42 DEBATE
In terms of training, we are working with machine manufacturers and some of our senior technicians to build a programme. We have a new production line, and we need to have qualified people.
It’s great spending a couple of million pounds on a machine, but equally important to invest in the people so you can get the best out of your machine and your resources. People seem to forget that a lot of the time.
I’m really excited by some of the new technological developments around cobots and automation. We are looking at robot palletisation, we’re looking at more automated loading and unloading, huge areas of development.
We are going to be making some serious investments aimed at boosting productivity, efficiency and data. What we’re finding is understanding what the machines produce, how they operate and having a central base where all the data is managed, we can make decisions a lot quicker.
WWW It’s great spending a couple
of million pounds on a machine, but equally important to invest in the people
Phil Heyworth: The opportunities are out there you have just got to look for them. We’re currently in communication with the HS2 rail project team and others about getting on their supply chains.
For a small engineering firm, the reach we have is superb, we’re working with companies like Siemens, Avanti West Coast Rail and Vivarail and sometimes I just sit and think we’re punching above our weight. But there is no reason we can’t go out and work with the big companies and groups.
We need to do a little bit of industry 4.0, we do need to automate and look at modernising the workshop.
Everyone wants investment, it’s getting that support as well, so we recently joined Make UK and are looking for mentoring and guidance and getting information.
I hate it when manufacturing as a whole says we’ve got a skills shortage; we’re always going to have that skill shortage unless we address it.
We’ve been working with a lot of primary schools in the area to try and present engineering and manufacturing a viable career. If we want to get these youngsters into the sector, we need to inspire them at an early age.
There is a lot to address with skills. We want kids coming out of school to join our apprenticeships scheme but we also want them with 20 years’ experience. We have got to be a little more realistic when we’re looking at those skills as well.
Annette Weekes: Within the aerospace sector it is not good and looking forward this year I can’t see it improving any time soon. The loss of work at Rolls-Royce in Barnoldswick is a massive blow to East Lancashire.
I hope that it doesn’t have a knock-on impact. It’s on the rest of us to pick up the slack and be the innovators and push growth going forward.
In terms of diversification, we’ve done a lot of that. As a business we have always been that way inclined. So, we’ve made hospital and mortuary
equipment, we’ve worked in the food industry. We’ve had a totally flexible approach, we’re engineers and we can make anything so we’ve asked, what’s needed? That has massively helped us as a business.
There are some big opportunities coming, if you look around HS2 and rail, the push for the green agenda. There’s nuclear and the Eden Project North at Morecambe coming our way and that potential means it is quite an exciting time.
We are a county of makers and doers and inventors and if we can’t seize some of these projects and make it happen, I’d be amazed.
We have done work with the AMRC NW around digitalisation, 3D printing, cobots and increasing the tech of businesses, particularly small businesses in the supply chain. If they can engage with lots of the manufacturers that are suffering, we would see gains in productivity, which would also help with the skills shortage.
Steve Fogg: The civil aerospace market will come back, but we did a report jointly with the NWAA and businesses across Lancashire that talks about it taking between three and five years, and at an extreme seven, before we start to see it. We’ve got major issues but you have to stay optimistic.
As we head towards the future the green economy is going to kick in. We’re going to have to invest in that green economy and there are going to be new opportunities for manufacturing. New businesses will emerge from the process.
Electrification, hydrogen, nuclear, all those things are going to start to emerge and we’ve got to get that centred in Lancashire if we can.
We’ve got three amazing universities in Lancashire that can also support this whole process.
The opportunities are rich, the world of digitalisation and automation is going to transform what we do and the businesses that lead and invest will see a huge difference. That is why we’ve invested in the AMRC to get it set up at Samlesbury.
We’re going to have to invest in the green economy and there
are going to be new opportunities for manufacturing
We have to decide in Lancashire whether we want to lead or follow and I’d encourage us all to be the advanced manufacturers of the future, to get into the new markets.
Government will help us; we’ve just got to give them the golden opportunities to do so.
We’ve set up an advanced manufacturing sector group and an aerospace one, we’ve brought business leaders together to define the future.
Don’t sit there quietly, shout up, come and join us, get involved and let’s get a powerful voice for Lancashire, because that’s what we’ve got to do.
Lancashire
innovation
defining Working in partnership to drive economic growth //
LancashireLEP.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
