Good morning and welcome to this week’s Thursday Brief, due to the Easter bank holiday.
First up, with only 18 days to go till MACH 2016, we would like to encourage all of you to get on social media and start interacting with the various MACH 2016 accounts, across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social Media is an increasingly important place to get your messages heard. The online sphere is growing and companies with something to say can’t afford to miss out.
The MTA are delighted to announce that we will be holding a Lean Six Sigma Pilot beginning on 16th May 2016. We are looking for up to 5 member companies to participate in this pilot; any member wishing to take part should contact Ian Skeels (Technical Manager) at iskeels@mta.org.uk.
In last week’s Friday Brief the MTA’s Head of External Affairs, Paul O’Donnell, wrote that the Budget had been the least remarkable for nearly a decade. He has therefore been forcibly reminded of the truism that Budgets that look good in their immediate aftermath are often the ones that unravel most spectacularly as the Chancellor had to revisit the House in the light of his erstwhile colleague Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation (He’s been pointing out all week that he did add a rider to his article that the disability cuts might cause dissent). This week, as the debate on Europe heats up, he attended an Oxford Economics forecast. The forecast looked at a variety of scenarios for a post Brexit UK economy based on variables such as the quality of the trade deal the UK could extract from the other 27 states and the level of immigration that continued. Find out more details within the Brief.
We also have information on the apprenticeship levy and how it will work for business, please see the story below for the latest break down of these changes – warning there are still plenty of questions to be answered.
Businesses in the Manufacturing and Engineering sector have the opportunity to develop the skills of their workforce and apply for funding for training thanks to the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Funding is available for a limited time therefore businesses are encouraged to contact the skills service to find out if they are eligible. Visit www.the-lep.com/skillsservice or contact one of our experienced skills advisors: skills@the-lep.com or 0113 386 1910. More details can be found below.
The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Ultra Precision led by Cranfield University and the University of Cambridge will be delivering these upcoming events throughout 2016 as part of its National Strategy Programme for Ultra Precision, which aims to deliver a thriving and active ultra-precision community across academia and industry. Find out the subjects of these events, where they are held and how to attend in the story below.
The latest results from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey looked rather gloomy for the manufacturing sector, but this was mainly because of a sharp fall in output (with subsequent bounce-back) that appears to have arisen from the food & drink companies (this is the largest sub-sector of manufacturing) where some of the larger sites were affected by flooding early on in the latest 3 month period covered by this survey. The Bank of England’s Agents’ report paints a similar picture to the CBI survey, including highlighting again how the Automotive and Aerospace industries continue to lead the way, while the Machinery industry is at the bottom of the pile. The other report this week looks at some data on R&D spending.