Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
The Prime Minister gave a speech this week outlining the Government’s plans for Brexit. MTA CEO James Selka, noted “Advanced manufacturing, in the UK and Europe, depends on highly internationalised supply chains and leaving the Single Market raises many questions for our members. Any agreement must include the components and technologies that make up complex products and systems. We stand ready to help Government achieve those aims.”
You can read James’ full reaction to the announcement within the Brief.
The MTA Annual Dinner is returning to London on 23rd March 2017 and will be held at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. The event will be hosted by Alexander Armstrong, with entertainment from Simon Evans, as well as the return of a charity silent auction, in aid of REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Charitable Trust). Don’t miss out on this fantastic event, contact the MTA events team today and reserve your table by emailing events@mta.org.uk.
Next week should see the Government’s long awaited consultation, or Green, paper on Industrial Strategy published. This will be a big opportunity for the MTA to help to frame policies which we hope will last into the long term. We will be looking to get views from members on the issues it raises over the next few weeks and months so look out for more in the FB and direct emails on the topic. There’s more in the story below.
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has strengthened its relationship with one of Europe’s foremost research technology bodies – the Danish Technological Institute (DTI). This agreement supports both organisations in expanding their international activities and will see the MTC, based in Coventry, enhance its robotics and automation knowledge.
A comprehensive review of the performance of Britain’s manufacturing sector in 2016 was launched at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy back in December. The 260-page book, charts the key news, announcements and investments in different manufacturing sectors and technologies across the year. Find out more about this publication in the story below.
WMG (University of Warwick) are delighted to invite MTA members to attend a specialist event for SMEs: ‘Get Connected’, 7th February 2017, International Digital Laboratory, WMG (University of Warwick). This event will showcase how WMG can support small firms to implement practical digital solutions to increase productivity and efficiency, and cut costs.
MTA members ABB Robotics are hosting a Switch to Robots seminar on Wednesday 15th March 2017 at their facility in Milton Keynes. The day will look at the multiple benefits of switching to robotics such as improved productivity, increased competitiveness and enhanced flexibility in production. If you would be interested in attending, please register here - http://www.campaignlandingpage.com/switch-to-robots-march-2017?preview=1.
This week we have released the latest edition of our Economic Report which rounds up some general data for the UK economy and for the various sectors and industries of most interest to suppliers of manufacturing technology equipment. We also update the general data about the sector that we cover in Basic Facts – our handy pocket sized guide to the machine tool industry.
In a week when two countries, of different sizes, have new Presidents (with different experiences of the hand-over) there is not much economic news around; we have the latest data on the US machine tool and cutting tool markets and a note about investment and profitability in the Euro-zone.
That’s all for this week we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news, until then have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA.
