Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) CEO James Selka presented the Product Showcase Awards at Autosport International exhibition last Thursday (10th January). The awards provided a great opportunity for exhibitors to introduce their best products to industry buyers and media. The MTA also sponsored the Cross-Industry Application award which was won by Aero Tec for its FIA FT5 Safety Fuel Tank.
The MTA and its members have been in Ireland this week at the National Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition, a one-day event which attracts over 4000 people to the Citywest venue outside Dublin. With our help, for the first time, a significant part of the show was dedicated to manufacturing technology, we’ll have a full report on this in next week’s Brief.
BSI is working with Innovate UK to develop a PAS guide to achieving trusted and secure measurements from networked sensors in a digital manufacturing environment. They are looking for people to make up a review group to give feedback on the content of the PAS. Full details on how to get involved can be found in the story below.
We can’t have a Friday Brief without a healthy dollop of BREXIT, MTA’s Head of External Affairs Paul O’Donnell looks at how this week’s events relate to MTA members and we also have a new MTA podcast for your listening pleasure here https://lnkd.in/err7Mxj.
Also, the EURIS Taskforce, a body of trade organisations representing UK manufacturing of which the MTA is a member, is calling for an extension to Article 50 following the result of Tuesday night’s Brexit vote.
There’s just time left to contribute to the work we have been carrying out work on how the MTA puts its message across and how it is perceived by a range of different audiences and stakeholders. You can input through the online survey tool, linked below, which asks questions about how you perceive the MTA and shows you some graphics of some designs that have been worked up as pointers to a new look for the Association. https://www.research.net/r/B3YBMB7
In response to feedback from employers, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) have developed new products for employers about off-the-job training and guidance supporting young apprentices. You can find out more about this within the Brief.
The economic headlines this week are dominated by the industrial production data from Europe which made very gloomy reading. Although care is needed in putting too much emphasis on one month’s figures, the sharp fall in output, led by the capital goods industries is concerning, as is the fact that all of the five largest economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) all saw output fall. There are some one-off factors behind this, including the difficulties in the Automotive industry around changes in the emissions regulations back in September – this has hit Germany in particular – but this is not the whole story. In contrast, the US market for manufacturing technology and cutting tools continues to grow at double-digit rates; the growth rates in the former have eased following the spectacular August and the IMTS boosted September/October results, but they remain strong and growth, albeit at single digit rates is expected in 2019. Back in Europe, while the latest Euro-zone investment numbers are at their highest since the recession, profitability is easing, so it is not clear that this improvement will continue.
That’s all for this week, have a great weekend from everyone at the MTA and we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news and views.
