GUEST BLOG: Discover how the powers of ERP can take your business to the next level

During times of uncertainty, ERP can prove transformational in building digital resilience, driving efficiency and improving productivity. At K3 Syspro, we have over 40 years of experience implementing ERP solutions and helping manufacturers gear up for growth.

At Subcon this year, our team will be taking centre stage, demonstrating how our toolkit of software solutions can boost competitiveness, drive business efficiencies and increase profitability, with every manufacturer or distributor that visits our stand able to book their very own free discovery session.

Manufacturers who put SYSPRO ERP at the heart of their operation are far better equipped to face the challenges of the global market place. Access to centralised real-time data allows users to see, analyse and respond to what is happening in every area of the business and informs strategic decision making.

As manufacturers seek assistance in becoming more agile and robust, there has never been a better time to explore the infinite possibilities of SYSPRO ERP. Only then can they identify their pain points and ensure the business is in the best possible shape to enter the next stage of growth.

Every visitor to our Subcon stand will have a unique opportunity to find out what ERP can do for their business. Be sure to pick up your superpowers ticket, whoever unleashes the golden ticket will take home a £50 Fortnum & Mason voucher. 

K3 Syspro are also offering free discovery sessions where our team will visit your workplace, learn more about what you do and demonstrate how we can optimise every business process. Successful ERP implementation is dependent on a trusted partnership and these sessions help us understand our customers’ business needs. We will deliver customised demonstrations that highlights how SYSPRO will address your current issues and show the expected business benefits. Our team will produce a proposal for appropriate software, implementation and any specific automation and integration services.

The super powers offered by our ERP toolkit give users access to all the information they need at the touch of a button. Data is king, and our solutions revolutionise how people work.

ERP- enabled businesses gain full visibility into every nook and cranny of their operation and that intelligence and foresight allows business to improve their customer offer. With SYSPRO, users can guarantee traceability of products, alterations and transactions, whilst improved integration facilitates knowledge sharing and joined up working.

Business leaders can identify where to drive efficiency and improve productivity. Streamlining operations improves everyone’s working lives and frees them up to work at greater speed.

This all feeds in to supporting profits and financial gain, offering the extra resources necessary to make further investment in people, plant and processes.

Be it our advanced forecasting tools, sophisticated financial planning modules, or assistance with international tax and trading regulations, K3 Syspro’s suite of solutions offers customers greater resilience and an invaluable competitive edge.

Visit K3 Syspro at Subcon on 4-6 June 2019 on stand D22 and learn more about how ERP can super-charge your operation and don’t forget to pick up a golden ticket!

Find out more about our discovery sessions here https://www.k3syspro.com/advice-centre/do-you-need-erp/free-discovery-session/

Register for Subcon for free at www.subconshow.co.uk/register

GUEST BLOG: IPF Ltd are celebrating their 50th year of manufacturing bespoke plastic parts

As we enter our 50th year since being founded by Bill Bloomfield SNR in 1969, we thought we would reflect on a bit of our History;

In 1969 IPF started to machine and fabricate bespoke plastic components for a wide range of industries. Bill SNR was approached by Eon productions to machine A `Perspex Aquarium bed`, to feature in the James bond film `Diamonds are forever`. Sean Connery and Jill St. John feature in the image lying on the beautifully made Perspex bed below.

One of Bills biggest achievements at the time came in 1976 where IPF were the only company in the UK able to produce an extremely high quality part used for the world’s first brain scanner. IPF went from strength to strength gaining high profile customers ranging from Aston Martin, Monarch aircraft, to The National Heart and Chest Hospital, and The Institute of Child Health… to name a few! He even made a Perspex `Full English` for the largest UK Perspex distributer at the time!

Due to the business’s constant progression, IPF continued to invest to be at the forefront of new technology, and when the 3D Printing industry emerged, IPF invested in the latest high end equipment to start up a 3D Printing bureau, to run alongside its well established machining business, offering the best of cutting edge and traditional technologies.

In 2014 IPF were among the first to own a Polyjet Connex 500 multi-material and colour 3D printer in the UK. IPF have since been involved with a multitude of industries, 3D Printing props for movies, such as the Starlord mask for `Guardians of the Galaxy`, as well as assisting in medical developments with our HP MJF, collaborating with `Prosfit` and their life changing custom made prosthetic sockets, regulated for weight bearing up to 125 kg!

We have since gained even more high-profile customers in the Automotive, Defence, Aerospace, Medical and Movie industries. Due to the sensitive industries that we work with, and the NDA’s in place we cannot specify who, but products that have been professionally and carefully prototyped by us, have featured in some of the latest blockbuster movies, TV advertising, and products that are likely to be being used daily by yourselves; such as smart phones or even wearable technology!

In our 50th year of innovation, we have had breakthroughs in Laser Welding applications for medical manifolds and micro-fluidics, as well as investments into 5-Axis machining for complex shapes and high speed production. Continued developments in CNC Machining, Diffusion Bonding and Fabrication along with extensive high-volume production capabilities now available with our Additive Manufacturing for prototypes and production parts.

The 3D printing and plastic machining industry is forever evolving, and IPF assure its new and long-standing clients, that we will remain devoted to constantly move forward with these exciting advancing technologies, as well as nurture and perfect our 50 years of experience.

Visit Industrial Plastic Fabrications Ltd on stand A31 at Subcon 4-6 June 2019 - register now for free at www.subconshow.co.uk/register

Interview with Simon Garwood - R4E Innovation Manager at WMG

Simon Garwood is R4E Innovation Manager at WMG. At The Engineer Conference in June, he is presenting ‘WMG - Electric Vehicle Supply Chain: challenges and opportunities’ on 6 June at 11:15. We caught up with him before the show.

What opportunities exist for UK engineering in relation to creating a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles?

The short answer is every opportunity. The innovation that is facilitating electric vehicles is well understood in this country, if not invented here, so UK engineering companies must be in a position to ‘catch the ball’ and be able to scale up the manufacture.

What are the challenges and how is the market currently shaping up?

To a certain extent, it’s like the Wild West with respect to electrification, with some very modest sized companies supplying key components to OEMs and tier 1s. Scaling up production to be able to keep this business is a key challenge.

Is Government doing enough to help this process? If not, what more should they be doing?  

Government is doing much to encourage UK engineering, though how the support gets to SMEs is somewhat fragmented and confusing. Clarifying the route to support is the first priority.

How do you feel about Brexit and the impact it may have on UK engineering and manufacturing?

Uncertainty can lead to delays in investment and uncertainty is not good for business.

What are you most looking forward to at The Engineer Conference/Expo, Subcon and Advanced Manufacturing this summer?

The opportunity to Network and talk to UK manufacturing companies large and small regarding their readiness for vehicle electrification.

What would you put in Engineering Room 101?

The term ‘Industry 4.0’ as it creates a whole world of understanding and turns into a sales pitch rather than tools to be applied to help improve productivity by improving the information available from processes by linking them together, and most of all creating insight from the data to inform decision making.

The Engineer Conference takes place 4-5 June at NEC, Birmingham, and is co-located with Advanced Manufacturing, The Engineer Expo and Subcon. Register now for a free visitor pass HERE.

GUEST BLOG: Contract crisis! Could staff living conditions be a threat to your business?

When David Beckham first went to play football at Real Madrid, he and his family set up home in the city’s lavish AC Santo Mauro hotel. Team Beckham took two suites for 80 nights, and it’s said the bill came to £430,000.

Living in a luxury hotel for a few months with your family, enjoying unlimited room service, sounds, well, pretty marvellous! But take away the luxury, the family and the room service and you arrive at a hotel experience much more recognisable to the typical sub-contractor. 

Small rooms, limited space, endless take-outs, and living life out of a suitcase for weeks on end can be pretty demoralising, not to say unhealthy.  But there are other implications too, such as the risk of poor productivity and falling motivation – even staff burnout; all of which have consequences for contract delivery and fulfilment.

Happily though, there is an alternative that is more practical, better value, and better for workforce wellbeing too. Offering living spaces, kitchens, storage space, laundry facilities and weekly cleaning services, the serviced apartment has rapidly become the go-to solution for sub-contracting teams around the world. 

Typically costing 20-30% less than standard hotel accommodation, serviced apartments are an option not to be sniffed at, especially where teams live together for extended periods of time.  We’re talking living environments where workers can relax in their own space, cook, entertain and even host friends and family.  The benefits for health, harmony, wellbeing, and the bottom line, are many.

In a world where projects are increasingly time sensitive and contracts are subject to penalty clauses for late delivery, work-life living is fast becoming mission critical.  Get it right and you can reap the benefits. Get it wrong, and the cost could be far greater than you think. 

That’s where working with a specialist serviced apartment provider comes in to play. Here at SITU we work with sub-contractors around the globe, providing cost-effective solutions for everything from apartments for individuals, to multi-occupancy apartments for groups of contract workers. We also provide corporate housing for key staff and their families meaning that whatever your requirements, wherever your project, you can rely on us to deliver to your needs and your budget. 

Phil Stapleton is Founder and MD of SITU, one of the UK’s leading providers of serviced apartments and corporate housing for contractors domestically and internationally

·    Phil Stapleton will be talking about the core role that accommodation has on contract team productivity and staff wellbeing in Theatre 2 on June 4^th at 15:00.

·    Visit SITU on Stand G24 for the opportunity to win up to one week’s accommodation for a team of up to four.

SITU provides properties for stays of three or more nights in over 500 locations internationally, with over 15,000 apartments on its books in the UK and over 36,000 globally; www.situ.co.uk

This post was written by Phil Stapleton, Founder and Managing Director at SITU. SITU is exhibiting at Subcon 4-6 June 2019 - register now for free at www.subconshow.co.uk/register

Interview with Elizabeth Donnelly - WES

WES is 100 years old in June - congratulations - tell us why you were founded all those years ago, if and how you have achieved your goal, and what progress has been made in that time? 

Thank you! WES was founded in 1919 in response to the pressure women were put under at the end of the First World War to leave the workforce to release jobs for men returning from the forces. These women founded WES, not only to resist this pressure, but also to promote engineering as a rewarding job for women as well as men.

Our objects haven’t changed in that time. WES was established to promote the education, training and practice of engineering among women, to advance the education of the public concerning the study and practice of engineering among women, and to relieve poverty amongst women in engineering. We are still promoting these objects, though 100 years ago WES was emphasising that women could be engineers, now our focus is more that women should be engineers, and we relieve poverty by helping women into work. 

So, what's next for WES? What are your future goals? 

We want to continue to support women in engineering as our greatest strength is our network, and we are still making history. We held the first Women Apprentices’ Conference in 2018 and it was such a success we want to run this annually from now on. We also formed the University Group Board last year to support our Student  Groups and we are looking at forming Cluster Groups to support BAME women engineers and Retired Engineers.

We have also announced a Census into women’s experience in engineering, and in future we hope to be the repository for a lot of research on women in engineering. And we are continuing with International Women in Engineering Day on the 23 June 2019, our 100th birthday, which we launched five years ago, as well as celebrating the Top 50 Women in Engineering for the fourth year, with the theme of Current and Former Apprentices this year.

You did some research a couple of years ago that stated around 20,000 women had left the workforce to have children now wish to return. Has that number diminished or grown? What are/can businesses/industry/the Government do to facilitate their return? 

I don’t have the current figures, but we started STEM Returners in an effort to make it easier for women to return from career breaks. We advise businesses to pilot “returnships” to ease returners back into the workplace and get their skills up to date. In these times of 24/7 manufacturing, every job is part-time and if employers can arrange working times to suit women’s childcare arrangements, then women are more likely to stay for a long period.

There are many other things that help recruit women – we have a gender decoder for job ads and it’s been shown that ads that are “masculine-coded” are more likely to put women off applying. Websites that feature only men deter women from applying to those companies, and often women will only apply for a role where they fit the essential criteria 100%, whereas men will apply if they fit 60% - and get the job. Companies are missing out on talented staff as a result, so WES encourages employers to say, “if you fit three of the following criteria, please apply”. We also want employers to say that they welcome applications from women.

Why is it important for the engineering industry to employ (more) women? 

Women are more holistic, so we look not just at the problem in front of us, but at its wider context. More importantly, the absence of women in engineering creates a lot of problems for women in the rest of their lives. Caroline Criado-Perez has written about this in her book Invisible Women. Crash test dummies are usually modelled on men, meaning women are more likely to be injured than men in traffic collisions; medicines are tested on men and not women, when women respond differently; mobile phones are designed for male hands, so women find it difficult to use them single-handedly, and a recent health app made no mention of periods – something that affects 50% of the population at some point in their lives. Bringing women into engineering brings variety into engineering. I remember Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety from my systems studies – you must have as much variety in your organisation as the population you serve.

Our industry survey asked if 'enough is being done to attract women into engineering'? The results this year or almost identical to last year. However, fewer people (28% compared to 22%) believe Government and business need to be doing more - why do you think that is? 

I think that the campaigns to get more women into engineering have been more visible and there may be a sense that the “job is done”. However, it takes years to build a pipeline of women in engineering and we must keep pushing.

 When I went to university in the late 1980s, there would be one or two women studying for an engineering degree. These women are just now beginning to take senior roles because it takes up to 30 years to get to the right stage in a career – we have just seen Air Marshall Susan Gray become the highest ranked woman in the military ever. And if women took career breaks it will take a little longer. So, we are seeing a few women reaching the top of engineering, with more women coming through below. It’s still not enough, barely 12% of all engineers are women, so we need to keep attracting women into engineering.

We also asked 'What do you think needs to be done to encourage more women to consider manufacturing or engineering as a career?' One of the options was 'no more needs to be done'. Last year, 7% of respondents opted for this. This year, 54% had. Why do think that's the case? 

For similar reasons as above. There is a greater focus on gender pay gaps, on women in the workplace, and now that women are becoming more visible through campaigns such as “#MeToo” there is likely a backlash. Men are having to reconsider their workplace behaviour and it’s easier to say they don’t want any more women than to change the culture.

What do women bring to engineering that's different to men?

Women bring collaboration and teamwork, attention to detail and a willingness to ask questions and possibly fail. If engineers don’t make mistakes, they don’t make anything, and I think women are much more likely to say, well, that didn’t work, let’s try something else, whereas men might be less inclined to admit they got something wrong.

Engineering is much more collaborative now and we are finding that women succeed in newer fields such as environmental engineering and where more than one area of engineering overlap, e.g. Mechatronics – electronics in mechanical vehicles. A good friend of mine has just set up her own company and her expertise is in mechanical, aerospace and chemical engineering, which means she can provide a great deal for her customers.

What’s your personal experience of being a female engineer at Rolls Royce?

I wasn’t an engineer at Rolls-Royce, I was an adviser on lobbying government to support the trade unions at Rolls-Royce. I used my systems engineering background to devise a strategy with the government to get three new factories built in the UK and secure 800 jobs.

Did your gender create obstacles that weren’t there for male colleagues?

Well, having to go outside the building across a site road to another building for the loo was an experience! I don’t think it’s my gender that created obstacles, I think that obstacles are there for women because men don’t encounter the same experiences and don’t think about it.

I’ve spent my life among men. I have three brothers, and there are only 3.5 years between all four of us. I’ve worked in male-dominated industries like IT, politics and engineering all my life, so I’m used to hitting obstacles. I was a Board Member of the East Midlands Regional Development Board in charge of millions of pounds of public money, surrounded by very powerful Council Leaders and leaders of industry (some of them women) and I was asked why I wasn’t more recognised. In the course of the discussion that followed, a man commented, “it’s because good men get promoted and good women get side-lined”. I have found that to be the case, so I’ve generally just found a way round it.

It has been very difficult at times, though, and not every woman wants to be a trailblazer or a role model, they just want to do their job. At the time it didn’t feel like trailblazing or role modelling, but it seems I did do that. This led to quite a patchy CV, so it was important that I construct a narrative that explained my progression. Men often just have a logical career progression which is easily explained. 

What advice would you pass onto young women engineers just entering the profession?

It’s a great field. If you like problem-solving and working on your initiative, it’s a great career and you’ll never be bored. Build you network, because you never know when contacts from years ago will be useful in the future. Join WES as a Student or Apprentice and maintain your membership because we provide a great network from early career to retirement. Get your Chartership because it shows that you have the expertise necessary to do your job and will get you respected. Apply for jobs you want even if you don’t think you can do them. Pursue every opportunity you get, don’t take no for an answer and follow your curiosity. The field of engineering is changing, and you want to be at the cutting edge.

Every year the age where women first encounter sexism gets higher and for many women I hope they won’t encounter it at all. 

What role can senior, male engineers play in driving gender diversity?

A lot! We instituted a Men As Allies Award in 2017 and we award it to the man who has encouraged women into engineering.

Men have always helped women get into engineering, and some of our very first Associate Members were men. Join WES! Get your company to partner with WES!

Employ more women, it will help your gender pay gap and your need to have more women on your Board.

Change your recruitment process, and if you see a woman on a shortlist, try to make it a conversation rather than an inquisition.

If you see a young woman that you believe can be excellent, then mentor her, promote her to your colleagues, give her opportunities to shine, support her in meetings and don’t let her male colleagues take her credit.

Finally, all this will benefit your bottom line – we know that mixed teams work better than either male or female-dominated teams.

The Engineer Conference takes place 4-5 June at NEC, Birmingham, and is co-located with Advanced Manufacturing, The Engineer Expo and Subcon. Register now for a free visitor pass HERE.

Interview with Brian Holliday - Managing Director Siemens Digital Industries

You’re presenting the keynote at this year’s Engineer Conference, please tell us a little more about this.

My intention is to offer some insight into the benefits of industrial digitalisation, to look beyond the hype to the company, employee and economic benefits of embracing digital technology and to explore some practical examples in Edge Computing, AI and Cloud Technology to name a few.

How do digitalisation, digital twinning, industry 4.0, etc, have the potential to improve the productivity and efficiency of UK manufacturing?

Industry 4.0 (the digitalisation of industry) represents the world’s next industrial productivity leap and again it’s derived from technological progress. This time, it’s all about data and the unprecedented networking of humans and machines. It will continue what we’ve started, with tools that augment both human physical and intellectual effort augmenting current levels of automation in industry.

Digital twins are already much more than geometry-based CAD models - they help us rapidly design, prototype and deploy both products and production plants in the virtual world helping to avoid much of the cost associated with traditional new product introduction or plant investment (without the downtime) – but also, digital twinning enables a faster time to market which in turn means competitiveness. Much of the value of the digital twin is yet to be widely realised – namely the digital twin of the performance of machines, plants and supply chains. This is where the IOT connectivity that we increasingly expect, enabled by MindSphere and Industrial Edge, connects a wealth of industrial data to increasingly advanced applications that help improve our insight to performance and enable us to act on it. This could mean a predictive failure intervention or use data to improve a product design or the enablement of a completely new business model.

Industry 4.0 is a global race – it’s about building unprecedented agility into what we do - it offers significant opportunities if we embrace it and the threat we’ll fall behind if we don’t.

Sum up the Made Smarter vision in one sentence?

Made Smarter is all about the UK embracing the fourth industrial revolution so we can dramatically improve our manufacturing productivity, growth and high value jobs footprint – all of which sets us up for a leading role in the future of manufacturing.

How far along the road are we to achieving this vision?

We’ve made a good start and there are pockets of excellence, although we must catch up given how little we automate in comparison with other industrialised nations today.
We’re becoming more joined up as industry, government and the innovation community and we’re starting to realise the benefits, at the same time as starting to help take the long tail of smaller manufacturers with us through the Made Smarter north west pilot. The North West was chosen because it represents much of our manufacturing and industrial activity and the institutional stakeholders there were willing participants when it came to collaboration and the support required to set up and scale such an innovative intervention.  

What are you most looking forward to at The Engineer Conference and Expo
this summer?

I am looking forward to spending time in detailed debate with my peers; with those in the industry who are trying to unpick and solve productivity problems through technology. This is a leading-edge discussion for engineering and one of our major challenges for the 2020s.

The Engineer Conference takes place 4-5 June at NEC, Birmingham, and is co-located with Advanced Manufacturing, The Engineer Expo and Subcon. Register now for a free visitor pass HERE.