COVER STORY FEBRUARY 2019
started with an idea on a bit of paper, and had to
turn that into a world-class manufacturing facility,”
explains Nic Aoidh. “We had to think back to when
the company was set up and apply the same focus
on quality and manufacturing excellence.”
A focus on the future
As you would expect with the presence of Factory
2050 and the AMRC, both new factories are at
the cutting edge of their respective industries.
While McLaren are understandably coy about
the intricacies of their manufacturing process,
Nic Aiodh says the MCTC will be a hotbed of
innovation into carbon fi bre technology. “A major
challenge about that material is that it’s very
labour-intensive to work with,” she explains. “One
of the key ambitions of the MCTC is to make it less
so, and to industrialise the process.”
Over at Boeing, it’s a step even further into
the future. The factory is being billed as the
company’s fi rst Industry 4.0-ready facility. “We
have a high level of automation and data capture,
and we’re using that data to make business
decisions,” says Needham. “The factory has an
amount of ‘lights-out’ capability, where it can be
run without human input. This means we can get
our staff doing what humans are good at – namely,
problem-solving and innovation – and leaving the
repetitive tasks to the robots.”
This focus on maximising the workforce
runs deep at Boeing. Apprentices from the site
are regularly sent to other parts of the supply
chain, including the local steel mill – and viceversa.
“We bring apprentices from the steel
mill to Boeing to show them how they fi t into
the process,” says Needham. “We emphasise
that, although they are doing a ‘traditional’
manufacturing job, they are a vital cog in the
high-tech world of aircraft manufacturing.
Similarly, by sending our apprentices to look
around the steel works, they understand the
work that has gone into the steel before it
reaches us, and that any mistakes or damage
The AMRC’s Factory 2050
provides support to
manufacturers of all sizes
will come further down the line.
The aforementioned Track 25
plan will see demand ramp up
at both the Sheffi eld facility and
the main factory in Woking. The
company will stay of shy mass
production (it predicts total
global sales of around 6,000
cars by 2025), but, with all the
tubs for the 18 new models being
made at the new site, “we’re
going to have to fi nd a way of
making them all and keeping up
with demand,” says Nic Aoidh.
McLaren are better placed
than most to deal with adversity,
however. It might surprise
you to learn, considering its
current market position, that
the Automotive division of the
company was only founded in
2010. This helped the company
learn from its experiences as it
built a new production facility
from scratch. “We literally
What can the
AMRC do for you?
The AMRC isn’t just a
plaything for global
superpowers
like Boeing and McLaren.
Morgan is keen to stress
the work the centre does with
companies of all sizes. “While
we work with major OEMs, we
also partner with companies
all the way down to one man
in a shed,” he says. “We provide
subsidised work for them,
depending on the size of the
business and their needs. This
can be everything from a fi veday
assist, where we explore
the feasibility of technology,
run a study and a simulation, all
the way through to a four- or
fi ve-month project, where we
can develop a fully automated
cell, or run a proof-of-concept.”
In these volatile times,
argues Morgan, the AMRC and
the wider Catapult network
have the potential to play an
increasingly important role
in UK manufacturing. “Brexit
will put more of an emphasis
on innovative thinking and
increased competitiveness,”
he says. “This means the
Catapult sites are hopefully
going to become increasingly
important to the success of
UK manufacturing.”
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