Maguire, who had held the role since 2011.

Duncan Craig

Fit For Nuclear

Former Westinghouse vice president Duncan Craig has joined the Nuclear AMRC’s Fit For Nuclear (F4N) team to help UK manufacturers meet the standards demanded by the industry’s top tier. Mr Craig will take on a role which will see him visit companies

Steve Hardwidge

Schunk Intec

Schunk Intec has now expanded its UK team with the appointment of Steve Hardwidge as its new area sales manager.

Mr Hardwidge will join the clamping technology and gripping systems specialist

Lee Woodward

Gap Personnel

Industrial recruitment agency Gap Personnel has appointed Lee Woodward as its new finance director.

Mr Woodward arrives with 17 years’ industry experience; serving most recently with companies Mouchel and Speedy Hire.

18 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

To notify The Manufacturer of your company’s appointments, please contact James Pozzi at: j.pozzi@sayonemedia.com or: 0207 401 6033

MIND THE GAP & DIGITALLY MADE

Mind the Gap.

T

In her first column for , Skills Gap Programme Director at the Design & Technology Association Cheryl Phillips explains the need to nurture and develop ‘soft skills’ in the sector’s future talent.

he recent CBI/Pearson Education & Skills Survey, Gateway to Growth highlighted that businesses wanted the education system to better prepare young people with the attitudes and attributes they need to succeed in the world of work. Concerns about numeracy and literacy skills as well as more young people achieving good STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) qualifications continue to top the bill, as you would expect. However, there is also a much stronger emphasis upon what I and many others have come to term ‘soft skills’. 61% of businesses highlighted concerns over the resilience and self-management of school leavers with 33% of respondents raising young people’s attitude to work as a concern.

This draws parallels with the recent report commissioned by the Royal Academy of Engineering called Thinking Like and Engineer – Implications for the Education System. This report describes six engineering habits of mind; characteristics which, taken together, describe the ways engineers think and act.

For some time schools have been embedding ‘softer skills’ development into the school curriculum in a variety of ways to help young people to grow and develop as citizens and prepare for entry into the work place. The Personalised Learning and Thinking Skills (PELTS) introduced by the last labour government were adopted by individual schools and in many cases adapted to help embed their own unique school culture; almost like a set of corporate values and behaviours.

Some areas of the country adapted the behaviours at a local authority level to reflect the local requirements of business and industry. However, when you zoom out from these and look to understand a generic set of ‘soft skills’ which would fit the requirements of business on a national scale, including SMEs, it becomes more difficult. In the majority of cases soft skills, each bespoke framework contains the same skills but the language used to describe them is different which means we end up with a long list and ambiguity.

Local needs analysis and ownership of what skills are required seem critical, however, on a national level, the development of a one-size-fits-all framework which we can all interpret correctly, relate to and own must be exceptionally challenging. If the role of schools is to be pivotal to the skills agenda, including the development of key ‘soft skills’ then we need to be clear about what is needed so that teacher training, careers advice and work experience can be developed to meet the need.

20 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Digitally Made.

I

f you think about it, manufacturing supply chains, ERP and MES all contribute to that huge data flow, and we will start to see smart devices actually communicating with manufacturers providing feedback on a number of core business issues.

At our recently Can the industrial concluded Energy and Flex event, web create manufacturing more data smart box system provider MESTEC, driven social demoed a manufacturers? manufacturing dashboard, ’s inhouse which looked like digital guru it would have been at Hayden Richards equally home as part of discusses. a digital marketer’s toolkit.

Manufacturers are clearly beginning to use new technological tools in new and innovative ways, and the industrial web and the industrial internet of things should begin to change habits of the traditional manufacturer, especially in the manner in which they communicate with their peers, customers and suppliers.

This fact brings with it its boons as well as potential pitfalls, and manufacturers will have to start deploying a host of social engagement tools run by knowledgeable in-house experts.

Here is a tip for manufacturers new to the social marketing world: Use analytics.

After all, you already work in a highly datadriven environment, plus these new social enabled analytics packages provide intelligence for manufacturing companies to better understand and serve customers.

There has never been a more exciting time to be a manufacturer, but in order to take advantage of all the opportunities that the industrial web offers you will have to make early investments in the right kind of people and technology, and be willing to modify internal processes.

HEADLINE SPONSOR:

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Focus your camera on British manufacturing and help transform the image of our industry by entering the EEF ‘Make it Britain’ Photography Competition.

We want you to capture images of British products, components or processes and enter them at www.eef.org.uk/photo before 29 September 2014 for your chance to win. Entry is free and open to everyone in three categories: amateur, professional and young photographer (14-19).

For information and to upload your images visit www.eef.org.uk/photo or contact Stuart Biddle on 020 7654 1501.

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Letters to the editor

Production lines

Letters to the Editor Richard Green CEO of the Design & Technology Association

The government’s cabinet reshuffle came at a critical time for schools, with many nervous about the launch of the new national curriculum in September.

It remains to be seen how much of an impact the changes will have, but more broadly there are significant hurdles to overcome to ensure students leave school with the problem solving and practical skills demanded by employers in the design, manufacturing and engineering sectors.

Design & Technology provides the bedrock for these skills, but at this critical time the subject is also facing the worst shortfall in recruitment into initial teacher training across the curriculum.

The government says it wants to build an economy founded on making and doing, yet its focus on the more traditional academic subjects has led to D&T being neglected by schools, with fewer teachers and hours of teaching since 2010. It should be concerning to all of us that D&T remains a subject on the ‘endangered’ list, and at times is both chronically undervalued and widely misunderstood.

If the government is serious about building an army of multi-skilled, creative talent, now is the time for joined up thinking and the support and promotion of D&T at both root and branch.

Letters to the editor are highly encouraged and can be submitted for anonymous publication at contributor’s request.

Please send your letters and comments to c.bentley@sayonemedia.com

22 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Jeremy Vernon Director at Core Fulfilment

Selling has traditionally been left in the hands of the retailer. Manufacturers make the products and someone else sells them. But, the boundaries between these roles is becoming more blurred. Increasingly, manufacturers are realising that they have a lot to gain by selling directly to their customers rather than relying entirely on retailers and wholesalers. There are a few barriers to get through however, in order to get it right.

Often manufacturers are not able to realise the true value of a surge in demand for their products, as a significant proportion of the profits will be taken by the retail channel. Of course, manufacturers will always need retailers as part of their selling and marketing strategies as they play a crucial part in helping a brand to sustain a presence on the high street. This is why so many manufacturers are wary of upsetting this well-established relationship. However, selling direct simply opens up another channel from which to sell to

Often manufacturers are not able to realise the true value of a surge in demand for their products, as a significant proportion of the profits will be taken by the retail channel

the consumer – which, if handled correctly, does not have to interfere with existing relationships and agreements.

Manufacturers are often surprised to learn that you don’t need to be the cheapest, or undercut the retailer, to make direct work. Choosing not to compete will not only help to pacify any retailer concerns but can also have a positive impact on the way your products are perceived by the consumer. Selling a higher value product exclusively from you as the manufacturer, for example, will open up a new option for existing customers whilst potentially attracting a new audience that hasn’t bought your products before.

What a bank should be

Charles Garfit, Head of Manufacturing, Santander UK

Whether small family companies or global corporations, we approach every business customer as an individual relationship. We strive to understand your unique needs and to make banking straightforward, so you can focus on growth. That’s why our clients get a dedicated, expert Relationship Director. We believe credit partners should meet you directly, so our decisions are as transparent as possible. We work hard to do right by you and your business now and in the long term.

It’s thanks to this approach that we’re proud to say 4 out of 5 of our business customers would recommend us.

Simple Personal Fair What a bank should be Find out how we’re supporting businesses like yours across the UK at www.santandercb.co.uk or email manufacturing@santander.co.uk

GfK NOP Research: Santander Business Satisfaction survey Q4’13. 1,628 respondents interviewed.

Santander Corporate & Commercial is a brand name of Santander UK plc, Abbey National Treasury Services plc (which also uses the brand name Santander Global Banking and Markets) and Santander Asset Finance plc, all (with the exception of Santander Asset Finance plc) authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Our Financial Services Register numbers are 106054 and 146003 respectively. In Jersey, Santander UK plc is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to carry on deposit-taking business under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991. Registered office: 2 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3AN. Company numbers: 2294747, 2338548 and 1533123 respectively. Registered in England. Santander and the flame logo are registered trademarks. Santander UK plc is a participant in the Jersey Banking Depositor Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Full details of the Scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website (www.gov.je) or on request.

CCBB 0461 AUG 14 HT

HOW TO BOOK: Call: 020 7401 6033 (Opt 3) Email: events@sayonemedia.com Web: themanufacturer.com/tmdc2014

Enabling the future of British manufacturing

26–27 November 2014 | The ICC, Birmingham Why you cannot afford to miss The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference: The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference (TMDC) is for leaders and managers aiming to grow and strengthen their business. The two–day conference will focus on strategies for growth, key investment opportunities and shaping the landscape of British manufacturing. Learn from insightful keynotes, contribute to specialist discussions and take part in plenary debates.

Attending the #TMDC2014 will enable you to understand how you can: Increase your company’s profitability through investment in technology, including automation Develop a business strategy with a competitive advantage Create additional revenue streams outside normal production, through examples of other successful companies Create a business strategy which will prepare you for future market changes and developments

The Manufacturer Week of Excellence A series of must-attend events for leaders within the manufacturing industry looking to excel and drive the industry forward. Book your place to more than one event and receive advantageous pricing and/or free accommodation*.

See more information at themanufacturer.com/WoE

25 November 2014 – Factory Tour: TBC** 26 – 27 November 2014 – TMDC 27 November 2014 – The Manufacturer of the Year Awards 27 November 2014 – ERP Connect *when booking on ERP Connect event. ** Free of charge and only available if attending TMDC.

Innovation and technology:

Shaping the future of British manufacturing: Explore the future look and shape of British manufacturing in the years to come through plenary discussion

Businesses can introduce innovation and technology in manufacturing to a wide range of business areas, including new processes, new materials and the use of new equipment

Understand the effect future business models will have on your company and how you can gain a competitive advantage by anticipating these changes

Ability to react to market changes and take advantage of new opportunities

Re-shoring:

Rapid growth:

Addressing the benefits of returning production and manufacturing to the UK

Discover how top growing SMEs and global manufacturers have achieved accelerated growth

Focusing on achieving affordable and sustainable quality

Understand how you can sustain growth within your organisation

Essential skills:

1

The Manufacturer of the Year Awards winners: one year on:

Informal and hands on sessions for business leaders and managers address the issue of skills which will enable sustainable growth and how to develop the leaders of tomorrow

Last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winners of The Manufacturer of the Year Awards will share their stories on winning and how they have progressed throughout the year

Break down of attendees by job title attending TMDC Break down of attendees by job title attending TMDC Break down of attendees by job title attending TMDC :

TMDC attendee numbers: TMDC attendee numbers:

Managing Director / Owner / C - Level / Chairman

Managing Director / Owner / CDirector - LevelDirector / Chairman Managing / Owner / C - Level / Chairman Senior Management Director Director Senior Management Managers Senior Management Managers Next Gen Managers Next Gen Other

2013

2013

319

319

2012

276

2011

197

276 2012 2011 197

Next Gen Other Other

Researched and Delivered by

Platinum Sponsors

#TMDC2014 @themanufacturer themanufacturer.com/tmdc2014 Gold Sponsors

Headline Sponsor

Coâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Sponsor

Silver Sponsors

’s editorial team is out and about at a wide variety of industry conferences, debates and factory tours month in, month out.

Let’s get a snapshot of the most interesting trips in July and August.

50 years of innovation As CNH Industrial celebrates 50 years of operations from its iconic Essex site, Andrew Putwain journeyed out to the firm’s plant in Basildon, to spend the day experiencing life on the factory floor, and later, enjoy playing with some big boy’s toys.

T

he first thing you notice about CNH Industrial factory is the noise, or lack thereof. Noise defenders are supplied, but hardly needed as although there are 500 members of staff and countless tonnes of machinery, there is only a burble of noise.

Here was my first taste of one of CNH’s original strengths: the loyal staff the company’s management has created. Only one of the dozen staff I spent time with on the floor had been there for less than 20 years.

After fumbling my way through installing cabs, I was entrusted with a drill and saw the automation of the factory in action. Advancement is something the factory is constantly striving for, and in the quality control I saw, their innovation in the endless quest to find the root causes of persistent issues, wanting to save as much time and expendable effort as possible.

There was also the £1.2m road testing centre, opened in late 2013, specially constructed to put the tractors through rigorous tests to maintain the high standards CNH is known for.

But the most fun was experienced on the tractors I drove. Not being the

26 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

world’s best driver, I was worried I’d take out several fences and maybe a photographer, but I was able to drive the beasts of machines without doing any harm, and see the results of CNH’s lean, streamlined and technologically advanced methods first-hand.

And the results are impressive: over 100 units a day, constructed in 25 hours a piece. It’s easy to see that Basildon has another 50 years of innovation in it.

Advancement is something the factory is constantly striving for

OUT AND ABOUT

Miller Time James Pozzi toured the site of furniture maker Herman Miller, the winner in 2013’s Awards Supply Chain Excellence category.

Industrial style James Pozzi visits Dr. Martens shoe manufacturing site in Northamptonshire and sees how a change of approach helped turn around the company’s fortunes.

A

lynchpin of subcultures throughout the decades, the influence of Dr. Martens on contemporary British culture is evident. From mods to punks and grunge to Britpop, the brand was seemingly present in helping map every turn of Britain’s social icons. Having made its name as a work boot for everyone from police to dockers, its presence has been felt in equal measure on the factory floors of the UK. Its production facility in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, its home since 1960, provided a first-hand observation into traditional shoe making and an insight into one company’s turnaround.

Just a decade ago, Dr. Martens was treading water. Beset by plummeting sales, Dr. Martens addressed this by placing greater

emphasis on the consumer end of the business.

The move paid dividends, with company turnover hitting £160m last year – making it a midmarket champion. As another beneficiary of foreign desire for British goods, it’s no coincidence the Made in England name emblazons its shoes.

On the shop floor, the company employs traditional manufacturing processes to produce around 330 customised pairs of shoes daily.

From the cutting of leather to the stitching, its workforce are integral to every shoe’s production.

Employing a mix of graduates and long-serving employees, Dr. Martens has also moved to recruit apprentices as it looks to rejuvenate the decline of shoe making in the UK. With momentum on its side, its future is intriguing after being acquired by private equity firm Permira for £300m from familyowned R Griggs Group last year.

Now launching a new range of industrial shoes incorporating elements of its consumer brand so integral to the company’s revival, combining durability with style never looked so good.

T

hey say it’s the little things that make the difference, a notion adhered to by US furniture maker Herman Miller. The Wiltshire town of Chippenham - home to company’s international headquarters and warehouse - is testament to its sustainability commitment and strive for continuous improvement.

The company, crowned winners in the 2013 Awards’ supply chain category, opened the doors of its HQ and warehouse to visitors including API Technologies and Moog Controls to offer insight into its processes.

Its 2008-built headquarters is a benchmark for the modern work environment, with the building’s design encompassing numerous environmental considerations.

This includes the monitoring of water leakage, down to the usage of waterless staff urinals, while its lighting system was designed to reduce light pollution.

Priding itself on being a people-based business, Herman Miller encourages alternative ways of working.

These include staff using outdoor space to work with sporadic locations around the office to encourage impromptu meetings.

Its warehouse, referred to as ‘the blue building’, has housed the company’s manufacturing and logistics operations for 30 years. With the facility producing chairs, production is tied together by the company performance system, developed since the 1990s with Toyota. This sets out to eliminate waste across the range of chairs produced to order on site, while focusing on the importance of people in meeting targets.

But when a company reaches manufacturing excellence, it is met with new challenges. With demand increasing from Asia, Herman Miller is set to move into a 175 sq ft building in nearby Melksham later this year, unifying all UK sites into a single location. With such an investment in the West Country, its drive for excellence is set to continue.

If you would like to visit your factory or business, let us know by emailing the editor at c.bentley@sayonemedia.com September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 27

Best of Digging up jobs in Coventry http://www.themanufacturer.com

A part to play With the looming vote for Scottish independence beginning to play more on people’s minds, it is little wonder BAE Systems and it’s Scottish operations were garnering a little attention on the manufacturer.com this past month.

A

s the defence manufacturer began to make the massive sea-bound movement of an 8,000 tonne section of the yet-to-be-completed Prince of Wales aircraft carrier, politicians began to weigh in on the company’s future involvement in the UK after more significant contracts were won by the company.

The Ministry of Defence announced the latest £348m contract last month (bit.ly/1vBbb4w), which will include the construction of three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for the Royal Navy at BAE Systems Shipyard in Clyde.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon implied that the deal was on the condition of a “no” vote on September 18, saying “UK warships are only built in UK shipyards.”

Predecessor to Mr Fallon, Philip Hammond, also said that British warships would not be built overseas, which could cost Scotland millions if it votes “yes” for independence.

Keith Brown, Scotland’s minister for veteran affairs, argued that a split from the UK would be beneficial to Scotland and argued that the UK Government had already revealed these intentions last November.

As covered in James Pozzi’s article Better Together (bit.ly/ Bettertogether), the company made it clear in its annual report that it was in favour of the Union, with chief executive Ian King saying the company “has significant interests in Scotland, and it is clear that continued union offers greater certainty and stability for our business.”

28 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

The Midlands might be the heartland of UK manufacturing, but there seemed to be one place in particular that drew in readers last month – particularly when it came to job creation.

Y

ou don’t need to hold an economics degree to figure out that a recovering manufacturing industry should translate into a boost in job prospects. And while the widely debated skills gap issue looks to maintain its stable grip for some time, the fact that British factories are employing at the fastest rate in more than 40 years is good news no matter how you look at it.

The figures were revealed as part of a recent CBI survey, in which economists remained positive overall, despite official figures which revealed a surprise drop in production in May. The survey also revealed that while businesses were getting more orders and output was growing, export growth rates were flat (bit.ly/1uMueaB).

But when looking specifically at jobs, there seems to be one place in particular that is drawing a bit of attention from readers of themanufacturer.com.

Two Coventry-based manufacturers announced new projects which would result in the creation of about 300 jobs collectively.

Covpress, which produces body panels for the automotive sector and has clients including Jaguar Land Rover, has announced the plans to increase staff count from 550 to 700 while investing in automated robotic and laser equipment (bit.ly/CvtryInvestment).

The increase will take place over the next two years and marks further investment by parent company Shandong Yongtai after it bought the West Midlands firm for £30m a year ago.

Meanwhile Chinese earthmoving equipment manufacturer Datank announced it is to open its new UK headquarters in the Midlands (bit.ly/DetankCoventry).

The company established itself as one of the forerunners in the earthmoving equipmentmanufacturing sector after launching in China just four years ago.

The company will use the Coventry base as its platform for launching into the UK market with the company’s parent company, Chery Holdings, already having strong links with Coventry with an exclusive partnership to produce Jaguar Land Rover vehicles on the Chinese mainland.

Tracking your top reads on www.themanufacturer.com last month

Best of Online

History This month in

Popular blog contributions last month included: Supply chains: Preventing a weak link Bill Bacon, managing director for automotive at DHL Supply Chain, explains why it’s more important than ever to have greater resilience in the supply chain so not to fracture the growth in British auto manufacturing. bit.ly/ChainWeakness

Data, data everywhere…Now what to do with it?

Steve Wise, VP of Statistical Methods, InfinityQS, discusses how companies can make the most of the new manufacturing Intelligence system. bit.ly/ToDoWithData

Budgeting for food and drink ERP projects John Donagher, principal consultant at Lumenia discusses the key challenges for food and beverage companies when planning ERP projects. bit.ly/ ERPFoodDrink

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hen the first classic Mini, made in Birmingham, went on the market on August 18th 1959, none ed at the time were involv e peopl of the likely to have imagined that the concept of a revolutionary small car would turn into one of the automotive industry’s most impressive success stories stretching over a period of five and half decades. 55 years ago, two models were presented to the public which differed solely in their radiator grille, hub caps and paint finishes: the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven. Designer Alec Issigonis’ concept was both simple and ingenious: lots of interior space combined with minimum g exterior dimensions, four seats, perfect drivin a and n mptio consu fuel properties, low reasonable price. These ideas had an impact that was to extend into the 21st century.

The brand’s underlying principle was confirmed once more when it was restarted with the market launch of the MINI in 2001.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 29

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Do technologists dream of electric sheep?

UK participation in robotics and autonomous systems is tipped to shape the next wave of technological advancement. Victoria Fitzgerald gets technical on RAS 2020.

I

n the past 100 years, society has witnessed unprecedented change in the field of autonomous systems from the most primitive version of the auto pilot in 1912 to driverless cars set to tear up UK roads from January 2015.

According to the 2013 Disruptive Technologies report by McKinsey, the application of advanced robotics could generate a potential economic impact of $1.6 trillion to $6.4 trillion per year by 2025. These profits have the potential to produce significant improvements in health, new products and innovating the way products are built and services delivered.

Despite the enormous changes in 100 years, the rate of development in the past five years has produced substantial momentum. Huw Davies, lead technologist for electronic sensors and robotics at the Technology Strategy

30 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Board told : “Computing went from the mainframe to the work station, the PC, to the laptop, to the tablet, to the smart phone and the pace of that accelerated over the last 5 years, going from the PC to our smartphones, the pace of that has been incredible.

“But robotics at the moment is at the stage of going from the mainframe to the work station, so we’ve got all of that to look forward to, the mass adoption of robotic technology.”

The rate of development from PC to smartphone is indicative of the potential development of robotics and autonomous systems with the right interest and investment.

This narrow window of time has been labelled the “early mover advantage” by RAS SIG (Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group).

The RAS market is emerging but not

HOT TOPIC

e er in th a te thrust e, A satelli f Mars Spac rted labs o any suppo B

by TS comp

According to the 2013 Disruptive Technologies report

by McKinsey, the application of advanced robotics could generate a potential economic impact of $1.6 trillion to $6.4 trillion per year by 2025

ubiquitous, so there has never been a better time for the UK to get involved and recognise the market’s importance in driving innovation, productivity and economic growth.

But capitalising on this is easier said than done. To address the situation key stakeholders from government, academia and industry met with the Technology Strategy board to create RAS-SIG, a special interest group tasked with the mission of understanding the landscape and opportunity for RAS in the UK and to produce RAS 2020, a national strategy to respond to what the UK Government labelled in 2012 as one of the Eight Great Technologies that support UK Industrial Strategy driving efforts to rebalance the economy.

Chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, Iain Gray (p8) said the

Enthuse young people to take up vital careers in engineering With not enough young people taking Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at further education, many UK companies are facing a skills shortage.

Independent, educational charity, The Smallpeice Trust is passionate about closing this skills gap and enthusing the next generation of engineers. Last year, 17,495 students participated in our university-based residential courses, in-school STEM Days and Clubs. Encouragingly, almost 50% of our students were girls.

Working in partnership with some of industry’s leading organisations, we offer students an engaging, hands-on introduction to the rewarding careers available to them.

A corporate partnership offers a range of benefits including the chance to:

• Build a future talent pipeline and help you to achieve your HR objectives • Get employees involved to boost job satisfaction, motivation and skill development • Enhance your brand and profile amongst enthusiastic girls and boys, their families and their communities • Bolster your corporate social responsibility agenda • Maximise potential for PR and marketing opportunities • Offset charitable giving against company corporation tax From sponsoring STEM Days and Clubs, to mini competitions and residential courses, there are many ways in which your company can get involved with The Smallpeice Trust.

Smallpeice corporate supporters include:

“At Babcock, we are very keen to encourage young people towards a career in engineering and the courses run by The Smallpeice Trust are a fantastic way of demonstrating the variety of options open to them as they start to think about their career choices. The wide choice of courses offered by The Trust gives students the opportunity to broaden their horizons outside of the normal curriculum.”

Rosemary Prout, Graduate Training Manager Marine and Technology Division, Babcock International Group To find out more about the benefits of being a Smallpeice Partner, contact our Chief Executive, Dr. Kevin P Stenson on 07899 663 280 or email kevins@smallpeicetrust.org.uk.

ARM, Babcock, BAE Systems, EDF Energy, Google, National Grid, National Nuclear Laboratory, Senergy, Southern Water, Ultra Electronics Controls… and many more.

Follow us on

&

www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk

Big things happen with The Smallpeice Trust

Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board

“Having forums to bring people together and making sure they have the opportunity to explore each other’s issues and help to solve problems and provide support.”

Grand challenges, assets and skills

strategy was aimed at drawing together communities, whether it was manufacturing, health, or automotive, then identifying the real business opportunities.

“The problem is, in the past there has been strong focus around the technology development and not enough focus around the market opportunities,” Mr Gray said.

“What the strategy is doing is helping to bring the different players together to understand what the market opportunities are.”

The strategy identifies five interwoven strands that will facilitate the UK’s involvement in the sector: coordination, assets, grand challenges, clusters and skills.

Clusters and coordination

Rich Walker, managing director of the shadow robot company emphasises that “clusters are a very old concept in industrial strategy.”

“How do you get good at something? By linking up the community and the entrepreneurial people, investors, technical development community,” he said. “If you need some cutting-edge research, you need a place where you can do that. For instance, for nuclear research, the Northwest of England is fantastic for that. If you want to do offshore work you go to Aberdeen.

“Part of the goal is to look at the UK and ask where we have areas that could be clusters and how can we facilitate the developments of that. We may have to reach out to Europe and use European structural funds or group together a number of universities and get them to work together.

“For instance all the universities in Sheffield will come together and form the Sheffield centre for robotics, which is a pooling of their weight and a much stronger robotics cluster than any of them would have had individually.”

The clusters will be facilitated by coordination, Walker continues. “It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, as long as other people know about it. Others should know the challenges faced in each industry, what the treasury is worrying about in 5 years’ time and the gap in the skills pipeline etc.

32 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Grand challenges will work in harmony with assets to create real-life scenarios, using assets as test grounds to trial, innovate and ensure regulatory barriers are avoided.

Walker adds: “The assets will be a mechanism by which we will open up challenges.

How the assets are selected, that will come out of other parts of UK industrial strategy and other parts of UK societal challenges, as well as organisations that are willing to participate.

“The idea is to set up a challenge and surround it with the correct infrastructure to get a lot of development.

Create an opportunity to motivate the next generation of developers, to focus in and make some big steps forward with the underlying technologies and hopefully generate some exciting new businesses.”

Skills

Success would be impossible without a robust skills base, a provision of skilled workers who can move seamlessly between academia and industry.

This strand of the strategy aims to foster the skills of existing expertise and cultivate the up and coming generation. EPSRC has funded the building of four new RAS centres for doctoral training.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems Strategy recommendations

1 2

Invest further in the five RAS strategy strands.

Establish the means for funding agencies to formally work together in execution, so that ideas. People and activity flow readily from basic investigation through early stage development to fully trialled commercial product.

3

Establish an RAS Leadership Council to engage with senior leaders across a range of sectors in industry, academia and Government to provide oversight of the strategy’s execution.

4

Further develop engagement with the EU, investors and corporate resources in the UK and overseas to fuel the development of the five strands.

5

Continue to consult widely on potential Assets and cross sector Grand Challenges.

6

Continue to develop dialogue with those involved in standard and regulation, such as BSI and CCA, to develop more detailed thinking.

7

Extend outreach and public engagement activities to continue changing public perceptions and improve understanding of public concerns.

8

Articulate to business and investors internationally that the UK aims to be the best place to invest in taking RAS technologies to market.

Government has not allocated any extra funding to RAS, which may prove a considerable barrier

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

The RAS market is emerging but not ubiquitous, so there has never been a better time for the UK to get involved and recognise the market’s importance in driving innovation, productivity and economic growth

Organisations like the Knowledge Transfer Network and UKTI will be critical to the success of new businesses RAS will produce. Gray believes a welcome outcome of the strategy would be a boost in STEM subject interest as a whole.

“That would be a very important consequential effect of what we are doing,” he said. “But it’s not a driver for us per se, every company that we deal with identifies skills as a key issue and so we’ve got to use every opportunity to help raise that as an agenda item.

Robotics and autonomous systems, a bit like space and high performance sports they attract interest, how do we use the interest in robotics and autonomous systems to help support that, as opposed to it being a key driver in what we are doing?”

Investment

The strategy implied government funding would build the scheme with a hope that private investors would carry the programme forward. Rich Walker told : “We have quite good early stage investment in the UK, things like the Enterprise Investment Scheme are actually very good.

“We need to make people aware of it and then start the process of linking up the people, like universities, with entrepreneurs and with people who’ve had problems, and to do that you need a coherent strategy body pulling those strands together.

However, according to Huw Davies from TSB, government has not allocated any extra funding to RAS, which may prove a considerable barrier, “The launch of the strategy document was more about the community, informing the wider community about the opportunities,” he said.

“So it’s really important that government hasn’t allocated any funds, that industry, academia and other stakeholders are presenting the case to Government and other people and say that this is a really important area for the UK to get involved in.

It’s very much a document to influence and inform.”

Davies also mentioned that following the launch of the report he was approached by two venture capital companies interested in researching opportunities for robotics.

He said: “if we can tap into that through the strategy over the next five years from the VC community matching funding, the eco system will be in a much stronger position to exploit the markets that will be merging at that point.”

Inertia

Despite citing regulations as a problem Gray remains confident. “It’s about setting new standards, making sure we get the standards right from the beginning,” He said.

Walker regarded regulations as a challenge that would be addressed by the assets, saying that in certain areas “regulations stifle innovation” and that people should make sure they get the right advice when developing regulation.

Walker does, however, see another barrier in convincing investors and industry to take evolved steps forward to take advantage of new technology.

“Projects that they thought they couldn’t do anything with 20 years ago they can revisit. We know there are plenty of organisations around to take advantage of these, we know the Korean government is plugging a huge amount of money into robotics, the Japanese

HOT TOPIC

government into enabling assisted living robotics.

“The biggest barrier is that inertia will cause us to be behind on everything because everything takes a lot longer than anyone would like, it’s one of those things that wouldn’t be anyone’s fault. When innovation starts happening you have to start running, or everyone else gets ahead, and you’ll fall behind very quickly.”

What the strategy suggests is no mean feat but if the studies are accurate the UK stands to gain substantially from capitalising on the “early mover advantage”.

According to Gray, the market is set to take five to 10 years to properly develop, he told : “There will be short term applications all the time, look at organisations like Dyson, they are doing a lot with robotic systems around the house.”

The UK needs to move now, in January Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2b, developers of an automatic thermostat, which learns from a household’s dwelling habits, adjusting and readjusting heating and cooling to personal schedules even as they change over long periods of time.

The good news is the use of automation has been proven to increase productivity according to Walker.

“What we have found with the introduction of automation technology, when you add robots to a factory you end up adding jobs. Studies across Europe where they looked at productivity and correlated it with the levels of automation, and in the UK we are slightly behind the leaders.

“If we stepped up to their level, we’d add 22% productivity and we’d add seven per cent jobs overall.”

The strategy aims to unite the relevant knowledge, talent and organisations in RAS and provide coherent steps to develop the UK into a leader in the sector, but the lack of additional government funding, the looming threat of inertia and regulations are set to throw a spanner into the works of the even the best laid schemes of mice and men.

Only time will tell.

FURTHER READING: The read more about the RAS 2020 strategy visit https://connect. innovateuk.org/web/ras-sig

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 33

The changing face of Unipart Group M In recent months, Unipart Group has given £17.9 million towards the creation of the Instituted for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering partnering with Coventry University

34 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

ost people know that Unipart Group’s origins are deep-rooted in the engineering and manufacturing disciplines of the automotive sector.

But what may be a surprise is that Unipart has transformed itself to become a global manufacturing, logistics and consultancy group with a wide range of blue chip clients. Unipart is now one of the largest privately owned companies in the UK,

Unipart Group’s Global Industrial Logistics Director Bernard Molloy explains how a company known for its manufacturing arm actually extends far further. generating an annual turnover of more than £1 billion.

At the heart of Unipart’s transformation has been The Unipart Way, the company’s unique approach of applying the ‘lean’ systems from manufacturing to every other part of its business operations. This has enabled Unipart to achieve fast growth across a wide range of sectors including rail, financial services, mobile technology, retail, healthcare and the public sector.

Manufacturing remains an important part of the business. In recent months, Unipart Group has given £17.9 million towards the creation of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering partnering with Coventry

Unipart Group

SPECIAL FEATURE

Recent contract wins in global markets include a further distribution contract with Toyota in India and a ground-breaking five year, full-spectrum aftermarket logistics contract with Qoros Automotive in China

University to create a ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ on Unipart’s manufacturing site in Coventry.

Unipart Manufacturing Group also opened a second facility in Coventry to boost production of fuel tanks supplied to clients including Jaguar Land Rover and Honda. The Unipart Way has been at the heart of these developments.

In the logistics sector, Unipart Logistics has transformed the supply chains of many of the world’s leading brands, using the ‘Unipart Way’ to bring improved processes, reduced operating costs and an engaged workforce to a broad range of sectors from hi-tech, retail, and communications, to aerospace & defence, automotive and consumer goods.

Mobis, which supplies parts to over 360 Hyundai and Kia dealerships across the UK, has benefited from Unipart Logistics’ skills in driving performance at the company’s Tamworth distribution centre. Service levels achieved for Mobis are close to Five Sigma. The target for both discrepancies and denials is 0.05%, but 0.02% is the norm.

As with most Unipart controlled operations, gains at Tamworth have come from finding smarter ways of working. The ‘lean’ methodology, people skills and tools used by the teams on-site to maximise productivity are encapsulated in the ‘Unipart Way’.

Individuals are encouraged to engage and excel through the Employee Engagement Hub. ‘Our Contribution Counts’ circles provide a problemsolving framework and facilitates communication, and ‘Basics in Place’ sessions enable and encourage individuals to speak out on issues that are important, but often overlooked. Growth and development of the individual are nurtured and facilitated through the Gate to Great scheme, by understanding his or her needs, and by helping them progress within the organisation to, perhaps, become team leaders or to go on to take NVQs. The ‘Unipart Way’ has been successfully used to enhance supply chain performance within the hi-tech sector too, for customers such as Sky and Vodafone.

UTL manages the repair of set top boxes for Sky, where an automated objective test programme

checks over 140 points in a 30 minute period, complemented by Flying Probe technology to further diagnose faulty components on PCB Boards at great speed.

Fault diagnosis time has been reduced by 90%.

In addition to value added repairs, UTL also delivers logistics, recycling services and field solutions for Sky, fulfilling next-day orders for Sky’s 2900 installation engineers. UTL even manages Sky’s fleet of vehicles.

Retail is another sector where UTL has delivered results, working with companies such as Homebase and Waterstones amongst others.

Unipart Group operates globally, enabling companies to fulfil their supply chain commitments to international clients and markets. Through a network of regional hubs, and by using Unipart Logistics’ unique award winning Global Control Centre, goods can be channelled and tracked to their destinations.

By having visibility of all activities across a client’s supply chain Unipart Logistics can monitor and control each element of the process in near real-time, checking order status and performance against set KPIs, and

responding to alerts and ‘traffic-light’ signals as they arise.

Recent contract wins in global markets include a further distribution contract with Toyota in India and a ground-breaking five year, full-spectrum aftermarket logistics contract with Qoros Automotive in China.

But perhaps, above all else, it is the quality of Unipart’s people and their expertise in solving practical problems that counts the most. Within our consultancy business, Unipart Expert Practices, highly experienced supply chain practitioners apply their knowledge to making organisations examples of ‘best practice’.

Much of UEP’s work takes the ‘Unipart Way’ into new and exciting fields. In the healthcare sector Unipart’s consultants have engaged with staff and patients to redesign an endoscopy pathway, worked on transformation projects improving the quality of non-emergency patient transportation and developed a new approach to bed management.

Maintaining high standards across all Unipart Group sites is of paramount importance. For the second year running, Unipart Logistics has achieved a double accolade by winning top ratings for its Health and Safety performance and for its Environmental Management excellence in 2013.

Six sites all received the prestigious Sword of Honour award from the British Safety Council and the Oxford Distribution Centre was one of only seven organisations worldwide to achieve the double award for excellence in winning both the Sword of Honour and the Globe of Honour for exemplary environmental management.

Unipart Group’s global network, comprehensive services and expert practitioners offer enterprises the capability to do business were business takes them.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 35

Unipart Group

SPECIAL FEATURE

The way forward I

looks inside the recent success of Coventrybased manufacturer, Unipart Manufacturing Group.

n recent months Unipart Manufacturing Group (UMG) based in Coventry has been successful in securing significant research and development funding, both in its own right and also as part of a consortium.

UMG comprises several manufacturing companies across the Midlands. As part of the Unipart Group it has a strong engineering heritage, much of which has been based on its manufacturing operations.

UMG manufactures a number of products in the UK including exhaust systems, steel and plastic fuel systems and powertrain components for vehicles, heat exchange devices and parts for the rail industry and provides services to the aerospace industry.

R&D funding allows UMG to develop the next generation of manufacturing products and processes which helps it stay at the forefront of its field.

According to UMG managing director, Carol Burke, development of products like the advanced fuel rail marks an important turning point for the business.

“A few years ago our manufacturing in the UK was facing a cliff edge. Vehicle production had fallen off significantly and that was affecting our existing customers and our prospects for new business,” she said.

“We made a strategic decision at that stage to invest in developing products that required advanced engineering capability and were in emerging technologies. One of those product areas was gasoline direct injection (GDI) technology which had a predicted high growth trajectory across petrol vehicle manufacture in Europe, USA and Asia.

“The technology called for precision made products that required new manufacturing, development and test techniques and called for investment in new facilities and equipment. Unipart as a group was forward thinking enough to recognise the opportunity and gave us the headroom to enter the market. We invested in a dedicated fuel rail manufacturing facility designed to ‘clean room standards’ on our Unipart Eberspächer site in Coventry, a site which already manufactures high tech fuel system components for next generation automobiles that will provide drivers with major improvements in fuel economy and performance.

“The result has been not just a success today, but an opportunity for future growth globally”

36 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Following robotic welding the fuel rail is loaded onto the furnace prior to brazing

Unipart also recently opened a second new manufacturing facility in the Coventry area.

Kautex Unipart Ltd (KUL), the joint venture between Unipart and its German partner Kautex Textron Gmbh, currently produces around 640,000 fuel tanks annually for leading automotive manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover and Honda.

A recent investment in new technology, which offers customers greater levels of emission control, has enabled the company to increase production.

As a result, KUL opened a new 7,500 sq. m. facility to carry out assembly and sequencing operations.

KUL plant general manager Dave Pound said that the expansion at KUL had been driven by growth. “Our customer

base has expanded and the volumes of our major customers have grown,” he said. “We’ve been able to increase our manufacturing capability to meet the needs of our customers today and to be ready for future growth, which could be as much as a million units by 2018.”

“To achieve that, we’ve invested some £6 million to integrate new blow mould technology called Next Generation Fuel System blow moulding. This will enable components such as valves and fuel lines to be placed inside fuel tanks more effectively, ultimately providing reduced vehicle static fuel emissions.”

According to Mr Pound, The Unipart Way - Unipart’s proprietary system for operational excellence and employee engagement - has been at the heart of KUL’s strategy for a smooth expansion into the new site.

“When we began planning to develop KUL2, we put together a focused team of people that are deeply knowledgeable and skilled in The Unipart Way,” he said.

“The result has been a successful project that was delivered against very high standards for safety, delivery, quality and cost and which now gives us a strong opportunity for future growth.”

sectorfocus

James Pozzi profiles the UK’s plastics sector, fittingly among the UK’s most flexible, as it searches to increase its manufacturing competitiveness and sustainability in an environment of intense global competition.

38 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

T

he UK’s star manufacturing performers roll off the tongue with a relaxed ease. Automotive, aerospace, food & drink and its defence industries have all garnered the lion’s share of attention in 2014.

But an industry integral to providing components that contribute to the success of these industries is the UK plastics sector.

It has the distinction of being both one of the country’s traditional industries but also among its most innovative. Its heritage in the UK is significant, with the country credited as being the birthplace of the commercial plastics industry in the 19th Century and also for discovering polythene, the world’s most used plastic.

In an industry serving everything from packaging for consumer products across the food & drink sectors to components for cars, its global reach is all-encompassing. Challenges have

faced the market in recent years. Like most industries, it was susceptible to the economic downturn, and has seen increased competition from a Far East with reduced labour costs.

Last year, plastic demand was recorded at 3.47m tonnes, down 3.7% on the previous year. This was attributed to design minimisation - with plastics becoming lighter by the year and an increased recycling and added value focus from UK manufacturers.

But despite the fall, the plastics sector remains an integral economic contributor. With an annual sales turnover in excess of £19bn, it is an industry employing 180,000 people throughout the UK and sees engagement with around 7,500 firms. It also plays a valuable role as an exporter, with the British Plastics Federation (BPF) - its leading trade body - stating the UK exports £6.7bn of plastic and plastics products overseas, some 35% of what it produces.

Plastics

A time to invest?

In an increasingly global market dominated by big name firms throughout the USA and Europe, other countries from across the world have started to play catch up. While the UK has been a beneficiary of inward investment in the sector resulting in strength in areas such as injection moulding processes, the likes of China have offset this through their considerably lower labour costs.

Barkley Plastics, a Birmingham manufacturer offering services including manufacturing and moulding solutions for products ranging from the automotive sector to IT and retail applications, has experience of Far East competition.

The company, founded in the second city in 1965, has seen first-hand the mixed industrial fortunes of the UK over the decades. While the evolution of UK manufacturing saw a multitude of challenges across the decades, Barkley Plastics owner Maurice Cassidy believes the threat of the Asian manufacturing base has become increasingly challenging for the plastics industry of late.

To combat this situation, the company said it invested heavily in both its tool room and its mould shop. In the tool room, it has bought equipment that enables faster tool production, while investment in the mould shop, machinery and robotics have seen the firm secure growth in

the area of plastic components. This is especially relevant to the automotive sector where the demand for ‘light guides’ has seen sales increase in that area alone by around £830,000.

Mr Cassidy says that working on investing in the equipment and working towards greater sustainability is something Barkley Plastics has increased its focus on, following something of an industry consensus.

“This gives sustainability to manufacturing as our customers see the ongoing investment every time they visit and take comfort in the fact they are working with a company that is committed to world class standards,” he says.

Its heritage in the UK is significant, with the country credited as being the birthplace of the commercial plastics industry in the 19th Century and also for discovering polythene, the world’s most used plastic

SECTOR FOCUS

SURVEY UK plastics: the state of play Ever since the BPF outlined its vision for the industry in its 2012 report, The UK plastics Industry: A Strategic Manufacturing Sector, increased scrutiny has been placed on progressing the industry.

A follow up review conducted this July painted a mixed picture. In a survey undertaken by 89 UK firms, It showed industry optimism had slowed somewhat.

“The overall message is that the level of business confidence remains high but has reached a plateau, at least momentarily,” said Philip Law, the BPF’s director general (p48).

The 72% of firms questioned predicted turnover would increase, a drop of 1% since January.

Furthermore, 46% said they expected profitability to increase over the next year, down from 49%.

And yet, the export market continued to show its promise, with 56% predicted sales would remain stable, compared to 50% questioned in January.

Shedding light on the investment intentions of UK companies, significant investments were planned by 42% of companies this year, a rise of 6% from this year’s survey and an 11% increase on January 2013.

Skills were also under the spotlight, with company hiring intentions highlighting the industry’s ongoing struggle to find skilled members of the workforce.

A figure of 46% expected to increase staff numbers over the next year - the highest level seen in four years – but 48% found difficulty in recruitment, a significant rise from January’s 36%.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 39

Plastics

To remain competitive in the industry, Cassidy says the two Is - investment and innovation - are crucial.

“Investment is crucial to the survival and longevity of any manufacturing business in this modern climate. We also see innovation in new moulding processes as being important to retaining our competitive advantage.”

The innovation factor

Stories of companies across every facet of the plastics industry finding new ways to remain competitive in the face of increasing demands around quality and recycling are becoming more commonplace.

Manchester’s Duo UK, a family-run polythene plastics manufacturer, has made a series of investments over the

past few years as it looks to increase its manufacturing capabilities bit.ly/ DuoUKInvest. Operating with turnover of just under £25m, the company is illustrative of the e-commerce boom giving both the plastics and packaging industries a shot in the arm.

Supplying packaging for the likes of the ASOS clothing mail order website, and most recently ChicBaby.com, Duo invested further in its R&D proficiencies this summer by opening a dedicated quality control lab at its facility. The lab consolidates some of Duo’s current methods for testing its polythene products as well as introducing further testing capabilities, allowing a thorough analysis of new products’ capabilities.

Dale Brimelow, operational director at the firm, says the new investment

Accounts for 7% of UK manufacturing activity, greater than the automotive and pharmaceutical industries combined

SECTOR FOCUS

is crucial to a company in an industry constantly developing products to meet specific industry needs.

“What the QC lab allows us to do is thoroughly test these new blends and develop a precise technical understanding of each product’s properties and characteristics,” he explains. “This in turn helps us to improve a product’s performance, offer alternative products as well as identify potential cost savings for clients.”

Recycling the future

A key issue across the global plastics industry is the disposal of waste, and it is in this area where the UK appears to be falling behind. As one of seven European countries accounting for 77% of plastic waste in the continent, the UK

Plastics in numbers Its export market is worth

£19bn Annual turnover of over

Source: Figures courtesy of the British Plastics Federation

40 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

with 35% of plastics products exported abroad

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SECTOR FOCUS

improvements to quality, efficiency and overall consistency.

Managing director Edgar Wallace said at the time of its delivery that the £1.2m machine will help the company nearly triple capacity at its manufacturing facility.

“It means we can continue to meet the increased demand we are seeing from the plastics industry, both in terms of volume and the types of plastic being recycled, diverting thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill and incineration.”

A positive prognosis?

Investment is crucial to the survival and longevity of any manufacturing business in this modern climate. We also see innovation in new moulding processes as being important to retaining our competitive advantage Maurice Cassidy Owner, Barkley Plastics

has seen itself fall behind its continental counterparts at consumer level.

A July 2014 report published by Digital House in association with plastics fabricator GPX Group, analysed the plastic recycling habits by country, and showed that, despite European plastic production now being at 58m tonnes, plastics waste at post-consumer level has increased steadily.

Europe’s disposal rate lies at 38.1%, with the UK’s recycling rate at 24.2%, compared to the continental average of 34.7%. This is concerning to the UK as targets rise as a result of increased consumption. In 2017, the UK government set a target of 57% for waste recycling, a sharp rise in contrast to Europe, which will aim for

42 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

42%. Concern was expressed by the industry at the plans of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, which it believes could contribute towards companies paying an extra £70m over a five year period as a result of the proposals.

With attention on recycling a priority for the majority of plastics companies, one firm working towards achieving this is Preston Plastics.

Based in Lancashire, the firm announced in July it had become the first company in the UK to invest in a new Intarema plastic recycling and extrusion machine. The purpose of this? To recycle hard-to-process materials including heavily printed packaging waste, resulting in

For any industry to succeed, the right infrastructure and support must be in place from both government, trade organisations and associated stakeholders. Given the prominence of the UK’s chemical sector, an area as intrinsically linked to plastics, the industry remains well placed as a global innovator.

Initiatives such the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) is actively encouraging collaboration as the focus on exploiting new ideas across the plastics and packaging industries increases. The input of such associations and academic bodies in the collaboration process will only continue to gather pace.

Given the increasingly advanced nature of plastics manufacturing, the concept of remanufacturing is expected to play a key role in the industry’s future. One enterprise doing this is the Centre for ALternative MAterials and REmanufacturing (CALMARE) technologies based at the University of Exeter. The centre will provide SMEs access to academic research, material testing and analysis facilities and knowledge of new, sustainable materials.

In May this year, data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed plastic products rose by 7.3%, contributing 0.6 percentage points to manufacturing’s growth between the final quarter of last year and the first of 2014. Growth is expected to continue in the packaging sector, with UK consumption increasing year-on-year.

Despite suggestions that the last decade has been one of struggle for the industry and with obvious challenges in terms of waste reduction, the landscape for plastics packaging nevertheless remains one of opportunity.

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INTERVIEW A question of manufacturing and industry ’s Victoria Fitzgerald sat down with Secretary of State for Industry Vince Cable to discuss the future direction of the UK manufacturing sector and the lessons learnt from some major industry milestones.

B

orn during the Second World War in York to a craftsman at Rowntree’s chocolate factory, Vince Cable grew up surrounded by manufacturing.

From humble beginnings, Dr Cable is now one of the more vocal parliamentary voices speaking for UK manufacturing.

Despite GDP figures confirming the UK economy’s return to pre-recession levels, Dr Cable warned onlookers at the Social Market Foundation in July that boosting British productivity was a “longterm process”, noting that improving the efficiency of economic output per hour worked was paramount to raising living standards as it lets companies increase wages without inflation.

Another way to enhance productivity levels is to invest in automation and technology, but is this counterintuitive when the government is pushing towards job creation in the sector?

“I don’t think they are inconsistent at all, you don’t create jobs by artificially reducing the key activities in industry and manufacturing, which we need to compete internationally,” says Dr Cable.

“Manufacturing counts for about 10% of the economy and employment,

44 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

We don’t think you help manufacturing by manoeuvring the architecture of the government, moving one bit of bureaucracy somewhere else, doesn’t change things perhaps a bit less than 10% of employment, but it’s crucial in terms of our export success and we want to encourage firms to export and invest in innovation.

“We are promoting robotics, for example, in manufacturing. Advanced manufacturing technology often isn’t very labour intensive, but in terms of the wider economy that doesn’t matter providing we are successful overall.

“What often happens is successful manufacturing industry is very capital intensive, nonetheless, many have supply chains, both in terms of input and their distribution, which is very labour intensive.”

Robotics, automation and productivity were included in last year’s extensive Foresight Report looking at the longterm picture for UK manufacturing between now and 2050.

The report, which aims to drive the future of manufacturing contained 76 recommendations, all were agreed except one, the proposal of a US-style office of manufacturing, a concept that appears in practice to be one way of ensuring industry receives the support it needs to flourish.

However, Dr Cable was dubious of how helpful a reorganisation of government departments would be.

“We accepted 75 of those recommendations, with a remarkably high degree of alignment. We don’t think you help manufacturing by manoeuvring the architecture of the government, moving one bit of bureaucracy somewhere else, doesn’t change things.

We have a very good framework now for promoting manufacturing in industry with BIS while also working with other government departments.”

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Industry

So how does the government intend to provide the support and guidance to ensure this economic positivity is consolidated and fostered in the future?

“It is part of the industrial strategy, most of the sectors dealing with the industrial strategy are in manufacturing, whether it’s cars, aerospace, supply chains for energy, railways supply chain and so on,” Dr Cable replied.

“They don’t have to be manufacturing, it can overlap with service sectors and indeed one of our key industrial strategy sectors is the creative industries, so we’d rather organise this within the framework of the industrial strategy, where manufacturing has a key role but not an exclusive role, rather than set up some separate bureaucracy for manufacturing.”

Bringing business back

From here we move on to reshoring and a focus on bringing production back to the UK. EEF found that one in six companies has reshored production back to the UK in the past three years, an increase from one in seven in 2009.

There are concerns however, that the rhetoric surrounding reshoring could be perceived as slightly nationalistic at a time when we should be inviting foreign economies to invest in the UK. Companies such as Tata with its revitalisation of Jaguar Land Rover have proven that foreign investment in the UK’s manufacturing sector can prove exceptionally beneficial to the greater UK economy.

Vince Cable meets apprentices and graduates at Bentley’s new Body in White facility in Crewe

Dr Cable is adamant that there is no nationalism in a bid to bring production back to the UK. He attests: “We do want people to invest in UK manufacturing but we want people to produce here, there’s nothing nationalistic about reshoring, if it’s primarily driven by industrial logic - and it is.

“I see a growing number of examples of engineering and textiles companies that have looked into the benefits of producing in the UK rather than in Asia, and conclude they’d rather be here, because they are nearer to their customers and they are shortening their supply lines.

“Some of them had a wake-up call in the Fukushima disruption, so I see quite a lot of evidence of reshoring. It would be nationalistic if we started introducing import controls, to force that, but we are not doing that,” he adds.

Renegotiation in Europe

The prime minister has promised to renegotiate our relationship with Europe, but what would that mean for UK manufacturing?

“The conservative portion of the coalition uses the vocabulary of ‘renegotiation’. I prefer a neutral term in ‘reform’,” Dr Cable corrects me.

“We certainly believe the European Union should be reformed, we want to see less bureaucracy and regulation. A lot of other like-minded countries in Europe that agree with us are helping with that process.

“There are a whole lot of clearly defined objectives that we are pursuing and I’m optimistic that the European Union is moving in a direction that is a more openly regulated type of business environment.

The issue of renegotiation would arise if there was a fundamental treaty change, we are not yet in that position,” he continues.

The next generation

A recent CBI poll revealed 39% of employers were struggling to recruit workers with the advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills they needed, with 41% fearing such shortages would persist for the next three years.

BIS has focused on promoting apprenticeships as an alternative career path for young people, however, the department of education doesn’t seem to be involved

INTERVIEW

What we increasingly want to see is respect for vocational education, as opposed to academic education, that’s the key point. We want to break down these barriers of snobbery around academic verses vocational in the drive. But are the two departments actually aligned, and if not, why?

“Well I hope they are aligned because the minister in my department who is leading this is the joint minister in BIS and education and he’s very enthusiastic about apprenticeships,” Dr Cable states.

“But I think it’s very important that we don’t view apprenticeships and universities as opposites. They’re not - advanced apprenticeships involve degree level qualifications. What we increasingly want to see is respect for vocational education as opposed to academic education, that’s the key point, we want to break down these barriers of snobbery around academic verses vocational.

“And in key areas like engineering, a good apprenticeship route with progression leads to university education, there’s no reason why we should have this segregation between the two.”

It is also important that young people are aware of the routes available. A number of schools across the UK are working with local manufacturers to do this but not every school is on board. Might there be a push to make it compulsory for schools to supply this information to students and partner with manufacturers?

“To get a good pipeline of young people doing good quality work needed in the economy, we need first of all to get young people interested and there are barriers in some areas that it is seen as a second class alternative.

“Particularly with young women in engineering where there are real cultural barriers to overcome,” Dr Cable reflects.

“There’s a variety of initiatives we are taking, like See Inside Manufacturing, where companies open up their doors to let people see what modern manufacturing companies are like.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 45

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Industry

BIOGRAPHY Vince Cable

Secretary of State for Industry

Dr Cable is a regular at UK factories and engineering sites, here he visits Gardner Aerospace

1971-74: Served as a Labour councillor in Glasgow between 1971 and 1974, before joining the Social Democrat Party

“This breaks down misapprehensions, provokes interest in careers in industry and gets schools to work with local firms.

“You can argue it should have happened sooner, a tougher set of requirements on schools, in respect of careers guidance, and in future there will be proper OFSTED inspections and guidance.

“There was a system of obligation and it operated through the connections programme and in a general sense that didn’t work very well, we are now trying to reform it and under the new guidance, schools will be tested and evaluated in how well they perform in respect of careers.”

1973:

UK tax haven

1962:

Earned a scholarship to Cambridge University where he studied Natural Science and Economics

1965:

Became president of the Cambridge Union

1966-68: Worked as Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenya government

Graduated with a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow

1974-76: Worked as a first Secretary in the Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1983-90: Worked as special advisor on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth secretary general, Sir Sonny Ramphal 1995:

Became Shell’s chief economist

1999:

Joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in October as spokesman on Trade and Industry after a spell as a junior Treasury spokesman

2003-10: Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor and was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats until May 2010

46 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

INTERVIEW

The proposed takeover of UK pharmaceuticals manufacturer AstraZeneca by Pfizer was heavily documented in the first half of 2014 and continues to raise questions as to why the government didn’t intervene sooner to prevent the UK being used as a tax haven.

“We did intervene but we did so respecting the law under which we operate, which actually gives rather limited grounds for government intervention and it’s also underpinned by European rules, which limit what we can do,” Dr Cable maintains.

“So we did intervene, we made it absolutely clear that we valued the research and development done with AstraZeneca.

We talked to Pfizer about the conditions we wanted them to satisfy in a takeover procedure, they decided not to, we were very heavily involved in the discussions surrounding that takeover.

“You need to remember that the government can’t simply prohibit these things, there are laws which apply here.”

There are concerns that Britain is now increasingly attractive to foreign companies having become one of the world’s largest and

most sophisticated tax havens, the result of successive UK governments competing for business with countries like Luxembourg and Switzerland, and in particular by curtailing the main rate of corporation tax from 30% in 2007, 21% in 2014 and 20% in 2015.

Reuters reported that although several organisations moved to the UK, the main reason for relocation was to pay less tax. So what is the government doing to prevent unintended tax consequences in the future?

“We are certainly reflecting on the lessons learnt from that, it was a very important experience and of course there was the earlier Cadbury takeover where a lot of lessons were learned, the changes in the takeover panel rules for example, so we are trying to digest the lessons of Pfizer’s attempted takeover, which of course failed.

“We can’t unilaterally change the rules regarding public interest because these are defined under the merger regulations of the European Union, so whatever we do has to be legal and aligned but we are certainly now reflecting on whether various forms of strengthening need to occur and we will make the conclusions to that available in due course.

FURTHER INFO: Watch Victoria Fitzgerald’s full interview with the Secretary of State for Industry, Vince Cable at http://bit.ly/CableInterview

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UK Support & Service

6Osecond Philip Law, director-general, The British Plastics Federation

interview

Philip Law

director-general, The British Plastics Federation Philip Law, director-general of the British Plastics Federation, talks to about the state of the UK plastics industry. : You took up your role as director-general of the British Plastics Federation in July. What have you identified as areas for focus under your stewardship?

The plastics industry will be affected by major regulatory developments which will introduce new concepts as well as increasing the weight of traditional targets. The recent proposals under the banner of the ‘circular economy’ for amending the EU’s packaging and packaging waste directive is a case in point. It marks a new departure with its requirement of ‘extended producer responsibility’ and discouragement of energy from waste. We will be making our voice heard on these issues. The industry is finding it very difficult to recruit skilled people. This could hold it back from reaping the full benefits of the economic recovery. Particular shortages are witnessed in technician, technical management and technically literate sales people. We will be focussing on improved co-ordination of training and in helping to secure the specific dedicated training that companies in the plastics sector need to grow their businesses. : The UK plastics sector exports £5.6bn a year, representing a sizeable economic contributor for the UK. Where do you think some of the industry’s growth areas in terms of exports lie?

We have major strengths internationally.

We are particularly strong in ancillary

48 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

equipment, for testing, materials handling, flame treatment and antistatic. We are leaders in small-scale extrusion technology. I would also add our expertise in specialist materials, such as compounds and master batch and niche foam products. UK manufactured plastics pipe and fittings have provided infrastructure in the developing world.

Additionally, the UK has a lot of exportable knowledge connected with energy efficiency which has become a top priority for firms in the sector. : Following the economic downturn, what is the state of confidence in SME businesses working in the industry at present?

Confidence is at a very high level but has reached a plateau, flat lining over two surveys carried out in the last six months. We recently reported to the Bank of England that companies supplying technical

components to the automotive industry are on a high, those manufacturing packaging are having a mixed experience and firms supplying construction markets are seeing improvements from an earlier depressed situation. Companies exporting are beginning to see the strength of sterling impairing volumes. The number of firms reporting ‘significant’ expected future investments are increasing. : Sustainability is a big issue, with a consensus the industry needs to increase recycling rates.

Why do you feel the UK has fallen behind a lot of Europe in its efforts for reducing plastic landfill?

Valid European comparisons are difficult to make as you aren’t comparing apples with apples. One reason we’ve landfilled in the UK is because our geology has given us potential landfill sites, denied to some other countries. The plastics recycling record in the UK is actually moving forward fast, particularly plastics bottles recycling. Last year we recycled our one millionth PVC window in the UK and that’s a pretty durable product with a 35 year plus life span. Our administrative systems are different in the UK with Local Authorities collecting different things in different ways. There’s a lack of standardisation which prevents economies of scale. But we are trying very hard to work around this and cut the ‘Gordian knot’. : Are you anticipating the increased prevalence of fracking over the coming years to have an effect on plastics feedstock?

Fracking represents a huge opportunity not just to help reduce our reliance on overseas energy sources but as a feedstock for the manufacture of plastics.

The USA’s industrial base has acquired a major competitive advantage through access to lower cost shale gas. Now the UK has an opportunity to redress the balance.

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It is right that the resulting underspend, worth £1.1bn, be reinvested to support the important work of our armed forces and intelligence services John Cridland, Director-General, CBI

Military tech goes commercial ’s James Pozzi looks over some of the main talking points at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, the aerospace industry’s show of shows.

110 000 100 000 The 2014 FIA welcomed more than 110,000 trade visitors with an additional 100,000 public visitors

trade visitors

public visitors

50 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

BAE Systems announced aviation technology previously used only by military pilots was to be made available in commercial cockpits.

T

he defence giant used Farnborough to announce its Active Inceptor Systems will be ready for use by commercial aircrafts, something it described as an aviation milestone.

The systems, also known as Active Sticks, allows the pilot to feel feedback from the plane about the way it is being flown through a control stick, informing them if they are reaching the limit of the aircraft’s capabilities.

BAE Systems said the Active Stick, which have been supplied to the

Farnborough International Airshow 2014

Special Feature

Failure to launch A lot of pre-show hype surrounded the flight of the F-35 Hurricane II fighter jet. But the American manufactured aircraft didn’t exactly follow the desired narrative.

V David Cameron addresses the Farnborough Air Show on its opening day

PM announces £1.1bn defence spending Prime Minister David Cameron handed the UK’s armed forces a £1.1bn funding boost as part of the government’s Defence Growth Partnership.

D

esigned to boost the economy and provide new equipment for the army, navy and air force, the investment will see £800m allocated to improving counter-terrorism defence, as part of an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance package.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) military industry for 25 years, provides confirmed the remaining £300m a link between the two pilots while will towards a new E-Scan radar increasing awareness and safety across for Typhoon and the purchase of the cockpit without the weight of any Ice Patrol Ship HMS Protector, with mechanical linkages. a portion of the finance also to be It also believed they have features spent on drones. and benefits over existing pilot control The PM described the investment technologies, which includes improved as being necessary for a country safety via electrical communication that “cannot defend the realm from between pilot and co-pilot, which the white cliffs of Dover.” means both individuals are aware of Business trade organisation the what the other is experiencing.

Confederation of British Industry Nigel Wright, director of regional (CBI) backed the spending and business jets for Commercial proposals through its directorAircraft Solutions at BAE Systems, general John Cridland. said bringing the Active Inceptors to “The Ministry of Defence has the commercial market represents had to make some tough decisions a significant milestone for the to get its budget back under aviation market. control, and the UK defence industry “We have been supplying these has actively worked with the cutting-edge solutions to military government to help this process,” aircraft across the globe for many he said. years, and to be able to now bring this “It is right that the resulting technology to the commercial sector is underspend, worth £1.1bn, be rea significant and exciting milestone for invested to support the important our business.” work of our armed forces and intelligence services.”

isitors were left disappointed on the opening day when the flight of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet was curtailed following the grounding of the entire fleet in the US the previous week due to an engine fire.

Despite the insistence of Farnborough organisers that the F-35 would fly later in the week, this failed to materialise and marked a further blow to a project beset by delays and technical difficulties.

Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, blamed what he described as ‘excessive’ rubbing fan blades in the planes’ engines for the fire, but played down fears a design flaw was to blame.

As the world’s most expensive weapons project with a bill of £233bn, the aircraft’s failure to fly proved particularly disappointing to the UK, after the MoD spent £2.5bn ordering 14 jets.

“While we’re disappointed that we’re not going to be able to participate in the air show, we remain fully committed to the programme itself and look forward to future opportunities to showcase its capabilities to allies and to partners,” said Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby.

As the world’s most expensive weapons project with a bill of £233bn, the aircraft’s failure to fly proved particularly disappointing to the UK, after the MoD spent £2.5bn ordering 14 jets

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 51

Farnborough International Airshow 2014

Special Feature

Farnborough 2014 opening ceremony A Qatar Airways ordered Airbus A380

Orders galore as Airbus has best air show The race between fierce rivals Airbus and Boeing showed no signs of letting up as both secured multi-billion pound deals with commercial airlines. But numbers wise, it was Europeans Airbus who came out on top in the orders race this year.

The Farnborough International Airshow 2014

I $40.2

bn

$75.3

bn

Airbus took $75.3bn (£44bn) in orders and commitments for 496 aircraft, while Boeing amassed $40.2bn (£23.6bn) for 201 planes

aircrafts took part in flying displays

52 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

t marked Airbus’ second successive victory over its American competitor, after it announced orders and commitments for 496 aircraft with a value of $75.3bn (£44bn), with demand for its A320neo proving particularly strong.

Boeing, which brought in around $40.2bn (£23.6bn) for 201 aircraft orders, was adamant it remains ahead for the whole of 2014 with 783 against Airbus’ 645.

In its 40th anniversary as a Farnborough exhibitor, Boeing marked the occasion in style by having its 787-9 Dreamliner perform stunts.

But the combined order figures fell just short of those at last year’s Paris Air Show, with Boeing and Airbus hitting $115.7bn combined in 2013.

Sash Tusa, aerospace and defence analyst at Edison Investment Research, said the 2014 event showed a steady trickle of orders, but nothing like the flood of prior years.

“It is worth remembering just how high the bar is set at air shows: anything lower than $10bn value, or 100 narrow-bodied aircraft is simply not worth lowering your cup of coffee for, or looking up from your mobile phone,” he said.

“This is not just air show ennui: it is a function of the fact that orders are a given at these events. It is only in the postshow reviews that the significance (if any) emerges.”

Looking forward, both manufacturers have their eyes firmly set on the Asia-Pacific market, with the growing affluence of the region set to be a driver for aircraft demand over the next two decades.

Boeing predicted 70% of the 36,770 planes due for delivery from 2014 through to 2033 would be for single aisled planes, with the Asia-Pacific market bringing in 37% of sales.

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Richard Hill, National Head, Automotive and Manufacturing, Commercial and Private Banking, RBS​explains how important it is right now for banks to be working with the UK automotive supply chain to make sure the industry’s forward momentum continues.

T

he UK auto supply chain is back.

After several decades when cost concerns drove UK auto manufacturers to source an ever-higher proportion of components overseas, to the point where a UKassembled vehicle is now only 30% manufactured in the UK compared to 60% in Germany, there are now strong signs that the domestic industry is being rebuilt. But there is plenty of work to be done before the UK components industry can recapture the estimated £3bn of business that would increase domestic sourcing by just 10%.

In response the UK government has made the revival of the UK auto sector a policy priority, with £1bn of joint government-industry funding for supply chain projects announced last year.

UK auto production rose eight per cent in 2013, while production in Germany

54 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

and France declined, and the UK is on track to produce two million cars a year by 2017, double the output of only five years ago. Many manufacturers say they would like this new production to be accompanied by increased UK sourcing, as perceptions of the risks of offshore supply chain disruption have grown. The Japanese tsunami of 2011 led to extensive delays in sourcing key components, while the recent conflict in Ukraine has also awoken manufacturers to the possibility of disruptions closer to home.

Distance equals risk

Distance and complexity are also factors. This year luxury car maker Aston Martin was forced to recall models when it turned out that a minor component sourced through a complex chain of sub-contracting relationships ending in China had been manufactured from counterfeit plastic. Aston Martin said that it planned to source these components in the UK in future.

Supply chain development is a long-term issue, with manufacturers agreeing that it can take 10 years to develop a supply ecosystem. For many mid-sized and small component manufacturers the issue is financing, and specifically financing of tooling.

Tooling means investing in unique process components that are typically high cost - a single tooling component can range from £30,000 to in excess of £1m to produce. The investment has to be financed upfront, yet it may take more than a year before it produces

revenue. RBS is aware of more than one UK supplier that has turned away business in the recent past because they could not afford to invest in the needed tooling.

Solving the finance challenge

In the past lenders have been unwilling to finance such investments because of the unusual ownership structure of auto tooling. Typically the supplier is expected to fund new tooling components specified by manufacturers, however the tooling and intellectual property is ultimately owned by the car manufacturer – making tangible security for any loan difficult. Asset finance is also out of the question as there is no tangible asset to fund until it is manufactured and at which stage it is too late. Suppliers have therefore had to finance tooling investments through their own cash flow and working capital facilities, creating a significant burden on funding growth.

However, thanks to a deep understanding of the tooling manufacturing process, RBS has a solution - the recently launched bespoke tooling finance proposition.

The UK’s supply chain challenge is a banking and policy challenge as much as a manufacturing challenge

Security may be required. Product fees may apply

Positioning for Growth Series

The proposition utilises the bank’s trade finance expertise and specifically a trade loan structure. Trade loans can be highly tailored to customers’ needs and are not restricted to the usual security arrangements demanded by more regular forms of financing. RBS’s trade finance team works closely with the supplier to understand the detailed schedule behind the contract and the various stages of the tooling manufacturing process. The trade loan is then tailored to this schedule and is isolated from other debt facilities.

A specialist trade finance team monitor and control the loan at every stage of the tooling manufacturing process – paying the tooling manufacturer as necessary at key stages, on behalf of the bank’s customer.

Collaboration is the key

The UK’s supply chain challenge is a banking and policy challenge as much as a manufacturing challenge. RBS believes that banks need to reeducate themselves and get closer to the industry if they are going to understand how to construct financing solutions.

They also need to be close to where policy is made: the UK government through the Automotive Council (joint government and industry body) is heavily invested in promoting the revival of UK automaking backed by a fuller UK supply chain.

RBS is fully engaged with the work of the Automotive Council

and actively supports the access to finance challenges brought about by rapid growth and a complex supply chain environment. UK Automotive Council work encompasses a number of strategic initiatives including technology, supply chain, business environment and skills. Many suppliers and auto manufacturers identify the skills gap as one of the biggest barriers to rapid expansion of the auto sector.

The Council’s work streams include the Auto Investment Organisation with a brief to attract new domestic and foreign supply chain investment. The Advanced Propulsion Centre financed by £1bn of industry-government funding over 10 years has already made significant new supply chain investments, including the funding of an automotive energy recovery system under development by leading UK supplier GKN.

Know your partners

But participating in strategic work is not enough. Manufacturers and banks need to understand each other, and that means understanding each other’s processes and priorities. Recently RBS in conjunction with Jaguar Land Rover established an ‘immersion day’ that allows banking staff, including both customer relationship managers and credit analysts, to go to the auto manufacturers themselves and learn exactly how the supply system works.

Other banks are following suit.

Part of this knowledge challenge is understanding risk. The auto industry needs a supply chain that is low risk, because risk implies cost. To cut risk it is necessary to identify it and quantify it - and that is not a simple business.

Geographical factors, weather patterns and transport issues, the criticality of the components, and political ‘event risk’ all play their part. Some risks may multiply others, while some may be isolated. How can manufacturers evaluate this complex picture?

Informed decisions

The RBS Customer Solutions Group has already developed a supply chain model that allows companies to forecast the impact of many of these risk factors.

Changes in material prices, currency fluctuations, and event risks are all capable of being priced in this model, and the result is a supply chain risk

Security may be required. Product fees may apply

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND

Manufacturers and banks need to understand each other, and that means understanding each other’s processes and priorities reading backed by data on the true cost of offshore versus onshore sourcing decisions.

We believe that if the UK auto supply chain is to grow and flourish several components must be in place.

Understanding of real supply chain risks is one factor.

Cross-industry understanding of how supply chains work and what funding need they generate is also vital, as is long-term industry-government collaboration through bodies like the UK Automotive Council.

And there will need to be real progress on fostering engineering and manufacturing skills in the UK.

Investing in expertise

Collaboration is the way forward for the UK auto industry, and RBS believes that collaboration must include financial providers, indeed, the most recent EEF/NatWest Innovation Monitor showed that collaboration with customers is the primary innovation process for UK manufacturers, with over 80% of manufacturers reporting customer collaboration initiatives. RBS provides a team with specialist auto industry capability with its hub in Birmingham – the traditional heart of the auto industry – with a brief to support automotive customers advance their business aspirations, tackling obstacles to growth head on. This amounts to a serious investment in automotive banking/auto industry expertise that will provide customers with a partner that understands their operating environment and can help maximise business potential.

RBS believes that the UK supply chain is now on a long-term growth trajectory: with the right tools, techniques and knowledge there is no reason why this growth should not continue and even accelerate.

RBS works with manufacturers in all sectors and is committed to helping UK businesses position for long-term growth.

further information Richard Hill National Head, Automotive and Manufacturing, Commercial and Private Banking, RBS T: 07789 616201 E: richard.hill@rbs.co.uk

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 55

Learning to lean

Lean Management Journal editor Andrew Putwain reflects on some of the recent articles featured in LMJ to emphasise the possible impact of lean methodology and culture.

R

igid rules based on evidence, a hypotheses, an open mind, and a desire to find the best way forward despite whether or not the results can upset the balance. This is what science is about.

Discovering answers and increasing the scope of human knowledge.

In August’s issue of LMJ we endeavour to discuss

whether or not lean is a science. And if it is, is this for the benefit of the practice as a whole? Or will it end up limiting the innovative ideas that help create the efficiency in the first place?

This month’s issue includes articles from LMJ editorial board member Jeffery Liker, founder of the Lean Enterprise Academy Dan Jones and Michael Balle asking the big question: is lean a science?

You can read more about these articles and more at leanmj.com

What makes lean a science?

I

Author, speaker and associate researcher at Telecom ParisTech Michael Ballé shares his collaboration that discusses lean as a science.

t is apparent that the originators of the Toyota Production System (TPS) believed they pursued a ‘scientific mindset’. In his own description of the TPS, Ohno explains: “When a problem arises, if our search for the cause is not thorough, the action taken can be out of focus. This is why we repeatedly ask why. This is the scientific basis of the Toyota System”.

56 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

But what kind of science are we talking about? Toyota’s outlook is unique because it explicitly seeks to combine its corporate destiny with personal fulfillment.

Employee satisfaction is seen as the key to customer satisfaction, and the operational key to enhancing every employee’s sense of job fulfillment in ongoing on-the-job development.

The key to understanding the scientific nature of plando-check-act (PDCA) lies in focusing on the Bayesian dimension of any science. No scientific domain evolves in a vacuum. Every science rests on a priori principles which are then revised through a Bayesian empirical approach of, in Richard Feynman’s terms ‘try it and see’. In the XVIIIth century, Thomas Bayes hit upon the idea that beliefs could be upgraded. In the Bayesian perspective, probability represents a degree of belief, the human mind is central to human understanding. Bayes proposed a mathematical rule explaining change in existing beliefs in light of new evidence.

What makes lean a science is the training of every employee

to the scientific mindset. The lean principles of customer satisfaction, just-in-time, jidoka, kaizen and standardised work are nothing more than questions one can ask of any enterprise process: how satisfied are your customers? What is your level of just-in-time? How quickly are defects recognised after being produced? What improvements are occurring in the work cycle? These questions trigger improvement, which are tried and tested repeatedly until changes are either adopted, adjusted or abandoned. The entire company continuously improves its quality in staying close to its customer’s preferences and reduces costs by avoiding mistakes caused by faulty reasoning and obsolete beliefs.

What makes lean a science is the training of every employee to the scientific mindset. The lean principles are nothing more than questions one can ask of any enterprise process

www.leanmj.com

Turning lean from an art into a science Jeffrey Liker, professor of engineering at the University of Michigan and Mike Rother, explore how practical scientific thinking can improve results in lean.

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e believe scientific thinking is not just for scientists, but an essential and widely applicable life skill for everyone, which anyone can develop through practice. Scientific thinking is not difficult in itself, it’s an important skill for anyone that faces challenges, and it is essential to sustainable improvement, adaptability, and innovation in your organisation.

What’s important about scientific thinking is not only whether we decide to revise beliefs based on new information, but that it helps us think about and reshape how we think. Happily, humans are equipped to do this, which is called ‘metacognition’.

Science begins with recognising our ‘Threshold of Knowledge’. Reality is complex and dynamic, which means the way to reach our desired goals can’t be fully determined in advance. The work of American organisational theorist Karl Weick, for instance, taught us organisations are fraught with uncertainty and we try to construct The science we are plausible scenarios that interested in is a meta-skill - a suggest we know what universal way of thinking happened and why.

Lean focuses on and acting that can be helping organisations to applied to an infinite number achieve their purpose more efficiently and of situations with all their effectively. We in the dynamic complexity lean community are less interested in generating macro-level theories of lean organisations than in learning how to approach transformation of specific processes, value streams, and organisations.

Since in any organisation we are dealing with complex systems that are dynamically changing, a generalisation of the form if X then Y is rarely useful. For example, if somehow we found in a survey of factories that Y (% reduced inventory levels) = 3.2 X (degree of implementation of pull) it would not do us any good in practice other then perhaps trying to convince someone that pull is a good thing. Sound familiar?

The science we are interested in is a meta-skill - a universal way of thinking and acting that can be applied to an infinite number of situations with all their dynamic complexity. Science becomes the common approach to improving specific systems under specific circumstances.

Lean manufacturing

Lean as folk medicine

Jon Miller, partner at the Kaizen Institute, argues that lean needs to develop itself as a scientific method in order to improve its reputation.

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ome view lean as a set of broadly applicable principles and methods for business excellence, originating in Toyota’s supply chain innovations.

I view lean as a type of organisational medicine.

Lean is a medical practice applied not directly to individuals but to groups of people, to organisations such as businesses, government offices, hospitals, schools, charities and so forth. Organisations have a purpose, whether it is making money, spending money for the benefit of a cause.

The health of an organisation can be measured in various ways such as profit, growth of membership or expansion of services to the community. The practice of lean helps people and organisations to achieve their mission and purpose with less effort, less strain and more reliably by design rather than by luck. Not to be forgotten an important characteristic of lean as organisational medicine is that the health of an organisation must also be measured in the physical and psychological health of its members. That is an indirect but integral effect of the organisational medical practice called lean.

There are parallels to medical practice on the human body in the way that lean is applied to organisations as medicine. The jidoka or autonomation pillar of lean was likened to the autonomous system by the Japanese creators of the Toyota Production System.

If lean is to become a science, certain scientificallyproven remedies must be prescribed based on scientifically proven diagnostic methods. Some of these remedies may practice the scientific method and develop your people through problem solving.

However, one would hope the best advice from modern medicine to someone who is ill would not be reduced to try various remedies and see which ones work and learn to detect your symptoms earlier.

The practice of lean helps people and organisations to achieve their mission and purpose with less effort, less strain and more reliably by design rather than by luck

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 57

Exports: the truth behind the data

I

n July and August news reports claimed an ever widening UK trade deficit. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported the deficit increased to £9.4bn from £9.2bn in May and Britain’s trade position worsened in June for the third consecutive month.

Exports dropped by £400m in June to £23.5bn, predominantly fuelled by a fall in oil exports and manufacturing goods. Imported goods fell by £100m to £32.9bn after a fall in oil and aircraft imports.

In fact, economists had anticipated the trade deficit to contract to £8.8bn, maintaining that tensions between Russia and the west, a weak Eurozone economy, and a strong pound were making British goods more expensive abroad, were all likely to weigh on foreign demand for UK goods in the short term at least.

To exacerbate matters, Russia placed a “full embargo” on food imports from the EU, US and other Western countries in retaliation to food sanctions over Ukraine. Such developments are set to hit some UK firms hard, particularly from the food and drink sector.

Fishing and fish processing firm Lunar, based in Peterhead in north-east Scotland, makes half of its £60m annual turnover from exports to Russia.

Firm boss, Sinclair Banks told the BBC: “We’ve £200,000 of herring sitting at St Petersburg, we don’t

Exports dropped by £400m in June to £23.5bn, predominantly fuelled by a fall in oil exports and manufacturing goods

know if it will go through or even if it will be paid for”. He added that the company had already cancelled a shipment exporting herring as a result of the embargo.

In addition, Shropshire-based cheesemaker Belton Cheese reported the cancellation of a £30,000 cheese order due to be sent to Russia in mid-August.

Additionally, the imminent vote on Scottish independence could hinder trade by introducing barriers to labour and capital mobility where presently there are none.

However, according to deputy chief economist at EEF, Neil Prothero, there’s no need to panic, after all, examining the trade data on a monthly basis can make changes seem volatile, but in reality

the picture is far more stable. Prothero told that the underlying trend over the past few years was that the share of overall exports in non-EU countries had gradually increased and the share of exports to the EU had declined.

“Even though the total level of exports to the EU might still be rising, they are rising at a faster pace for those going to non EU countries,” he said.

“This is down to many EU countries experiencing harsh recessions, so

Top 5 countries ranked by UK export growth, 2013 versus 2012 2013 value (£m)

2012 value (£m)

Chile

1,168

677

China

12,400

10,538

United Arab Emirates

6,228

5,364

Hungary

1,254

1,111

India

5,261

4,666

Source: UK’s top 50 exported to territories, ONS

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Recent data presented a bleak outlook for UK exports. uncovers the reality behind the numbers.

The truth behind the data

Examining the trade data on a monthly basis can make changes seem volatile, but in reality the picture is far more stable overall levels of demand in many European countries is still weak.”

In particular, countries with large economies like France and Italy are still struggling. Even Germany, which has one of the stronger economies in that region, released data showing a weaker trend, revealing a less than expected rise in industrial production.

Factory production in Germany increased 0.3% when experts had anticipated a 1.4% increase.

The figures followed a decline in June factory orders, and showed that production in manufacturing rose 0.1%, with construction output up 1.2%.

Consumer goods production was up 1.7% and capital goods production dropped 0.9%.

Prothero also referred to the effect of aircraft imports on the deficit as a whole.

He added: “In May there was quite a big chunk of aircraft imports, when this happens it boosts the import levels quite sharply and that has an impact on the overall deficit.

“But generally big import orders of aircrafts, once, twice, three times a year have an impact on the deficit number.

Which is why looking at one month’s data doesn’t always give a correct picture of the underlying trend in the export picture.”

Exporting the future

So what’s on the horizon for UK exports?

Looking forward into the next five to 10 years UK manufacturers have already begun to look beyond the EU at emerging economies like China, India and Latin America, where income levels will rise steadily and economies will undergo gradual changes to become more industrialised and service orientated.

According to official data released by Santander UK in June, exports to Chile, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) grew faster in 2013 than other key trading partners, up 73%, 18% and 16% respectively versus 2012.

In fact, Chile was the fastest-growing export partner for the UK, with total exports to the country standing at £1.2bn last year, while exports to China grew to £12.4bn.

A renegotiation on Britain’s role in the EU would also have grand-scale implications for UK exports. Despite the data, Europe remains the biggest export market for UK goods and manufacturing.

There is no question that being part of the EU single market is beneficial for the UK, by removing trade restrictions and making trading with the rest of Europe seamless.

A “no” vote in 2017 would have massive implications, which is why many EEF members agree that staying in Europe is the best possible solution.

EXPORTS

14% more projects than last year.

The overall picture for UK exports is anything but doom and gloom. Exporting is a key part of the success of the UK economy. The good news is that the world is becoming ever more open to trade and UK businesses need to take advantage of the opportunities available in new, existing and emerging markets.

Agreeing on exports

Another UK export positive is the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is tipped to help grow the UK economy substantially. While critics say it would increase US corporate power, making it more difficult for governments to regulate markets for public benefit, a potential free trade agreement between the two regions would standardise regulations and would be what Prothero calls “a major deal that would be a big boost to UK exporters.”

It is contentious area, involving many parties with vested interests and differing demands. Prothero believes negotiations will be slow, however, August’s reports on the final text for a free trade agreement between Canada and the EU could help blaze the trail for a deal with the US. August’s agreement is set to slash tariffs between Canada and the EU by 98% and could potentially boost trade by 20%.

Finally, the British economy had more reason to celebrate when UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) reported the UK had attracted the most inward investment projects since records began in the 1980s.

According to annual investment figures for 2013/14 the UK attracted

FURTHER INFO: For more information on exporting, UKTI provides help and advice for British companies looking to enter new markets: www.gov.uk/ starting-to-export September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 59

Learning in the real world Faced with the challenge of preparing Britain’s future workforce, the University of Bolton and EEF have united to provide students with stimulating “real life” engineering projects.

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rojects will run from October to April and will be worked on in-house by students using university facilities. Students will work under the guidance of experienced engineering specialists at no cost to participating companies.

The programme aims to provide students with problem-solving experience, as well as an opportunity to see how businesses operate.

Companies taking part will brief students initially on the project, with a maximum of two further meetings.

On completion, companies will receive feedback illustrating the outcomes.

Potential areas of work might include: product development; component design and optimisation; thermal, stress and fluid flow analyses using finite element analysis (FEA); design, manufacture and test of prototype parts using composite

materials; physical testing and analysis; and conceptual design, to name a few.

However, the university will consider proposals outside of that list for interested companies.

Students taking part in the scheme can be asked to sign non-disclosure agreements if required.

Paul Clavell, senior engineering lecturer at the University of Bolton, says: “This is a great opportunity for companies to

This is a great opportunity for companies to forge strong links with us and to help shape and inspire our engineering students

60 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

forge strong links with us and to help shape and inspire our engineering students. This scheme will teach students skills that industry values and wants more of, so it’s well worth companies getting on board.

The programme aims to provide students with problemsolving experience, as well as an opportunity to see how businesses operate

“The only thing we ask is that you make the project as challenging and real-to-life as possible so that students can get the most out of taking part.”

Terry Scuoler, CEO of EEF, says: “Eight in 10 manufacturers want to see universities produce students with real experience and work-place skills, while 79% want courses to be designed to meet industry needs.

“This scheme helps to tick these boxes and is a great opportunity for companies to give the hands-on, practical experience that makes for more rounded, ‘work ready’ graduates.”

Snapshots

Shooting for the moon Following a triumph at Cranfield’s National Apprentice Competition in May, Bombardier welcomed guests to witness its winning submission in action.

T

he project involved 16 first and second year Bombardier apprentices, each contributing their own ideas and creations to culminate in the final working model.

Team members James Reed and James Lobley presented tutors and colleagues with a detailed brief of how they manufactured a mechanism to transport and hold them at an altitude of 1000m for five minutes on the moon.

Feedback from the judges on the day branded the team’s idea the most “feasible”.

James Lobley told : “They said ours was the most basic but the most feasible. They said ours was the closest to what was actually achievable.”

When asked what gave them the edge over their rivals, James added: “Nobody else had a contingency

plan, so I think that might have swung it for us.”

James Reed said: “On the day, there were flaws in the other concepts, one said they were going to use air pressure, we had looked into that and found it wouldn’t work, the amount of G-force needed would have killed everyone.

“The judges said our Gantt chart was excellent; the thought we put into every single day. We had a realistic timescale, and a contingency plan which no other competitor had.”

They put their success down to hard work and research, Reed said: “We were heavily reliant on the internet, trying to use as many reliable sources as possible.”

WORKFORCE & SKILLS

The team were suitably modest about their victory saying: “It was a really good feeling after all the hard work”.

Apprenticeship development lead, Robert Green said: “To say that they were all ‘over the moon’ with the final result would be an understatement pun intended!”

To say that they were all ‘over the moon’ with the final result would be an understatement – pun intended

Why zero’s a hero in manufacturing Conflicting opinions of zero hours contracts have dominated the headlines of late. reveals why for manufacturing, these agreements are key to retaining talent in the workforce.

W

ith government focused on workforce flexibility and the Small Business Enterprise and Employment Bill, reform of such contracts is set to become law by the end of the coalition government.

General secretary for Unison, Dave Prentis said the organisation “would like to see the use of these [zero hours] contracts banned”.

However, Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable said: “Zero

hours contracts have a place in today’s labour market. They offer valuable flexible working opportunities for students, older people and other people looking to top up their income and find work that suits their personal circumstances.

“But it has become clear that some unscrupulous employers

abuse the flexibility that these contracts offer to the detriment of their workers.”

Viewed in other sectors as potentially exploitative, in manufacturing these contracts and exclusivity clauses have, according to EEF, allowed companies to speed up turnaround times, facilitate increased demand, access specialist skills needed to succeed in niche markets, as well as retain skilled and retired individuals in the workforce.

EEF regards a “once size fits all” approach to reform as unsuitable for manufacturing companies because their use of the zero hours contract differs greatly from other sectors such as care and hospitality.

Tim Thomas, head of employment policy at EEF, told : “We have no problem with a ban on exclusivity in zero hours contracts, but the regulations would have to address the tricky balance of, when appropriate, ensuring the employer can protect their intellectual property and confidentiality.”

The SBEE bill had its second reading in Parliament on June 24 and is now at committee stage.

Details contained in the original bill are likely to differ from proposals expected when the legislation is passed.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 61

Businesses shouldn’t be put off by the cost of training an apprentice

found SMEs splitting their preference for filling entry-level positions 51-49% in favour of those taking the vocational path, a trend expected to continue.

Those companies surveyed said that they expected to be increasing their apprenticeship hiring by 20% in five years’ time but boosting graduate recruitment by only seven per cent.

Hard choices ACT Wales apprentice Curtis Williams improving his skills with some onthe-job training

Get on the right track Businesses across the country and in all sectors are recruiting – but do manufacturing companies prefer graduates or apprenticeships? We may be seeing a shift, Ruari McCallion reports.

62 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

I

t is very good news that the UK economy is picking up sufficiently that employers in all sectors are seeking to hire more staff – it has been a recruitment-free recovery for some time. But what sort of people are they seeking to take on? For the past 20 years, education and training strategy has been focused on boosting the numbers of graduates and youngsters generally have been directed towards university for their post-18 training. Are the country’s employers – SMEs especially – content with this? Straws in the wind indicate that the answer is ‘not entirely’.

A report published in July from Sandler Training, a business consultancy service, used data from a survey of over 1000 SMEs. It indicated found that academic qualifications are “losing out to practical skills”, which, the report claimed: “can deliver more tangible effects on a business”. The research

The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) ninth annual Engineering and Technology: Skills & Demand in Industry report, published at the end of July, found that more than half of employers are having difficulties recruiting the staff they need. Around 40% of the respondents said they had difficulty recruiting engineering graduates and technicians and almost 80% said that it was hard to find senior personnel, those with five to 10 years’ experience.

But less than one-fifth reported issues with recruiting apprentices.

“Whether the UK is ‘falling out of love’ with academic training is an issue perhaps more suitable for debate by those working within the sector itself,” said Andrew Cooksley, managing director of ACT, the largest training provider in Wales. “What we do know, as vocational study providers, is there has undoubtedly been a rise in the number of people looking towards the type of practical training roles offered by apprenticeships.” The interest is particularly noticeable in engineering and manufacturing, where the number completing ACT apprenticeships has risen by over 38%. He suggests that the trend might be driven by employers looking for ‘hard skills’ over ‘pure’ academic qualifications.

“For us in the electrical engineering sector, there is often a lack of practical knowledge from graduates and a lack of theoretical knowledge from apprentices, which is a difficult balance to achieve,” said Mark Beswick, managing director of R&B Switchgear Group, a specialist engineering company with customers in

Get on the right track

Andrew Cooksley, Director of ACT Wales

sectors ranging from nuclear power and transport to petrochemical, defence, aerospace and other industries. He suggests that a growing economy gives employers the opportunity to invest more in training and to look at different ways of recruiting. He started as an apprentice himself.

Money no object?

“Businesses shouldn’t be put off by the cost of training an apprentice,” he said. “For us, putting an apprentice through the appropriate training costs around £20,000; with additional training for specialist work areas this ends up being closer to £25,000. However, without this investment, we would not be able to operate in specialist sectors such as offshore, which accounts for around 25% of our business.” But he stresses the importance of balance; R&B Group recruits experienced staff as well. It’s a point with which Margaret Wood, founder and MD of specialist glazing manufacturer ICW UK Ltd, wholeheartedly agrees.

“You have to appreciate that different teams need different skills,” she said. “I have sometimes come across prejudice against people who have not been to university; they can be undervalued.

On the other hand, people coming out of university sometimes want to run everything! You need a spread of skills.”

WORKFORCE & SKILLS

ACT Wales apprentice Curtis Williams learning essential skills in the workplace

She identifies the apprenticeships’ appeal as the ability to take people from school, shape and mould them and inculcate the values of the business.

For SMEs, graduates come with a lot of knowledge but also with a risk factor: that they could be more likely to move on, having cost a lot of money.

She also asserts that skills need not be higher or lower, whatever route has been followed – but that opinion does not appear to be shared by Sarginsons Industries Ltd, a technically advanced low-pressure aluminium casting company based in Coventry.

Can’t live without them…

“Modern technologies are available to smaller companies but to try and use them without any graduate staff will, in our view, lead to failure,” is the trenchant observation of Mark Nunan, director of Sarginsons and other engineering companies. “The importance of a degree is not in the subject studied but in the fact that students are taught to think, to analyse and to report in a logical structured manner.” This is not to say that the company has abandoned apprenticeships.

“We have a continual improvement plan that seeks to fine tune every single aspect of our business process,” he explained. “While apprentices, shop floor and professionally qualified staff

More than half of employers are having difficulties recruiting the staff they need are key to this we believe it is essential that our senior management pipeline takes advantage of the strength of graduates now emerging from UK universities.” The company practices what it preaches, having become the low pressure casting development partner to Brunel University’s Advanced Metal Casting Centre (AMCC). It sees this kind of arrangement as key to developing the mix of skills required, blending hands-on, gut-feel skills with academic learning.

“The problem in the UK is that management of smaller companies is dominated by people that once worked on the shop floor and they often fail to see what can be delivered by graduates,” he said. “UK small businesses currently need graduates far more than they need apprentices but they do not realise it. This is why UK small companies do not evolve and grow in the same way as their US and European counterparts.”

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 63

Jodie Sturrock, Apprentice, GE Oil & Gas

Employee of the Month September 2014 Jodie Sturrock

Apprentice, GE Oil & Gas

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

: What is your role and what are the main responsibilities?

I am in my third year of a commercial apprenticeship with GE Oil & Gas’ Subsea Systems business in the North-East of Scotland.

At the moment, my main responsibilities involve assisting my team of five with raising sales orders, cutting invoices, and chasing parts to enable the assembly of equipment in line with various projects coming through the facility. I am also going to be spending some time with the Quality Control team, which will play a big part in me gaining my final qualification. : What are the key technical skills you use?

When I was at college, we were taught computer-aided design (CAD) skills. For my day-to-day work, I primarily use ePIMS, for looking up part numbers to get drawings and descriptions of the components needed to manufacture certain products. I also use Oracle for tracking the progress of our projects and inputting sales orders.

CV in brief Jodie Sturrock Age: 20 Education: Carnoustie High School, Dundee Career to date: I spent the first six months of my training at Angus Training Group, where I had intensive training in manufacturing and basic engineering skills. Since then, I’ve been based at the company’s Charleton Road site in Montrose, with eight months in Test & Assembly (T&A) learning about subsea production equipment, before joining the business team to learn more about all the different departments that are involved in progressing our projects from start to finish.

Hobbies and interests: Horse riding and showjumping, I have also recently abseiled and plan to skydive for charity.

64 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

: What personal characteristics help you in your role?

I am very motivated and willing to get things done and I think you also need to be able to communicate well with people and work with them in a team. It also helps to have good practical skills, along with the ability to work quickly and accurately. : What do you consider to be your biggest personal success at the company so far?

I think my biggest success has been getting my HNC qualification in Engineering Systems because that’s an important part of completing the apprenticeship

programme. I was at college for two days a week and, within that, had several assessments on different aspects of manufacturing, from statics, pneumatics and hydraulics, to maths, electronics and CAD. I was doing this at the same time as the rest of my training and I feel it’s been a success because it took a lot of hard work and dedication to achieve and is a compulsory element to further developing my career in the industry. : What are the most rewarding parts of your job?

The most rewarding thing for me is seeing the different jobs I’m working on progressing, so that we can get to the stage of completing the project. In the oil and gas industry, many projects are quite longterm, so to see them through to completion can be a great feeling. : What will be your next career move?

In the short-term, I’m hoping to complete my apprenticeship. I’m enjoying the job I do now within the business team so would like to continue doing that. It’s really challenging and I always have something new to focus on. I like that I’m not always doing same thing day-after-day. : Do you have a grand career ambition?

I probably see myself staying in the oil & gas industry because there are such a wide range of diverse opportunities, but I’d also like to think that, as I get more experience, I’ll be able to move up the ladder and progress as much as I can. I’m quite ambitious. : What first attracted you to a career in manufacturing?

I’m from a farming background, so I’ve been brought up doing practical things. At school, I was studying engineering and product design and, as part of that, we were invited to a company for a tour of their factory to see how they made things. From that moment, I’d made my decision that it was definitely something I wanted to get involved in.

The Manufacturer magazine in conjunction with the leading automation equipment suppliers has established The Automation Advisory Board to educate owner-managers and factory directors about what automation equipment can do and the benefits it can bring to UK manufacturers.

For more information contact Henry Anson, Managing Director, The Manufacturer E: h.anson@sayonemedia.com T: +44 (0)20 7401 6033

Automation needs to rise to the board level in companies of all sizes, but especially larger SMEs where the capital equipment could make a profound difference to winning contracts. Companies in non-auto sectors, who are unfamiliar with the range, capability and simplicity of automation kit, need and deserve to know what automation options are available.

This year it is a business risk not to be informed about the benefits this technology can bring.

bit.ly/AABautomation The Automation Advisory Board is proudly supported by:

Semta

WORKFORCE & SKILLS

The UK is renowned for its supreme quality of design and production – but is coming under increasing pressure from overseas markets due to a lack of specialist skills Ann Watson, COO, Semta

Skilled landing A new agreement between Industry body The Aviation Skills Partnership and employer-led Semta is on course to securing skills in the UK aviation sector.

S

emta is playing a leading role in helping engineering and advanced manufacturers make the ‘trailblazer transition’ to the government’s new way of funding skills provision.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will ensure collaboration in the design and development of international aviation engineering programmes to meet the needs of employers and employees in the aviation sector.

The organisations will work together to promote

engineering related aviation careers, apprenticeship frameworks and other opportunities to young people.

At the request of employers, Semta has been a key partner in the design and development of the new apprenticeship standards in England for all three Trailblazer Groups by providing impartial advice, guidance and technical expertise to ensure the new apprenticeships are fit for purpose.

Semta already works with British Airways through the Semta Apprenticeship Service having developed the flag carrier’s apprenticeship scheme with some 91 apprentices currently in place.

It also supports Lufthansa, Virgin and Thomson Fly with over 60 apprentices.

Ann Watson chief operating officer of

Semta’s Apprentice of the Year and overall ‘Best of British’ Engineering Skills Award winner Jade Aspinall of MBDA

66 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Semta said: “This is a pivotal partnership and a boost for these vital sectors, which generate revenues of £48bn for the UK economy. Semta will work tirelessly to ensure its success.

“The UK is renowned for its supreme quality of design and production – but is coming under increasing pressure from overseas markets due to a lack of specialist skills.

“We aim to reduce these pressures by maintaining a skills pipeline of talented young people ensuring companies continue to secure orders and deliver on deadlines.”

Simon Witts, chief executive of Aviation Skills Partnership said: “I look forward to jointly shaping our innovative, industry-led programmes.

“There is a critical need for skilled aviation and aerospace engineers and the UK has an enviable reputation for producing some of the best – we look forward to helping a new generation to gain the skills that they need to enter this exciting sector.”

Apprentices from British Airways and MBDA Missile Systems were on Semta’s stand at the Farnborough Air Show in the Innovation Zone on what is designated as ‘Futures Day’, to share their experiences with budding engineers and aircrew.

Semta’s Apprentice of the Year and overall ‘Best of British’ Engineering Skills Award winner Jade Aspinall of MBDA shared her experience with youngsters of what her apprenticeship has meant to her.

Jo Iceton, Semta’s head of communications and public affairs said: “All the research shows that peerto-peer interaction is the best way of enthusing young people and motivating them to make the right move.

“Much of our work is dedicated to breaking down the barriers, ensuring young people, their parents and their educators are equipped with the full facts about just how rewarding a career in engineering can be.”

FURTHER INFO: For more information on Semta’s work in engineering go to www.semta.org.uk

Holiday Pay

Finance & Professional Services

In the November 2013 issue we brought to your attention the storm that has been brewing in the UK surrounding the calculation of holiday pay.

Alas this is an issue that refuses to go away.

A recap

To recap, trade unions and other employee representatives are arguing that current UK legislation fails to fully implement the requirements of the Working Time Directive. The Working Time Directive being the source of our own Working Time Regulations 1998. Many employers both within the manufacturing sector and beyond calculate holiday pay in accordance with this legislation. This provides that in most cases, a weeks’ pay for the purposes of annual leave can be calculated by simply multiplying basic pay by normal working hours. There is no requirement to give credit for elements such as voluntary overtime, overtime premia or commission.

Workers who regularly work overtime and/or earn commission therefore see a notable drop in earnings when taking annual leave. This ultimately is the crux

There does appear to be a clear direction of travel towards a worker friendly outcome

68 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

of the matter as the Working Time Directive provides that when taking annual leave, a worker should receive ‘normal remuneration’.

The stakes are high, as there is not only scope to claim for the current holiday year, with a resulting on-cost for future holiday pay sums to take into account but also the spectre of retrospective claims for previous holiday years.

Recent developments

Various claims have been rumbling along and in recent months we have seen the European Court rule in the case of Lock vs. British Gas that a UK worker should be entitled to have commission payments included within their holiday pay. This is consistent with the European Court’s general view that holiday pay should include certain bonuses, overtime and allowances.

Whether or not these decisions of the European Court will give private sector workers in the UK the right to claim for historic arrears of holiday pay is currently the subject of an appeal that took place at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (the ‘EAT’) at the end of July 2014. The date of the expected decision remains unknown and is likely to be weeks if not months away. Even then the decision of

the EAT is unlikely to be the last word on this issue and further appeals and involvement of the European Court remain likely.

Whilst it is impossible to know when or indeed what the final position will be in respect of holiday pay, there does appear to be a clear direction of travel towards a worker friendly outcome. This is evidenced by trade unions who now feel confident enough to take bullish steps including informing their members of the potential claim and asking them to provide copies of their payslips so any potential claim can be evaluated by the trade union’s legal team. Other trade unions are writing directly to employers asking them what they propose to do in respect of the calculation of holiday pay moving forward.

This in turn is raising the profile of this issue even further, resulting in workers approaching their employers about this issue, threatening claims and raising grievances.

Whilst time has moved on since we first raised this issue, the law remains in flux and legal certainty is still some way away.

Nonetheless this remains a significant issue for any manufacturing employer who utilises overtime, commission or similar payments that are not ordinarily included in the calculation of holiday pay. To the extent that they have not done so already, manufacturers of all sizes should therefore take stock of their current practices and seek advice as to how to potentially mitigation their exposure to claims of this kind.

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Every Thing is Possible.

the likes of BAE Systems, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence present, common industry bedfellows including skills shortages and a decrease in investment were cited as potential challenges in further developing the reach of TES. There was also the issue of whether manufacturers are still fully realising its benefits.

Understanding With Through-Life Engineering Services emerging technologies Thro is crucial, with the from ugh Life pinpointed as an integral player in etho Rolls-R Engine rise of sensor trackers s - Ph oyce ering ’s o to co Pow has e the UK’s industrial future, a recent mentioned, an application volve urtes er by th y of d Rolls e Hour giving companies -Roy gathering in London discussed ce the power to analyse issues surrounding the concept. performance of products remotely. The consensus suggested the UK needs to he notion of Through-Life a product has reaped ensure it remains competitive in all Engineering Services (TES) has benefits. Born out of of its industrial areas to keep up with provided a profound influence Rolls-Royce pioneering other countries across the world. on the changing ways of the “power by the hour” With companies across all industries manufacturing production methods. concept, TES has proven becoming more aware of the need Existing before under a “make it and flog not only valuable to to spend budgets more effectively, it” ethos, the offer of additional levels the customer seeking reliability will be the dominant factor of service through the entire lifecycle of quality assurances, in the era of service. but also lucrative to the manufacturer.

At a dinner held in FURTHER INFO: With companies across all Westminster by the Centre, Next on the agenda is the industries becoming more aware ESPRC-TES over 70 individuals from third International Through-life of the need to spend budgets government and UK Engineering Services Conference, manufacturing discussed taking place at Cranfield University in more effectively, reliability will the utilisation of TES Bedfordshire on November 4-5. For be the dominant factor in the and the challenges and details, please visit: through-lifeopportunities to which engineering-services.org/index. era of service their organisations face. php/tesconf/call-for-papers With representatives from

A design for life

T

The plastic alternative As sustainability innovation progresses, businesses are keen to create alternative products to plastics to save funds, resources and the environment.

70 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

A

s plastics are inexpensive and durable, high numbers of these products are used and disposed - in the UK. But this has caused an increasing concern due to the growing environmental, social and economic risks.

However, there are alternatives. A substitute to single use plastic bags, I’m Not a Plastic Bag, has become a recognised sight on high streets. The bag, made from unbleached cotton, has established its authority and encouraged rival products, as the desire to be seen to be green increases.

The bag was created by accessories designer, Anya Hindmarch, for the not-

Snapshots

Every person in the UK had been using an average of 167 plastic bags a year, totalling approximately 10bn for-profit behaviour change company, We Are What We Do, and aimed to shift individuals’ habits to tackle environmental concerns caused by the less eco-friendly single use plastic bags.

Before this product’s launch, every person in the UK had been using an average of 167 plastic bags a year, totalling approximately 10bn.

Manufacturing alternatives to plastic have also evolved and expanded since I’m Not a Plastic Bag hit our high streets in 2007.

Recently, Swedish forestry giant Södra, and British paper and technical fibre innovator James Cropper plc, have joined forces to establish strong, durable and degradable DuraPulp in the international marketplace.

The paper product’s strength means savings can be made on materials as well as being able to be composted within 100 days.

Patrick Willink, chief technology officer of James Cropper, said: “Sustainability has to be at the heart of manufacturing for the future, both for cost-effective production and the responsible protection of the environment for future generations.”

The blend of wood fibres and renewable, non-fossil based biopolymer can be heat pressed to take on any rigid form, or used as a sheet where there is a requirement for high tearing and bend tolerance or air permeability. Unlike other composite products, DuraPulp is believed to be the only one available where the primary content is pulp fibre and draws on 100% renewable resources, while remaining completely biodegradable.

The blend of wood fibres and renewable, non-fossil based biopolymer can be heat pressed to take on any rigid form

Sustainable manufacturing

Pulp it up The potential of DuraPulp has caused its creators to develop its uses in the hope that it will interest other manufacturers to integrate it into packaging and design.

DuraPulp is also beginning to be produced commercially, and different collaboration projects with customers are now underway to find out their needs and assess the market. Initially, sales of DuraPulp will focus on the fields of special papers, and design and board.

Production will start on a small scale, but its designers plan to increase with demand in the future.

A few demo products have been produced such as the children’s chair

Parupu, which illustrates DuraPulp possibilities with moulding and the desk lamp w101, which is made from hot-pressed paper sheets of DuraPulp.

DuraPulp will be exclusive Dura to premium to p Pulp, a markets, Croplastic. P sustain a per hoto PLC cou ble alte aiming to rtesy rn of Ja ative mes further establish it in sectors such as luxury fashion, cosmetics, automotive and interior design sectors in an international campaign.

It’s a wrap Meanwhile, a new 100% British system known as TrakRap has also been developed.

The TrakRap system combines a machine with 100% recyclable stretch film, and minimal weight corrugate designs to m p tea akRa The Tr create shelfready packaging.

Developed from an idea originating towards the tail end of the 1980s, the lightweight product has displayed a vast amount of benefits. Inspired by a growing focus on the environment and the increasing desire to using less

The design saves over 90% electricity, and up to 70% less film compared to shrink tunnels, and reduces cardboard use by up to 40%

packaging, the lean production flow ensures less waste, lower production costs and consumes so much less energy. Since no heat is involved, TrakRap Pots bein g packa can be ged in Tr akRap used on a much wider range of products than shrink wrapping.

TrakRap’s design saves over 90% electricity, and up to 70% less film compared to shrink tunnels, and reduces cardboard use by up to 40%.

So what does the future hold for these pioneering systems?

“We’re expecting ry nda ery eco chin very significant ap s g ma R k Tra kagin growth…The machinery pac is the enabler,” said Martin Leeming, chief executive officer of TrakRap. September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 71

Graphene

Manufacturing Technologies

The UK’s global graphene race Graphene material is 100 times stronger than steel

T

hey say with hype comes excitement. And going by this notion, graphene comes with both in abundance. From the pages of the business, tech and news press, it appears all and sundry are extolling the virtues of the new super material.

Reviewing what’s on the table, the hype seems justified.

Just one atom thick, graphene is extremely lightweight;

The UK, looking to establish itself as a world leader, signalled its intent in 2011 when the government pledged £50m towards graphene development

Jon Mabbitt, CEO of Applied Graphene Materials

72 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

With graphene tipped to revolutionise industry, James Pozzi reviews its development as the UK looks to establish itself as an industry world leader. more conductive than copper and 100 times stronger than steel.

Since being discovered by scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester in 2004, graphene’s potential for changing the way products are manufactured has been debated. But given the acceleration in its development, these notions have become increasingly tangible. As a result, the global scramble to commercialise the 2D material has also gathered pace.

The UK, looking to establish itself as a world leader, signalled its intent in 2011 when the government pledged £50m towards graphene development. At this year’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne pledged a further £14m towards a Graphene Applications Innovation Centre, based at the Centre for Process Innovation, part of the government’s network of Catapult technology centres.

This compliments the centre piece for UK graphene innovation at the material’s city of origin in Manchester, which will be home to the £61m National Graphene Institute from next year.

An institution at the forefront of its commercialisation is Teeside-based Applied Graphene Materials (AGM).

Jon Mabbitt, chief executive officer of AGM, says he believes it’ll be a few decades yet before the full potential of

the material is realised across all sectors, but some sectors will benefit quicker than others.

“Although in some sectors graphene will take a long time to deliver the ‘miracle’ enhancements promised - bendy phones are unlikely to hit the high street over the next year or so - in the shorter term AGM expects to develop applications in paints and coatings, lubricants and composites,” he explains.

“This is where the material is easily dispersed and which feed through to a range of important international markets such as the oils and lubricants, aeronautical and nautical industries.”

Concern exists over the meagre number of UK graphene patents registered. Last year, data from consultancy firm CambridgeIP showed the UK had registered just 54 patents. This was compared to China’s 2,204, the USA with 1,754 and South Korea placing 1,160.

Despite this shortfall, being a truly global research area will naturally attract interest to the UK R&D space.

Ivan Buckley, project manager of the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester, says industry’s desire to work with the centre is strong. “We have been overwhelmed by the amount of industrial interest in graphene from both the UK and beyond,” he says. “We are now working with over 30 companies and enquiries continue apace as new research reveals on practically a daily basis, further possibilities for the application of this new material.”

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Flexible Compound Growth

BASF’s Endure D5G3 BM (blowmoulding) grade can be used for pipes between engine turbochargers and intercoolers

The use of plastics in automobiles has been growing for years and advanced engineering plastics are now being used in mission-critical applications. Ruari McCallion surveys the current landscape.

G

erman automotive manufacturer Audi announced this summer that it will be using glassfibre reinforced polymer (GRP) in place of steel for suspension springs in future, beginning autumn 2014 with a model in its mid-upper range. This is the latest example of the way that engineering plastics have progressed over the past 10-20 years: no longer ‘plasticky’ but high quality, resilient and increasingly useful.

The GRP spring, developed by Audi in collaboration with an Italian supplier, is thicker than a steel spring and has a slightly larger overall diameter but a lower number of coils. It is 40% lighter than the steel unit it is replacing – 1.6kg (2.7lbs) against 2.7kg (6lbs) – which adds up to 4.4kg per car. They are made of long glass fibres, twisted together and impregnated with epoxy resin, then wrapped with additional fibres at alternating angles of plus and minus 45OC to the longitudinal axis.

The blank is cured at over 100OC. Apart from weight saving, the GRP springs

74 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

have other attractions. They can be precisely tuned to their respective task; the material does not corrode, even after stone chipping; and it’s impervious to chemicals such as wheel cleaners. It also requires less energy to produce.

Full support

Audi is not the first company to use engineering plastics in critical, loadbearing applications. In 2013, Daimler Benz announced that the six-cylinder diesel engine in the new-model Mercedes GL Class would feature the world’s first plastic engine support. It offered 30% weight saving, improved acoustic performance and damping, less creep and better resistance to heat

Energy consumption in production is cut by

and torque than aluminium. The part is moulded from BASF Ultramid A3WG10 CR, a highly reinforced speciality polyamide that has been optimised for high mechanical loads.

Another version of BASF’s Ultramid, called Endure D5G3 BM, is designed for underhood applications. It can withstand temperatures up to 220OC continuous/240OC peak. Its high melt stability is claimed to make it readily workable and to keep it largely cylindrical during processing. One of the first applications for the original Endure D3G7 injection-moulding grade was a heatshield in a charge-air duct – which is a pretty extreme location.

BASF says that pipes between the turbocharger and intercooler can now

with the use of recycled plastic, compared to production from virgin materials (i.e., oil and gas).

Flexible Compound Growth

be manufactured by blow moulding with no loss of stability, using the Ultramid Endure BM grade.

Lighter bite

Every little bit helps when it comes to saving weight. A 47% GRP PA6 brake pedal, developed jointly by Lanxess and Bond-Laminates GmbH is, at 355g, 50% lighter than the steel equivalent. The Opel Astra OPC/ Vauxhall Astra VXR sports coupe has a seat shell made from a BASF Ultramid thermoplastic laminate with endless fibre reinforcement; it was the world’s first production vehicle using this seating technology. The of the Mercedes SLK Convertible (base model) features an electrohydraulic vario roof system with a 0.8 sq m element made of Bayer MaterialScience’s Bayblend T85 XF. The component, manufactured by Peguform GmbH in Germany, is claimed to exhibit high energy absorption in crash testing and has very low deflection characteristics – something that had prevented the adoption of plastic for large, horizontal areas.

Safety light

The drive to save weight is opposed by the growing demand – and requirements – for safety equipment, as well as gizmos aimed at ‘creature comfort’, from electric windows

Audi’s new GRP spring - coloured green - will be seen in suspension of its mid-upper models from Autumn 2014

Manufacturing Technologies

and seats to multiple connectivity and in-car entertainment channels.

The demands of new power sources are not weight-free, either; the lead-acid battery pack found on the original Honda Insight and other hybrids weighed considerably more than full tanks of fuel. Things are improving, with the wider use of lithium-ion batteries and the trend towards small-capacity combustion engines as range extenders for electric motors, but the challenge persists.

Consider this: today’s Toyota Prius is 400kg heavier than the1966 Ford Mustang, the hero of Steve McQueen’s Bullit movie. But it is much safer, more fuelefficient, more recyclable and less polluting.

Plastic is easier to work than metal, which means that complicated components can more easily be made in a single pass – a one-step process. Polypropylene (PP) content had been growing at three to five per cent annually over the past 25 years and now amounts to an average of 68kg - just under half the total 150kg of vehicle thermoplastics.

Brave new world

It may seem strange, then, that the total PA and PP content in vehicles has actually declined slightly, since 2010. The explanation is twofold. First, engine sizes generally have shrunk, which means that the weight of plastic in associated with them has also fallen. Second, new materials are arriving and becoming adapted to auto applications.

21.3% Europe recycled around

of its plastic waste during 2008; roughly

5.3 million tonnes

Mazda and the Japan Polypropylene Corporation jointly developed a resin material that can deliver the same rigidity as conventional materials but at 20% less weight. Its first use was on the Mazda CX-5 SUV bumpers.

But engineering plastics are not facing their sunset just yet. DuPont’s Zytel HTN PPA EF resins can be used for metal replacement in electric vehicle motors or batteries and have demonstrated good ageing resistance at over 200C for typical vehicle lifecycles – 3-4000 hours. Its Vamac AEM halogen-free flame retardant (HFFR) elastomer is suitable for thin wall insulation in battery cables, enabling reduced weight reduction and operation at high temperatures.

The growth of electric and hybrid vehicles means that OEMs are likely to be looking for more applications for plastics, in place of metals, rather than fewer. KraussMaffei recently announced the commercial launch of an automated RTM (resin transfer moulding) process that is suitable for use in auto manufacture – it has already been put to work in prototype B-pillar reinforcement at VW’s Group Research Centre at Wolfsburg, Germany.

Hunstman has announced a range of adhesives that make joining of resins to other materials an easier process.

And RTP Company has installed a new pultrusion line producing very long fibre (VLF) compounds at its facility in Monterrey, Mexico.

Its recyclability and consequent reduced carbon footprint, along with its other characteristics, mean that plastic will remain fantastic for a while yet.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 75

PPMA Show 2014

Manufacturing Technologies

Now is an exciting time for the industry and I strongly believe we’ll see more and more investment in automation in the next few years Grant Collier Head of Marketing, PPMA Group

The Processing and Packaging Machinery Association shows it is truly on form with a well-rounded package of speakers at this year’s PPMA Show.

E

xperts from M&S, Tesco and Coca-Cola Enterprises, as well as former cabinet minister, politician and journalist Michael Portillo will join attendees at Birmingham’s NEC for this month’s PPMA Show 2014.

Mr Portillo will provide the opening address, while Christine Tacon, the government’s first appointed supermarket ombudsman will deliver a talk on the UK’s leading supermarkets.

Following Ms Tacon’s session on the opening day of the exhibition, Paul Earnshaw, packaging manager for

The PPMA Show is a fantastic opportunity for engineers to network, discuss and share ideas as well as find out about the latest trends and new products

76 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Tesco will reveal the retailers’ view of the packaging supply chain and why collaboration is key for innovation.

The seminar programme will focus on the industry’s pressing issues and will enable experts from across the UK’s manufacturing sectors to share the latest advice and reveal industry innovations.

Visitors attending the NEC on the first day of the show can join Professor Duncan McFarlane of Industrial Informational Engineering, head of Distribution Information and Automation Laboratory research group at the University of Cambridge. McFarlane will discuss products in industrial automation.

In the final session on the second day of the show, Patrick Mroczak, will provide attendees with an insight into how sustainable improvements linked to automation can be a selling tool to grow your business.

In the first session of the closing day of the PPMA show, visitors can join Peter Hooper from Wyke Farms to discover how to enhance automation investments in the food and drink industry to encourage and support international growth.

Grant Collier, head of marketing for the PPMA Group, said: “The PPMA Show is a fantastic opportunity for engineers to network, discuss and share ideas as well as find out about the latest trends and new products to enhance the use of automation across the UK’s manufacturing industries. Now is an exciting time for the industry and I strongly believe we’ll see more and more investment in automation in the next few years. We can’t wait to return to the NEC and welcome both our members, and non-members, to join us and discover the latest industry trends all under one roof.”

FURTHER INFO: For more information or to register free, visit: www.ppmashow.co.uk

EEF Insights

The case to innovate A

Richard Hill, head of automotive and manufacturing at NatWest and RBS puts his case forward for manufacturers to embrace innovation as a business priority.

t the beginning of August we launched the NatWest EEF Innovation Monitor, showing a re-focusing of priorities by Britain’s manufacturers.

The research showed that, in comparison to last year’s report where we saw innovation increasing across new products, technology and research, manufacturers are focusing more on existing customers and narrowing activity down to a smaller number of innovations.

Although companies remain innovative and fixed on innovation, they appear to be developing a smaller number of core projects, around two or three, which could be down to a more strategic approach to innovation focusing on long term ambitions and growth.

Through continuous innovation, manufacturing businesses in this country have become more efficient, specialised and attuned to the needs of their customers

It also seems that as the sector is picking up and demand is increasing, manufacturers are facing more pressure on capacity. So instead of looking at a number of projects, they are now focusing on those that are going to achieve the biggest return.

Some businesses that have already been proactive in innovation – particularly around structure and processes – are seeing those projects come to an end. This puts them in a great position to pick up work and deliver results in the short, medium and long term.

The risk of course is that the UK starts to fall behind global competitors, with a quarter of manufacturers fearing they are falling behind competitors due to a lack of innovation up from a fifth last year.

The report also shows that the UK needs to increase its expenditure and performance when it comes to applied

Manufacturing Technologies

Although companies remain innovative and fixed on innovation, they appear to be developing a smaller number of core projects, around two or three

research, if we are going to catch up with, and overtake, key international competitors.

Barriers to innovation remain largely the same in this year’s report including speed of market and overcoming technical barriers. Manufacturers are taking action themselves to overcome these barriers given the high level of collaboration with customers, while government support is also playing a key role in increasing the level of innovation through further strengthening of the R&D tax credit and the introduction of European Horizon 2020 support.

If the UK is to continue to compete internationally, both the level and effectiveness of innovation must be increased across the board.

Overall it remains an exciting time for the UK manufacturing industry, with a strong reputation overseas leading to more demand for British products and greater export opportunities Through continuous innovation, manufacturing businesses in this country have become more efficient, specialised and attuned to the needs of their customers and this has led to a reversal in policy strategy for some companies.

In order for us to remain competitive with other countries, the UK needs to seek out further growth opportunities - we must invest in more advanced technology and innovation.

New technologies, such as graphene (pXX) and 3D printing, could very well revolutionise our manufacturing base. Businesses must always keep an eye on what’s coming over the horizon and adapt accordingly.

Innovation often requires investment in new technologies and the ability to identify suppliers in a global market that can provide the best quality plant and machinery. Investment in business is a key factor in success – no matter what sector you are operating in. According to the Office of National Statistics Business Investment report, business investment rose by an estimated £0.9 billion (2.7%) in Q1 this year to £32.8 billion compared with the previous quarter and was 8.7% higher compared with Q1 2013.

The pace of change in manufacturing is considerable and is unlikely to change. Businesses need to continue to focus on innovation to be able to adapt to new circumstances as they arise and it’s great to see that so many take that investment so seriously.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 77

Mitsubishi Electric

Manufacturing Technologies

The far reach of robotics

F

or manufacturers to be profitable and sustainable they must to be able to switch from one product run to the next quickly and efficiently.

Previously, the way this was achieved was not to automate but have an army of assembly workers on call. People were brought in to meet the demand of the moment. The system worked but it was far from perfect. Product quality could not be guaranteed.

More recently a far better solution has been found - using robots. Robots allow assembly processes to be automated, ensuring quality and productivity.

F-Series robots are able to reach a far greater working area than other robots. They can even reach round and behind their own base

78 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

Robot specialist Barry Weller of Mitsubishi Electric explains how the latest generation of manufacturing equipment is helping to reset performance expectations.

A new age

A new generation of robots is beginning to emerge, which are better in many ways than their predecessors. Mitsubishi Electric is a forerunner in this drive for productivity. Its new MELFA F-series robot range, which is designed to provide substantial improvements in the degree of flexibility, operational speed and functionality, is its latest robotic addition.

Based on a new mechanical design, F-series robots are able to reach a far greater working area than other robots.

They can even reach round and behind their own base. The compact design allows the robot to work in confined spaces and can be floor, wall or ceilingmounted, allowing the whole working area to be utilised for production operations, rather than having the central area taken up with the robotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s base, so are particularly suited for high speed pick and place operations.

The robots come with their cabling fully enclosed for total protection and safety which can include electric cables, pneumatic tubing, I/O for hand control and CAT5 Ethernet cabling.

A powerful new controller has also been developed for the F-series. This can be used in a standalone mode or embedded

into the Mitsubishi Electric iQ PLC rack.

Supporting up to three robots on one rack allows the system to share data, thus enabling features such as automatic collision avoidance and cooperative control so that complex operations are carried out in a single action.

Joining forces

The F-series robots can also support up to eight additional servo axes. This gives them useful additional abilities. For instance they can be mounted onto a linear slide so that one robot can tend two or more work stations.

The robots have been designed with food and other hygienic applications in mind. They meet IP67, allowing easy cleaning of the arm, while food safe HG1 food grade grease is used for lubrication.

A clean room version is also available for ultra-hygienic requirements.

The maintenance interval for the F-series robot is 24,000 hours which is up to four times longer than our competitors, reducing maintenance costs and disruption to production.

Typically, robots cost ÂŁ5/hr to operate, half that of employing people and because they can run continuously they are highly productive.

PP Electricals

Manufacturing Technologies

Don’t leave it too late to be UL508A compliant...

What’s involved?

When designing a control panel to fully comply with UL508A, it is not simply about component selection. A number of other factors need to be taken into consideration that include, but are not limited to: Defining the short circuit current rating (SCCR), voltage ratings and site electrical power network configuration Wire bending spaces plus the consideration of US NFPA70 NEC and NFPA79 (US National Fire Prevention Association), such as cable ‘ampacities’.

What if i ignore the standard?

As a machinery manufacturer, how confident are you that you are meeting the legal and technical requirements of the US and North American Markets?

C

onfusion in respect to UL508A and NFPA standards can be costly, as Tony Hague, managing director of PP Electrical Systems, explains.

As an experienced manufacturer of electrical control systems and automation, we still see so much confusion over what does and what does not constitute a UL certified product.

We have customers, past and present, who believe that by simply selecting components that are UL listed and integrating them into a control panel carrying a UL (NEMA) rating, that was the start and end of the exercise.

In fact, a number of machinery manufacturers have adopted this approach and depending on which US states they have been exporting to, may have managed to escape any serious issues… until of course they come across a more stringent inspection, whether state specific or just a more detailed and thorough individual.

This is where the problems start.

The costs can be huge in terms of re-working, consequential losses due to delays in machine install and customer relations to name just a few.

All of this could have been easily avoided by taking a more proactive approach to the subject and working with companies, such as PP Electrical Systems, that offer a bespoke UL solution for complete compliance.

So what is UL508A?

UL508A certification is an industrial control panel standard, which is sought by electrical inspectors. The listing mark on the control panel provides evidence of third party certification to the municipal inspection authority and to the purchaser of the panel. In essence it shows compliance with an acceptable safety standard.

Do that at your peril. A number of machinery manufacturers have, at times, got away without full compliance, until they don’t! Then the implications can be massive. The authorities can ‘red tag’ the machine and it will not be installed until the inspector is happy that all necessary changes are made.

The result is a delayed installation, significant rework costs and potential consequential damages. Or in other words…a really unhappy customer.

Is it worth taking the risk?

No. By working with a company who has significant experience in this difficult and complex area, full compliance can be achieved without risk and the associated high costs.

At PP Electrical Systems we have a 15-year track record of doing just that…find out more by visiting www.powerpanels.uk.com, follow @pp_electrical on twitter or ring 01922 419109.

To register your interest in one of our future UL seminars, please email ulsolutions@power-panels.co.uk

Who does it apply to?

Any company that is providing control panels or building automated machinery for export to the United States or North America.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 79

Banking on automation Want to know what the banks want when applying for credit for significant automation systems? Hopefully ’s five key points can help you out.

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ccording to Gambica, the UK’s trade association for the instrumentation, control and automation industry, while the economy has been relatively flat in recent years, the automation market has been growing year on year. In ’s latest Automation report released this month, Steve Brambley, deputy director at Gambica says that caution and cutbacks have almost become the norm among industry, however those who are brave enough to see the future benefits to their businesses are investing their money in technology and equipment to boost the competitive position of UK industry and drive future growth.

It’s fair to say the potential benefits of introducing automation to factories has already been widely publicised – one only has to look at nations such as Germany to see how productive its Mittelstand is largely due to its acceptance of automation – however the purchasing of robotics is not always as straight forward as manufacturers would hope.

In order to try and help cut through some of the red tape when dealing

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with banks or financial institutions, ’s Automation Advisory Board recently met with key industry heads from eight of the large banks to try and determine a few key factors SME manufacturers should consider when approaching banks to apply for credit for the purchase of significant automation systems.

The idea was to have all banks come to consensus on the points. As Kevin Rimmer, head of manufacturing at Clydesdale Bank said: “We expect that automation in the manufacturing sector will gain increasing focus as processes become more global and competitive. Automation is here to stay and we believe that it is in everyone’s interest to work closely to understand the opportunities of ongoing investment in this arena.

“The benefits of forming a close working relationship with financial institutions are clear, especially when considering significant asset investment such as automation. It enables early dialogue and a clear understanding of a company’s strategy and the benefits of the investment”.

Included in this project were key manufacturing heads from the following banks; Lloyds Bank RBS Lombard Clydesdale Bank Barclays NatWest Funding Circle Santander

The benefits of forming a close working relationship with financial institutions are clear, especially when considering significant asset investment such as automation Kevin Rimmer Clydesdale Bank

Banking on automation

Manufacturing Technologies

’s Automation Advisory Board meets the banks A consensus of five key points for consideration when manufacturers apply for credit for the purchase of significant automation systems.

1

Overview of company structure, management team and key responsibilities, their experience (especially in implementation of automation systems) and any succession plans.

risks may lie and what could be the potential impact if the plan is not strictly adhered to.

Whilst the primary source of repayment for the bank facility will be the profit/cash generated through business activity, the bank may also require security to be given in support of the facility. Your plan should include some realistic sensitivity analysis. It is more likely that things will not go to plan than go to plan.

Be clear, concise, and make things simple. You want any potential lender to be able to understand your business as quickly and simply as possible.

Sharp communication is almost always demonstrated in the way the business operates. The bank is looking for the key people who will be fully engaged and committed to delivering, both in the past and in the future.

2

For the investment itself, a business plan, including all financial plans (historic balance sheet, profit and loss and ideally forecast balance sheet, profit and loss and cash flow statements) and assumptions, such as expected productivity and efficiency gains, cost savings, etc.

Putting in the effort to produce a solid business plan is a crucial step in securing funding. The business needs to demonstrate that it can generate sufficient cash to repay the requested facility and the more in depth and robust your plan is, the more it will help potential lenders understand your desired outcome for your business. The actual act of putting together the business plan will also help management to better understand its own strategy, identifying where potential

3

Full sets of the latest audited financial and management accounts along with appropriate commentary.

How is the business performing, gaps to plan, reasons for over, or under performance.

Make sure your records are up to date and be in a position to articulate trends in sales volumes, margins, overheads, etc. Again, communication is key to developing a solid relationship from the beginning. This creates confidence within the partnership and eases the route to further support.

4

An understanding of the businesses’ wider banking facilities e.g. overdraft, invoice finance, trade facilities. Also for creditors/

debtors, additional commentary on any dependencies would be welcome and an understanding of payment terms for the largest in each category.

5

It’s a fine balance when presenting your suitability for funding and what risks your business has to manage. An internal view of the business capability should be presented together with a perspective on the key external factors. Be honest and be prepared to justify any dependencies and current loan or finance payments.

Also be willing to consider a range of financing options, including equity, to help fund the growth of the business without exposing it to the downside risks of taking on too much debt.

For the investment itself, what’s the rationale for the purchase? Why has the business chosen the particular make, model and how much will it cost? What’s the total cost of ownership and how long will it take to implement?

The pricing should always be a full negotiation with both parties achieving agreed terms for the business. Be specific about the purpose and rationale for amount and how any loan can be repaid over the businesses’ preferred term. The basic act of having your house in order and a clear, concise justification of your desired purchase will only strengthen your negotiating hand and once again, help to establish a clear line of communication between both parties. It will also be beneficial to agree a clear agenda with the bank beforehand about what you are trying to achieve at a meeting. Ensure that all key sites can be visited and key people are available for discussion.

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 81

Microsoft

IT in Manufacturing

Back to the future F

It’s time to re-think manufacturing. Colin Masson, Microsoft’s global industry director for manufacturing and distribution, talks to IT contributing editor Malcolm Wheatley.

or manufacturers, what constitutes the biggest barrier to achieving a significant stepchange in performance? With manufacturing industry once more resurgent after the recession of 20082010, it’s an obvious enough question for manufacturing companies to ask.

Yet it’s a question to which Colin Masson, Microsoft’s global industry director for manufacturing and distribution, has an unusual reply.

Because for many manufacturers, he insists, the biggest barrier to progress is simply imagining what actually might be possible.

“Huge changes in manufacturing industry are underway,” he points out.

“Manufacturers are shifting from making and selling products, to identifying and meeting customer needs, and it’s taking them in some wholly new directions.”

Don’t start from where you are now, thinking in terms of small incremental steps forward from today’s position

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Servitisation, for instance, where manufacturers exchange a productcentric view of the marketplace with a service-centric view, going so far in some cases as to sell product usage by the hour, just as Rolls-Royce does with jet engines.

Or accelerated new product development, fuelled by computer-aided simultaneous engineering processes, and technologies such as rapid prototyping and 3D printing.

Or real-time supply chain integration, vital if manufacturers are to cope with today’s world of fickle customers, volatile demand, vastly reduced lead times, ultra-short batch runs and frequent changeovers.

And the answer, he observes, is to ignore the various buzzwords that are in circulation, and instead pursue manufacturing strategies that directly address customer needs and the underlying challenges posed by this brave new digital world.

“We’d say that it boils down to doing three things, and doing them well,” he stresses. “First, aim to enhance the customer experience - any movement in that direction will clearly pay dividends. Second, become more responsive - realign

In short, it’s about becoming obsessed with your customers, and re-imagining what your manufacturing business could be manufacturing and supply chain culture and metrics with customer experience goals. And third, undertake a transformation to becoming a digital business, from digital marketing to digital design and manufacturing, where progress will pay dividends in the form of more connected supply chains, faster new product introduction, higher productivity, and greater responsiveness.”

In other words, says Masson, put these strategies in place, and the specifics of how to move forward become clearer.

“In short, it’s about becoming obsessed with your customers, and re-imagining what your manufacturing business could be, and then beginning the process of working towards that goal,” he notes. “And the good news is that the underlying technologies that deliver that transformation have never been more powerful, or as cost-effective: the Cloud, for instance, is a huge leveller, putting smaller businesses on exactly the same footing as larger companies.”

What’s more, he adds, much the same point can be made for most of today’s transformative technologies: CRM, ERP, mobile, the ‘Internet of Things’, Big Data, Machine Learning, ‘social listening’, and so on.

“Don’t start from where you are now, thinking in terms of small incremental steps forward from today’s position,” he concludes. “Look ahead, think about where you want to go, and then we’ll start to talk about the journey that’s involved in becoming a dynamic manufacturer.”

FURTHER INFO: Interested in finding out more?

Additional material at UK Dynamic Manufacturer www.microsoft.com/ en-gb/dynamics/manufacturing

Edenhouse

The power of collaboration

I

In response to a growing number of its customers asking for help with Microsoft Dynamics AX, the Edenhouse Group recently introduced its skills and capabilities to the Microsoft world with the launch of EdenDynamics.

ncreasingly, manufacturing companies are adopting a multistrand approach to ERP. They may have an SAP ERP system at the core of their business, but have Microsoft Dynamics AX in their smaller operations or subsidiaries. Mergers and acquisitions also often present their own set of challenges in consolidating diverse systems, processes and practices.

With a wealth of experience and expertise in implementing complex applications,

Birmingham-based EdenDynamics is uniquely equipped to provide innovative, cross platform solutions to customers implementing and transitioning to Microsoft products.

And as part of the Edenhouse Group, their in-depth industry experience and detailed technical knowledge of both Microsoft and SAP solutions provides customers with the unique opportunity of working with a single implementation and support partner.

EdenDynamic’s partnership with Microsoft offers customers the stability and resources of one of the world’s largest organisations, alongside the specialist knowledge, agility and flexibility they associate with the Edenhouse Group.

Consultants are experts in a wide range of industries and are dedicated to keeping up with the latest

It’s about more than just implementation – from programme management and business process improvement, to change management and on-going support, our clients leverage our business consulting expertise to realise maximum benefit from their IT investment Paul Solomon, CEO, Edenhouse Group

IT in Manufacturing

EdenDynamics’ resultsdriven approach to the implementation, integration and support of ERP and CRM packages will help their clients achieve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and increase revenue Neil Holloway Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Solutions

technology trends and how they affect particular business sectors.

In addition to helping deploy individual products, they can also develop and integrate a two-tier or multi-strand approach – deploying the best of both Microsoft and SAP tools and technology to leverage client’s investment, helping achieve significant competitive advantage.

Industry standards, regulations and practices may fluctuate, but EdenDynamics’ focus on meeting their customer’s unique needs remains unwavering – and their philosophy is simple: delivering the right solution, on time and on budget.

An exceptionally high level of repeat and referred business is testament to their reputation for listening to their clients, they take the time to understand the business, its challenges and future plans, working directly with Microsoft’s industry and vertical teams to assemble the right products and the right expertise to align technology investment with business strategy.

This approach allows customers to focus on their core business activities and react swiftly to ever-changing market conditions – keeping one step ahead of the competition.

FURTHER INFO: Find out more at: www.edendynamics.co.uk

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 83

Recipe for As business solutions consultancy provider and ERP expert Columbus celebrates its 25th birthday, Columbus managing director Mary Hunter sits down with IT contributing editor Malcolm Wheatley to explain the company’s success.

84 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

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hen it comes to ERP systems, anyone contemplating a move to Microsoft’s popular Dynamics AX solution quickly comes across the name Columbus, particularly if they’re in manufacturing, food or retail.

Even so, it might come as a surprise to learn that Columbus is 25 years old this year and that it traces its origins back to some of the original developers who wrote the software known today as Microsoft Dynamics AX. Moreover, people might also be surprised to learn that Columbus is these days a truly global business: listed on Denmark’s Copenhagen Stock Exchange, it has around 1,000 employees worldwide, and customers in 42 countries.

What’s more, both globally and here in the UK, Columbus is in undoubted financial health, expecting to hit global revenues of 900mn Danish kroner (£97mn) this year, with the UK contributing strongly to this. Over the past five years, for instance, Columbus UK has more than doubled its revenues, with the business seeing pre-tax profits growing by 56% in the period 2012-2013.

ERP-centric business model

So what is it, exactly, that drives this growth engine? If anyone should know, it’s Mary Hunter, Columbus UK’s engaging manager director, and a Columbus veteran of almost 17 years, having joined the business as a senior financial consultant and project manager.

“We’ve always stayed close to our ERP roots,” she explains. “We’ve ‘built out’ from around that core, but everything we do has ERP at its heart.

We don’t try to be all things to all men: we focus tightly on our key strategic industries of manufacturing, food, and retail and on developing verticalspecific solutions and expertise within those key strategic industries. So if you’re a food manufacturer, for instance, we have specific food industry offerings that are our own intellectual property - templated business processes, built for food manufacturers, which manufacturers can then plug in and adopt.”

Just as importantly, she adds, Columbus has also developed a reputation as a ‘one stop shop’ - offering

Columbus

not just ERP in conjunction with industrywhich is also expanding. A recent specific intellectual property, but also survey conducted by Computer hosting services, implementation Economics, she points out, found and support for ERP, as well as the that the number of organisations software ‘universe’ that these days investing in ERP is increasing surrounds ERP: Business Intelligence, – and especially so in the three CRM, Microsoft Sharepoint, PLM, and vertical sectors in which Columbus so on. specialises. At present, for instance, “Some customers want Cloud-based 43% of large companies have ERP; others want on-premise ERP. investments underway in ERP, as do Some want just ERP; while others want 40% of medium-sized organisations.

ERP, CRM and Business Intelligence: No wonder, then, that Columbus to us, it makes no difference - whatever senior management - in the UK and the requirement, we can advise and globally - are bullish about the future. implement it,” sums up Hunter.

“The sectors in which we specialise And Columbus’s ‘can do’ are performing very well, and that reputation, she adds, also extends fills us with a lot of confidence for to the firm’s people. the future,” she notes.

These are consultants “Looking forward, we’re with in-depth knowledge very optimistic.”

We don’t try of their industries who to be all things to hit the ground running, Customer focus leveraging Columbus’s That said, this evident all men: we focus own business process optimism at Columbus tightly on our key modelling tool RapidValue is firmly driven by a and its implementation strategic industries of sense that the financial methodology SureStep+, numbers being thrown manufacturing, food, off by the business show in order to deliver smooth, assured implementations that it’s ‘Columbus15’ and retail and on that deliver in full on the global strategy, begun in developing verticalbusiness outcomes that 2011, is paying off. specific solutions were originally expected.

A five year strategy, it is intended to and expertise within see Columbus Growth markets those key strategic transform itself into Roll it all up, says Hunter, an internationallyand it’s a formula that industries renowned industry proves an undoubted hit consultancy, extending with customers. its industry leadership, “Taken together, it increasing the sales means that we’re adding of its own software, value, contributing optimising its global knowledge, experience, delivery capabilities, insight, and intellectual and leveraging growth property,” she says. “And in key industries if there’s one thing that and geographies. we know about today’s It’s also a strategy that ERP market, it’s that has seen the business customers are looking hit the acquisition trail, for solutions that can be acquiring leading retail implemented in a timely and e-commerce and reliable manner, in company Omnica in order to help them drive the UK earlier this year, business efficiencies.” a move that not only And make no mistake, consolidates its position she stresses: the growth in the retail industry, being experienced Mary Hunter, but cleverly supports

by Columbus reflects managing director for Columbus its manufacturing the state of the global customers too. enterprise IT market,

IT in Manufacturing

“It’s ‘omni-channel’ retail,” sums up Hunter. “For manufacturers with an aftersales spare parts business, or trade counters, or maintenance business, it provides retailing capabilities and a webbased ‘front end’, with a web store as part of that front end.”

In short, she sums up, having reached its 25th birthday, Columbus is now looking forward with confidence to the next 25 years. And joining in on the celebrations are of course the firm’s customers, all of whom have been invited to a charity dinner to be held at The Radisson in Manchester on October 16.

“We’re where we are today because of our customers, so it’s absolutely right that they join us in celebrating this 25year milestone,” she stresses. “But just as importantly, going forward our goal is to continue to build on our achievements, and on our customers’ success, and look for ways to create even stronger links in our partnerships.”

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 85

Jane Gray reports concerns and considerations about big data for business from ’s latest Directors’ Forum meeting.

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ig data will blow out parts of supply chains, boost profitability and bring a new beat to production. But are you ready for it?

This was the vision and challenge laid out by Andy Wright, director of technology acquisition at BAE Systems and special guest at ’s recent big data driven dinner debate for members of its Manufacturer Directors’ Forum.

“We are a £6bn business in the UK and 45% of our revenues are now derived from the serviceability of these products – not from production. So how do we gather data from them in the field to ensure we deliver service efficiently – getting the most out of the product and creating value for BAE and the customer?”

But it’s not just BAE that needs to explore the value of big data, Mr Wright showed.

Using a variety of examples including a fishing company, mobile banking in Africa, car servicing and innovations in the personal hygiene and pharmaceutical sector, Wright showed that “Big databased business models, with technology to gather, store and process that data, are effecting different groups and individuals in very different ways and often come from directions we have not necessarily thought about before.”

Focusing on the example of a Devonbased fishing cooperative which tweets and sells its catch before it reaches

86 www.themanufacturer.com | September 2014 | Issue 7| Volume 17

shore, Wright said: “What strikes me about this story is that the fishermen have successfully managed to grasp the business case behind the ubiquitous nature of mobile communication to offer a faster, fresher and better service to their customers while cutting out a chunk of the supply chain, cutting costs and making a better profit.”

This point led to a general consensus that a large part of the challenge in mastering big data is not so much in data capture or analytics but in realising the business case that it represents. Wright admitted that, even for a company with the level of influence and resource that BAE has to call upon, the challenge of “understanding what big data is all about” is daunting. For the wider business environment, including government and SMEs, he believes the scope and impact of big data is massively underestimated.

Yet the big data revolution is on all our doorsteps and gathering itself to start knocking hard, Wright went on to assert. Using

MDF The Manufacturer Directors’ Forum is ’s networking and knowledge exchange network for senior manufacturing professionals.

Tackling a wide range of topics likely to shape the future of industry, the group encourages manufacturing leaders to prepare their organisations for new trends in competitiveness.

Manufacturers represented at this dinner debate were: BAE Systems, Coty International, Horstman Defence Systems, Industrial Chemicals, Selex ES, Tata Steel. extends its thanks to IBM for sponsoring this event To find out more about the Manufacturer Directors’ Forum contact Lauren Archer at l.archer@sayonemedia.com or on 0207 401 6033.

The scope and impact of big data is massively underestimated

The Manufacturer Directors’ Forum

Big data will force a rethink or inter-organisational boundaries and supply chain relationships in order to optimise the full potential of integrated data

supporting evidence from recent PwC research he highlighted that with a predicted 50 billion smart devices to be connected to the internet by 2020 and 90% of today’s data having been created in the last two years “this [big data] revolution is something really immediate.”

Top points from this Big Data MDF dinner Big data will touch all businesses though some will be affected more, and more quickly than others Big data exploitation is as much about realising the business case/model as deploying the technology Security concerns remain a barrier to business exploitation of big data with complexity in complying with the complex legal data management requirements about the use of personal data Big data represents both opportunity and vulnerability to SMEs in supply chains. Big companies could do more to help their supply chains prepare for and protect themselves from data criminality associated with big data.

(Known data criminality costs the UK in excess of £30bn a year.)

of today’s data was created in the last two years

Tech torpor v tech torpedoes

Wright’s opening remark’s set the scene for broad ranging debate which lingered on concerns over security and data regulation but also inspired delegates to exchange ideas and experiences about the ways in which their markets could be disrupted by the innovative use of big data.

Even Nick Reeks, director of procurement at Tata Steel – a player in one of the industries which all agreed would be least effected by big data and connectivity – said there was exciting potential for the company to monitor the performance of its steel by using coating materials which can communicate health and degradation information.

“We already guarantee the performance of steel over about 25 years,” he said, before pondering the enhanced service offerings which in-field performance feedback could enable.

But if the technology exists and the business opportunity is exciting, why is Tata not rolling out this connected coating today?

“I think there is an element of fear about the level of investment that would be required,” responded Mr Reeks.

“Also, a lot of the guys [in the business] think this is nice to have, or they are constrained by a traditional view of IT revolving around ERP and they say it can’t be done.”

The barrier of legacy IT systems and their accompanying IT culture was agreed by many at the table to be a significant burden to manufacturers trying to

IT in Manufacturing

move forward with their exploitation of big data.

But some challenged this position, saying technological lethargy is a symptom lack of support for innovation more than the result of being unable to move away from existing assets.

It was also pointed out that embracing big data does not mean moving away from those traditional IT assets but rather building on them.

Simon Porter, VP mid-market sales for IBM, shared how car manufacturer Peugeot had realised that “cars produce around 433 megabytes of data per minute,” and sensed that this was important to its competitive future.

“In some ways you might expect Peugeot to be just the kind of company that would want to stick with the way things are. It has a lot of legacy infrastructure, a lot of momentum and a mixture of publicprivate ownership which

you might think would make it tend to support the status quo.

“But Peugeot understood that the amount of data its vehicles were generating was important. The first thing it did was to set up a new division to be responsible for all this data. Step two, which is happening now, is to work out who values that data – who can they sell it to.”

The idea that big data exploitation will need specialist, dedicated talent and resource was expressed strongly around the table with several backing the idea that big data business benefits would be led by a younger generation of employees, not the current C suite.

Indeed the need for a generational culture shift before the business potential of big data is realised was almost unanimously agreed, despite recent encouragement for older engineers to have faith in their ability to create disruptive innovations (bit.ly/TechCourage).

Building on the theme of shifts in thinking, dinner guests suggested that big data will force a rethink or interorganisational boundaries and supply chain relationships in order to optimise the full potential of integrated data.

“More and more, big data is about collaboration,” said Anu Khurmi, business development executive at IBM. “Data in its own right is nothing. Data when you integrate it makes the art of the possible a very different proposition.”

September 2014 | Issue 7 | Volume 17 | www.themanufacturer.com 87

The power is ours

The power is ours In his new column for , EEF and CEEMET CEO Terry Scuoler throws down the challenge to both government and industry to keep their eyes on the prize of a manufacturing-lead economic rebalance.

I

n recent years we have experienced a welcome resurgence in support for manufacturing, especially amongst the political classes who have – rightly in our view – come to see our sector and rebalancing the economy as being a major part of the solution to our long term economic success.

They have realised that after such a traumatic economic meltdown the hollowing out of our

Just as government has a role, manufacturers can themselves do more to ensure UK industry remains on a strong growth trajectory

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TALK OF THE INDUSTRY

country’s manufacturing capability – something which has taken place over decades - was even more unwise.

Thankfully, despite the financial strain of a deep recession, the remainder of our industrial base has proved itself to be robust, and it is manufacturing companies in the UK that are now at the forefront of developing the solutions to tomorrow’s industrial and economic challenges.

As we approach conference season, companies across all sectors of manufacturing are growing and helping to propel the UK economy forward once again – creating value, generating and securing jobs. Many never shifted their focus away from the need to continually improve what they do by developing new products and services, investing in their employees and boosting talent in their workforce and driving forward efficiency improvements, with the much needed benefits to productivity.

Confidence is on the rise, and after a long period of caution and uncertainty, investment plans are being put into action, supporting a long-overdue recovery in the UK’s business investment performance. More companies are also looking to step confidently into new export markets.

While this picture is positive, more still needs to be done if we are to reach the target of £1 trillion worth of exports by 2020 (bit.ly/ExportTruths) and, if we are to generate the better balanced growth our economy requires.

To secure this government must continue to work with industry as a collaborative partner. First and foremost we need all parties vying for government in 2015 to set out a clear vision for the UK economy over the next Parliament in order to provide certainty for our investors and innovators. It needs to set out how they will continue to attack the obstacles that companies of all sizes face in

becoming world class, and to demonstrate how it can work with international partners to achieve our common economic goals.

Just as government has a role, manufacturers can themselves do more to ensure UK industry remains on a strong growth trajectory. This must involve being bold with their plans to access new markets, ambitious in their development and acquisition of new technologies and enthusiastic in encouraging more young people to enter the sector.

At EEF, we also have a key role and that is why we will be setting out five key policy areas in our own manifesto outlining what a new government must drive forward in support of rebalancing and long term economic security.

These priorities will cover skills, innovation, exports, infrastructure, energy and priorities at EU level.

Our agenda which we will be setting out at fringe meetings at the three conferences, at our own national conference in February and, beyond the general election to 2020, will set out these priorities and how industry and government can work together to build a stronger, more productive economy.

Enabling greater profitability, productivity & efficiency

MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEMS Empowering a business to respond in real time creates a sustainable and competitive advantage.

Manufacturing execution systems deliver numerous capabilities and enable optimum asset utilisation with high production quality at a lower cost.

Controlling multiple elements of the production process including inputs, personnel, machines and support services, allows you to respond to market changes both quickly and correctly and help balance production processes - in real-time.

MES Connect brings together the leading MES vendors in one unique day. Combining knowledge-based learning through a conference with interactive vendor meeting, to enable you to match your business needs with the different systems currently on offer. This one day event will support you in making the right decisions for your business – to drive your company forward and reap the benefits that a manufacturing execution system can bring.

4 December 2014 Aston University, Birmingham DON’T GET CONFUSED WITH THE OPTIONS – MES Connect brings clarity to your vision

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