MAY/JUNE 2020 ROUND-UP
Did you hear... The best soundbites from around the industry
“This is not a crisis of our making. But it is the crisis that we face and we must
deal with it. Our customers and partners are having to adapt and so must we.”
Warren East, CEO of Rolls-Royce, announces 9,000 job cuts as part of a wider £1.5 billion
cost-saving programme – sparking condemnation from Unite the union (see full story, left).
“We want to create a celebration of UK manufacturing, where we can showcase
the amazing work the industry has done in the battle against COVID-19.”
Gordon Kirk, portfolio director at MA Exhibitions, shares the news that Subcon and
the Manufacturing Management Show will be co-located with MACH in January 2021.
NMIS project
gains traction
Two significant
developments at the
National Manufacturing
Institute for Scotland
(NMIS) have seen the
project move a step
closer to its goal of
delivering advanced
R&D facilities for
Scottish manufacturers.
Firstly, John Reed
has been named as the
centre’s CEO. John will
take up position in
August after leading
the Michelin-Scotland
Innovation Parc (MSIP)
in Dundee. Prior to
leading MSIP, John was
general manager at the
Michelin tyre plant on
the same site.
Secondly, Morrison
Construction, part of
the Galliford Try Group,
has been awarded the
£42 million contract to
build the facility. As
part of the contract,
Morrison Construction
is committed to
achieving BREEAM
‘outstanding’ for
sustainability – the
highest-accolade for
sustainability in the UK
construction industry.
NMIS is the
centrepiece of the
wider Advanced
Manufacturing
Innovation District
Scotland, located near
Glasgow Airport.
Pic of the month Bentley Motors; Combilift; JCB; Liberty
As UK manufacturers began the process of restarting operations through May, workers
returned to an unrecognsiable shopfloor landscape. Social distancing, temperature checks
and PPE were the order of the day at (clockwise from top left) Bentley Motors’ factory in
Crewe; Combilift in Monaghan, Ireland; JCB headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire; and
Liberty Aluminium Products in Witham, Essex. While Make UK research has shown that as
many as 87% of manufacturers continued operating in some capacity during lockdown,
recent weeks have seen workforces return to some sense of normality – with some new
innovations. Combilift, for instance, has taken an innovative approach to customer ‘visits’,
with virtual tours being carried out via WhatsApp calls while customers walk around their
premises and take shots of specific areas. Combilift design engineers can get an overview
of requirements, and produce 3D plans and animations within 24 hours of the call.
Public gives industry a vote of confidence
The UK public stands firmly
behind the manufacturing sector
to support the UK and protect
the NHS through coronavirus
and into the future, according to
a new survey.
Almost three in four (74%)
believe that the manufacturing
sector stepped up to meet the
challenge of supporting the UK
as coronavirus took a grip on
the nation in March 2020. The
same number of respondents
(74%) agree that a strategic
long-term plan for helping
UK manufacturing to be more
productive and competitive
will help insulate us from future
pandemics and go some way
to protect UK GDP. A similar
number (75%) of the UK public
believe more strongly in the
importance of that nation’s
manufacturing sector as a result
of coronavirus.
The research, conducted
among 2,000 adults by Populus
for industrial communications
firm Cadence Innovation
Marketing, also found that
nearly eight in ten people (76%)
are concerned about cheap
imported goods in the wake
of coronavirus.
More than two in three
of those questioned believe
that the UK manufacturing
sector has risen to the
challenge of coronavirus,
with just 6% disagreeing.
“This huge public vote
of confidence in our often
beleaguered and undersupported
sector is just
one of several remarkable
statistics thrown up by
our research,” said Tom
Spencer, MD of Cadence.
NMIS/ Scottish Enterprise
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