News » UK News Troubleshooting team helps manufacturers to solve problems
The Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre has launched a team of manufacturing experts and research engineers to help UK businesses of all sizes to improve productivity, processes and efficiency. The MTC says it is responding to demand in establishing its System Architecture team, which will examine companies’ processes to seek opportunities for improvement, identify bottlenecks, and find areas where technology could help cut costs, increase safety, save time or improve productivity.
Experience Centre shows transformative technologies
Siemens has refurbished a demonstration centre at its Manchester, UK, headquarters to create a “Digital Experience Centre” that illustrates how industrial companies can embark on a journey of digital transformation. The centre includes working examples of digital technologies which will help them to enhance productivity, implement flexible manufacturing, optimise performance and open up new business models.
MTC's Levy-funded manufacturing degree will avoid fees
The UK's Manufacturing Technology Centre is launching a degree-level programme to equip employees with high-level manufacturing skills. The Degree Apprenticeship in Product Design and Development will include a BEng (Hons) degree in Advanced Manufacturing. The four-year course will be funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, allowing students to obtain a degree while in full-time paid employment and without having to pay university fees.
Engineering centre doubles to service ABB VSDs and others
ABB has more than doubled the size of its UK Engineering Centre in Coalville, Leicestershire – from 830m2 to 1,789m2 – to meet a rising demand for variable-speed drive (VSD) servicing, customer training, and developing specialist test rigs (STRs). As well as repairing and upgrading ABB’s own low-voltage AC and DC drives and medium-voltage AC drives, the centre will upgrade MV drives made by third parties.
Conferences will help UK SMEs to decipher digitalisation
DFA Media, which publishes Drives & Controls and Smart Machines & Factories, has launched a series of one-day conferences aimed at helping UK companies – especially SMEs – to make the move to digitalisation. Under the umbrella title of Demystifying the jargon: How to make the digitalisation transition, each conference with focus on the needs of a particular sector.
European Centre of Expertise includes drives workshop
Eriks has opened a European Centre of Expertise for power transmission in the UK, which will include a repair and test workshop for drives. It is one of a series of technology centres the group is setting up and will provide customers with technical and engineering support.
Brexit is a factor in Schaeffler’s plan to halve UK workforce
Schaeffler has announced plans to shut two of its three UK manufacturing plants: its Barden site in Plymouth, which produces spindle bearings and machine parts for its industrial division, as well as specialised bearings for the aerospace and defence industries; and its Llanelli site, which makes tappets and special-purpose bearings for automotive and industrial users. It also plans to transfer the activities currently undertaken at its logistics centre in Sutton Coldfield to its other UK logistics site in Hereford.
£600,000 lab will show how robots can solve users’ problems
Omron has opened a robotics innovation lab at its UK headquarters in Milton Keynes. The lab, which represents an investment of £600,000 with a creation of five new jobs, will show potential users how robots could enhance their applications.
‘UK manufacturers are not planning to cope with change’
UK manufacturers need to prioritise forward-thinking strategies to cope with an unprecedented amount of change in the sector, a new report from NatWest suggests. Based on interviews with senior personnel in 110 UK manufacturing companies with turnovers from £5–80m, Future Fit: Trailblazing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution looks at what makes a successful manufacturer, and reveals the views of the sector’s leaders.
Commission aims to boost UK productivity and create jobs
A group of UK manufacturing business leaders and academics have joined forces with the government to create the Made Smarter Commission, which aims to make UK manufacturing “smarter”. The inaugural meeting of the commission, held on 27 September, was chaired by Siemens CEO Professor Juergen Maier and Business Secretary Greg Clark and follows the publication of the Made Smarter Review almost a year ago.
Most UK industrial goods suppliers want to keep EU regs
A clear majority (83%) of UK manufacturers of industrial products want to continue regulatory alignment with the European Union after the UK leaves the EU, according to a new survey by Euris, the umbrella group of 13 British trade associations representing suppliers of industrial products.
ABB launches UK cyber-security task force for automation
ABB UK has launched a dedicated team to tackle the growing cyber-security demands of sites that rely on industrial automation. The company is expanding its existing industrial cyber-security activities and adding multi-sector expertise to support operators both onsite and remotely.
Andy Wylie joins the Drives & Controls team
Andy Wylie has joined Drives & Controls as advertising sales manager. He has a background in publishing and organising events.
UK government commits almost £1bn to high-tech hubs
The Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced a further £780m of investment in the UK’s Catapult Centres – the network of high-tech hubs designed to create the technologies of tomorrow. Together with £180m announced by the Prime Minister for Centres in the North East last month, this takes the combined recent funding to almost £1bn – the largest investment in r&d for 40 years, according to the government.
Digital manufacturing projects win £11.4m of EPSRC funding
The UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded £11.4m in funding to seven projects aimed at creating novel digital tools, techniques and processes to support the use of digital technologies in the manufacturing sector. The projects will bring together academics and industrial partners.
