As MACH approaches, the UK machine tool industry is said to be in fine fettle. Features on MRP II, an automated turning cell, simultaneous engineering, sub-micron on-machine measurement and a UK modular tooling system all featured.
Read More
|
As you may have picked up on from previous comments, Machinery has no great liking for the finance sector, post crash. But I, and you, should value it.
Read More
|
March 1988 sees Machinery kick off with the first of its MACH exhibition previews. And with the UK still having something of a domestic machine tool building industry, there's news from UK-based companies.
Read More
|
According to IBM: "Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion (1018) bytes of data — so much, that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone" – although, I'm sure that is out of date already, by several quintillion bits of data, in fact.
Read More
|
John Kay's 'Parable of the ox' article in the FT last year (http://is.gd/hiU0Nc) has been given some new life, following further exposure in BBC's recently aired 'More or Less' programme (http://is.gd/oYKfaZ).
Read More
|
The Department for Trade and Industry becomes the Department for Enterprise (today BIS – Business, Innovation and Skills) under the third Thatcher government. Ever hopeful, we suggest it highlights government's support for manufacturing
Read More
|
The first issue of 1988 kicked off with a leader article celebrating the end to the ownership of UK machine tool firms by large conglomerates that had not taken the sector seriously
Read More
|
Last year saw Machinery's centenary. We published a special issue in September, which is still available to download online, along with a PDF scan of our 75th anniversary issue, published in 1987 – it, too, can be downloaded.
Read More
|
The UK's automotive industry has transformed and opportunities for component suppliers are held up as offering a prize, boosting UK-based activity and reducing imports, as Andrew Allcock highlights
Read More
|
Machinery's September centenary issue ended its future-gazing finale on the topic of additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing as it is now generally termed by the press at large. And the press at large are getting quite exercised about it – The Economist regularly now talks about it. Indeed, it was that publication we drew on when we quoted Michael Idelchik, vice president of Advanced Technologies for GE Global Research, saying "One day we will print an engine". Hype or reality?
Read More
|
Andrew Allcock explains about a forthcoming CE marking requirement for fabricators, highlighting that
a welding technology supplier has done much of the hard slog to help companies meet this need
Read More
|
It has been a frequent accusation for years, both for publically and privately owned British assets, that we sell our 'family silver' to overseas interests to our detriment. Is it happening again? Andrew Allcock asks
Read More
|
The various government/membership/contract research-funded manufacturing centres of excellence that have been established over some 11 years, starting with the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing, initially at Sheffield University, but now located on the Rotherham Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP), will, Machinery is certain, come to be seen as key in supporting the reshaping and development of manufacturing in the UK. Indeed, this government has made some of them the bedrock of its High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult network.
Read More
|
In parallel with Business Secretary Vince Cable's announcement of the government's industrial strategy in September, where he gave an outline of its elements – a focus on sectors with highest growth potential, a government-backed institution to ease finance availability, £165 million boost for the skills that businesses need, a new Innovation and Knowledge Centre to boost commercialisation of research, reforming government procurement, plus government and industry partnerships to create strategies for specific sectors by 2013 – came a detailed document.
Read More
|
There's an e-petition running that calls for the protection of the title 'Engineer' – here.
Read More
|
Terry Grubb, managing director of aerospace subcontract engineering company Micro Precision, reviews the 'make or buy' decision-making process and the main considerations
Read More
|
Accurate valuations of a company's assets, incorporating both the building and its contents, are vital to a healthy business and economy; without them, companies risk being exposed in an uncertain climate. However, for valuations to be accurate they must be based on current, measurable data.
Read More
|
I've been associated with the engineering world all my working life, but there are still times when I'm bowled over by something unexpected.
Read More
|
Andrew Allcock ponders the fate of renewables and the business opportunities that are expected to flow from that sector, in light of a new report on the increasing abundance of gas
Read More
|
With the latest news on UK manufacturing less than positive, based on latest monthly statistics, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has offered something worthy of celebration, taking a rather longer term view than a single month.
Read More
|
Andrew Allcock mulls over the latest supply chain disruption story to hit the headlines – polyamide. A reminder of how concentration of supply can deliver up problems
Read More
|
Pat McFadden, MP, has published a pamphlet, under the auspices of the international centre-left think-tank and network Policy Network, entitled 'Making things – a reassessment of British manufacturing'.
Read More
|
Andrew Allcock argues that the brand of apprenticeships is being devalued by the application of the term to short training courses that lack the rigour, depth and breadth of a traditional, technical apprenticeship
Read More
|
Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable was doing the rounds at MACH 2012 and Machinery was able to ask him about rebalancing the economy, which I and everybody else take to mean a shift back to manufacturing, away from financial services.
Read More
|
What are your abiding memories of the Budget? The granny tax? Seen offensive to many for more than one reason, of course. A budget for a rebalanced economy? Well, we had the headline GlaxoSmithKline factory announcement just afterwards. The company is to build its first new manufacturing facility in the UK in almost 40 years and pointed up the budget's business-friendly measures of better intellectual property protection and lower corporation tax.
Read More
|