54 MANUFACTURING
OUR EXPERTS:
Rob Biddlecombe Brabners
Sam Butterworth
Buoyancy Aerospace Nicola Clayton
Blackburn College
Melissa Conlon AMRC North West
Austin Cook BAE Systems
Virginia Cooper MHA Moore and Smalley Andy Schofield – North West Aerospace Alliance Continued from page 53
When it comes to net zero, he adds: “There is a direction of travel and it is towards increased regulation.
“We are seeing an increased requirement for directors’ reporting on greenhouse gases and carbon emissions. The circular economy is being promoted as well.”
John Keen RKMS
Stephen Kelly HycAero
Paul Nicholls Barclays
Sean Redfearn Red-Fern Media
Wayne Richardson
AG Precision and Sons Charlie Rooke
Senior Aerospace Weston David Stanley – ELE Advanced Technologies
on their digital transformation and growth. Managing director Sean Redfearn sees that transformation and the ESG agenda as the central issues facing manufacturers in the supply chain.
He says: “It is about understanding what the data needs to be and where it needs to go. The challenge for manufacturers further down the supply chain is how they will hook into that infrastructure when it is in place.”
What is happening in
Europe is going to have a real impact. If we want
to trade in Europe we are going to have to comply with their regulations
John Keen, managing director of Blackpool headquartered training and consultancy business RKMS, works with a range of supply chain businesses focusing on risk and compliance management. He says: “We look at compliance as a positive, a lot of people look at it as a cost.
“At the moment net zero is an expense to everybody but it is also a massive opportunity, the sort of savings that can be made there.”
He adds: “We help clients achieve standards. The need to measure their carbon footprint and produce a road map to get onto frameworks is a massive trend that we are seeing.”
Digital agency Red-Fern Media, based in Burnley, also works closely with companies
And he adds: “We are seeing a lot of changes around how companies are approaching ESG. They see it as an opportunity to tell that story, to separate it out, to help get investment and funding.”
Ginni Cooper also believes businesses should use the reports in their statutory accounts to shout loudly about what they are doing really well when it comes to ESG.
When it comes to digital transformations there is support out there for Lancashire firms. Melissa Conlon, commercial director of AMRC North West says £500,000 is being invested in creating a ‘supply chain demonstrator’ at the Samlesbury facility.
She explains: “This is a physical demonstration to help supply chain companies understand how they provide information upstream and
downstream, how they extract information from their physical assets and the type of data the larger companies are actually looking for.
That will help them remain in the supply chain and also show what digital transformation they have got to through to provide the information.
“We want companies to come in and say, ‘I’m not at this stage yet but I need to adopt this and it will then keep me in the supply chain for businesses such as BAE Systems’.
“Because what we don’t want is any of this work going out of the county. It is about trying to help our manufacturers understand what the requirements will be of them going forward.”
Andy Schofield chairs the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) and has been involved in recent cross-sector work looking at the opportunities and importance of manufacturing in Lancashire and the wide region.
He says: “Quite clearly, we are good at what we do around manufacturing. What we need to do is be better at what we do and we need to transform to a future world.
“What that means is getting ready for all the opportunities, whether they are in aerospace, defence, space, automotive or energy.
“There are a whole series of growth opportunities coming forward over the next few years. If we stand still we are out of the game, it is as clear as that.
“We need to attract manufacturing and engineering work into the region by developing skills, technologies and all those aspects. There is a massive opportunity. Equally, what comes with that is a big challenge, particularly across the supply chain.”
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