Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday brief, your one stop shop for MTA and UK manufacturing news.
First up, we’re a mere two weeks away from our annual dinner. At this year’s event we will be running an auction to raise money for a charity associated with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). REME employs the soldiers working as technicians, mechanics and fabricators that inspect, repair, modify and maintain the large array of equipment that the British Army operates.
Full details of the charity and the prizes can be found at http://mtaauction.org.uk.
In MACH 2016 news we have an exciting new marketing opportunity to help exhibitors keep track of the clients that they have invited to attend the exhibition. Find out full details in the story below.
UKTI is running a workshop and presentations to understand better the current situation in India, the event takes place in Liverpool on 26th January.
Just a quick final reminder that the MTA Business Survey for December is still open for your replies; we will be looking to close this early next week. You can access the on-line form at http://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-dec15
MTA’S Technical Manager Ian Skeels is delighted to contribute to his first in a series of reports for the Friday Brief. Many members will be familiar with the futuristic buzzphrases gaining attention such as Industry 4.0, Factories of the Future, Internet of Things etcetera. Whilst these all proffer a colourful future vision of manufacturing, boosted by a host of connectivity-enhanced benefits covering productivity, efficiencies and lower costs; in this article Ian outlines some of the prospective challenges and opportunities that focus on the behemoth-in-the-room: Manufacturing Informatics Security.
The main economic news this week was the figures for industrial and manufacturing output in the UK for November; the headlines seemed to focus mainly in the fall in output compared to a year earlier where total industrial output was affected by lower output of electricity and gas as a result of the warmer weather, but among our key customer industries we are seeing the divergence in activity continue. The Automotive and Aerospace industries continue to pressure the top of the charts, while the Machinery industry (which covers a wide range of divergent product groups that have in the past been considered as part of Mechanical Engineering) is in negative territory, with the Metal Goods industry bumping along in between these extremes. November was not a good month for industrial production in Europe, but that follows a good October, so it may just be a correction that could well arise from the seasonal adjustment process. This view is supported by the European Commission’s Economic Sentiment Index which showed an improvement in December, with industry confidence rising on the back of more optimistic expectations for production levels.
We'll be back next Friday with more news, until then enjoy your weekend, from everyone at the MTA.