How laboratory skills play a critical role in manufacturing Jennifer Macfarlane Age: 30 Occupation: deputy laboratory manager, Bridge of Weir (leather manufacturer) Location: Paisley Long interested in science, Jennifer Macfarlane studied forensic analysis at university with a view to joining the police force. But she changed course after her mother, a warehouse manager at a manufacturing company, suggested […]
Time on the shop floor builds on degree for ambitious engineer Ben Cohen Age: 24 Occupation: Part-time manufacturing technician at Terex (construction machinery), while completing engineering qualification Location: Coventry At 24, Ben Cohen has no doubt about his long-term goal: to run his own manufacturing business. “I like designing and fixing things,” he says. His 14-month internship at […]
Young managers take clothes from drawing board to shop rail Rosy Holden and Aimee Kelly Ages: 28 and 25 Occupations: Client manager and production manager, respectively, at Fashion Enter (clothing producer) Location: London Rosy Holden and Aimee Kelly (pictured left and right respectively) are among the 100-strong staff at Fashion Enter, a company making garments for fashion retailers […]
Self-taught joiner builds her own furniture business Fay Sebel Age: 29 Occupation: Owner, La Maison de Furniture (furniture maker) Location: London Half-Russian and half-Greek, Fay Sabel moved to London in 2009 to study music production. She moved into furniture manufacturing four years later, setting up La Maison de Furniture as a small company which she runs with her […]
25-year-old chooses apprenticeship and three years later is designing ships Louise Larkin Age: 26 Occupation: Boat designer, Ferguson Marine (ship builder) Location: Port Glasgow After working in a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Louise Larkin became disillusioned with banking which she began to view as “a dead-end job”. Luckily for her, soon afterwards Ferguson Marine […]
Young engineer uses skills to help other survivors Rishi Vegad Age: 28 Occupation: Part-time product tester, Blatchford (prosthetics) Location: Basingstoke Of all the possible introductions to engineering, Rishi Vegad’s experience is one that few would wish for. In 2010, at the age of 22, Rishi was hit by a drunk driver and lost a leg as a result […]
Manufacturing could be a beneficiary of Theresa May’s interest in formulating a cross-government industrial strategy. The new ideas could lead to new investments and projects with a positive impact on manufacturing and other technology-intensive sectors. In constructing and implementing a framework for thinking about industry, Britain needs a new agency: an Office of Industrial Strategy. […]
For decades people have complained that engineering’s poor public image was storing up problems. “Neither industry nor engineering are well regarded in this country…It is equally true to assert that these postures must change if Britain is to prosper,” a government inquiry into the state of manufacturing concluded in 1980.Not much has changed – most […]
Britain’s steel industry looks a little more secure following Tata Steel’s commitment to keep its Port Talbot plant open at least to 2021. But despite this stay of execution the long-term future in Britain of large-scale steelmaking is far from certain. The announcement early in 2016 by India’s Tata Steel that it was looking at […]
Book Review: Steel 2050: How Steel Transformed the World and Now Must Transform Itself. Rod Beddows has an immense amount of knowledge and experience about the steel industry and this comes through in this book. He has achieved one of the prime aims he has set out to accomplish: to give a young person just […]
A new website to tell the world about modern UK manufacturing has been launched in the setting of a stunning 3D-printed model of London. The project has received support from 47 organisations from business, government and public life. Behind it is the aim to use the best writing, photography and design to paint a more […]
On a visit to Seoul to take part in discussions on 21st century manufacturing, I was faced with a number of questions about the ideas in my book “The New industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalisation and the End of Mass Production”. I gave three lectures, two of them at events organised by the Korean Development Institute […]
