Welcome to the Friday Brief for week-ending 8 November.
Entries for the MTA’s 2014 Manufacturing Industry Awards are now open. Entering the Awards represents an outstanding opportunity to showcase your company’s achievements and/or the potential of one of your young engineers. Adjudication will be by an expert panel convened by the MTA and the Awards will be presented during the MTA’s Annual Dinner at the ICC Birmingham. Demand for places at the dinner is very strong so shortlisted entrants will be assured valuable publicity in front of a large audience drawn from across UK manufacturing.
Entry to the Manufacturing Industry Awards is not limited to MTA members but businesses are alerted to the deadline of 29 November for submitting entries. A link to the entry details is included in this week’s Friday Brief story. Categories include: Best Supplier Partnership, Best Training Scheme and Young Engineer of the Year. Applications for the AMTRI scholarship are also welcomed.
An important milestone has been passed this week. The MTA is pleased to announce that the MACH 2014 Exhibition has signed up the 400th exhibitor. With five months to go to the opening of the UK’s premier exhibition for manufacturing technologies passing this milestone is evidence of the confidence in the sector.
Another Friday Brief story highlights the announcement of a new £36 million training academy to be based at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Ansty Park, Coventry. The investment of £18 million from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills will be matched by a further £18m of industry support. One of the MTC’s aims for the academy is to assist small and medium sized businesses with the costs of training apprentices. The centre wants to provide a significant contribution towards solving skills shortages. Apprentices will learn the latest technology in areas such as intelligent automation, additive layer manufacture, laser machining and welding.
A note for your diaries: the 4th of December will see the MTA’s AGM held at Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre. We’re delighted that this year we will be joined by Professor Sir Mike Gregory, Director of the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University, who will share his thoughts on the challenges manufacturing faces in the 21st Century. See this week’s story for registration details.
It’s been a positive week on the economic front with the latest data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirming the generally positive outlook for the UK which has been evident from the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) in recent months. Moreover, the output of the capital goods industries, of particular interest to suppliers of manufacturing technologies, increased by +1.8% compared to the previous quarter making it the fastest growing of the major sub-groups within manufacturing.
PMI figures for the Euro-Zone released this week while not as buoyant as for the UK are still in positive territory. Interestingly, the overall reading for the Euro-Zone was 51.3, marginally above the September number, and the fourth consecutive reading above the crucial 50 level. More details on figures for the UK and Euro-Zone are in this week’s Friday Brief story.
Have a good weekend.