Tag: Manufacturing

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North East LEP to provide consultancy support to boost the region’s manufacturing sector

A new pilot Manufacturing Growth Programme has been announced by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership ( North East LEP), aimed at manufacturing SMEs in Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. The scheme will help senior managers within manufacturing companies assess and identify barriers to growth, and work with them to improve business performance and increase sales.

John Barnett (pictured), member of the North East LEP’s Business Growth Board and Operations Director and European Head of Manufacturing at Calsonic Kansei explains that the programme is designed to stimulate the growth of aspiring manufacturing businesses across the North East through in-depth one-to-one support from manufacturing growth experts.

“This initiative, designed as a sister project to the North East Growth Hub, will be an important and tangible part of our support to businesses in the region. As a member of the North East LEP’s Business Growth Board I would like to see as many small and mid-sized manufacturing companies with growth ambitions get involved and work with our expert consultants to unlock their potential and drive their continued success. Manufacturing capability lies at the heart of this region’s future economic prosperity and I am particularly pleased the LEP is investing in its development.”

This new programme will run for an initial 12 month period. Working with over 80 growing businesses, the pilot programme is set to create 160 new manufacturing jobs. It forms part of the North East LEP’s strategic economic plan to foster growth within key sectors of the economy in order to create more and better jobs. The programme could be extended if this pilot phase proves successful.

The programme will be delivered by the BE Group – a North East based business services provider, and Improvement Architecture, a specialist business improvement consultancy.

Alastair MacColl, BE Group’s Chief Executive, says the programme will link to other government-led support for manufacturing and engineering businesses:

“We are really pleased to be delivering the North East LEP’s Manufacturing Growth Programme. In recent years we have seen great results from the ‘Let’s Grow’ Regional Growth Fund grant scheme, and we are sure that SME companies will also benefit significantly from the strategic level insight and advice delivered through this new programme. We are looking forward to linking this exciting programme with the fantastic advice and support already available through our regional sector clusters and the wider North East Growth Hub community of business support and finance organisations.”

Graham Sleep, Founder and MD of Improvement Architecture, commented:

“Having worked with small and medium sized manufacturing businesses over many years our team has developed a good understanding of the common challenges they face, which can prevent them from reaching their true potential revenues and profit levels. We will be using a unique model to highlight relative strengths of the companies we’re supporting, so they can become more competitive, productive and profitable.”

If you are a small manufacturing business with big growth ambitions, please contact Tracey Watson for more details on how to apply.

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0191 389 8434.
Or see www.ne-mgp.co.uk for programme details and to check eligibility.

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North East heavy weights & Northern Powerhouse Minister top the agenda at Manufacturing & Engineering North East 2016

The triple award winning Manufacturing & Engineering North East conference and exhibition will again bring together world class speakers and exhibitors to Newcastle, 6-7th July. Visitors can now register online to attend the conference, which includes speakers from Hitachi Rail, Nissan, UKTI and James Wharton MP, Minister for the Northern Powerhouse, plus many more.

With over 10,000 design engineering and manufacturing sites within a 100 mile radius of Newcastle, Manufacturing & Engineering North East is ideally located to support the region’s industry. The event offers a prime opportunity for those organisations to source new suppliers, test equipment, acquire expert knowledge and forge new supply chain relationships without travelling much further afield.

The conference sessions, led by industry figureheads and engineering experts, will focus on opportunities for growth in the North East and future manufacturing technology. Hitachi Rail will open the conference by explaining how they developed a four year blueprint for building the fully operational site at Newton Aycliffe. With a resurgence of manufacturing industries in the region, IMechE will examine how that growth is making a difference to the economy regionally and nationally.

Visitors will also hear from the founder of Ford Aerospace about how diversification has enabled the company to continue to grow. The Manufacturing Technology Centre will be highlighting the opportunities and challenges of additive manufacturing and the AMRC’s head of the Factory 2050 project will be discussing the 4th industrial revolution and what it will mean for the UK’s manufacturers.

In addition, the full workshop programme offers practical learning and inspiring case studies alongside an exhibition of more than 90 exhibitors from regional and national suppliers.

Manufacturing & Engineering North East will open at the Radio Metro Arena, Newcastle 6-7th July. Pre-registering for the event is quick and easy and will guarantee entry to this free event. Once registered, visitors can select the workshop and conference sessions they would like to attend; and with space limited on each session, it is recommended visitors book early to avoid disappointment.

To register and for the full conference and workshop programme visit: www.menortheast.co.uk

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Manufacturing and service sector growth underpinning record numbers in work

A continued surge in North East jobs is being fuelled by manufacturing and the service sector, today’s Labour Market statistics reveal.

North East LEP Chief Economist Chris Milne pointed to record employment statistics being driven by both the manufacturing and service sectors, as the North East narrowed the employment rate gap with the UK to 3.7 percentage points.

The percentage of people aged between 16 and 64 in employment in the North East in the latest quarter between October and December 2015 stands at a record 70.4%, up 2.1 percentage points on the previous quarter.

A total of 1.2m people are now in work in the North East – the highest ever recorded figure.

The final quarter of 2015 also saw the UK employment rate rise by 0.4 percentage points to 74.1%.

Today’s figures show that there are 9,000 more jobs in manufacturing and 28,000 more in the service sector, the two main sectors driving new employment growth in the region.

Unemployment is down 0.4 percentage points in the last quarter and people claiming Job Seekers Allowance is also down.

Economic inactivity has also fallen in the same period, down by 2.1 percentage points in the last quarter.

The statistics reveal that more people want to work and the number of people citing both long and short-term sickness as a reason for inactivity has fallen.

Chris said: “While we must not get carried away by short term fluctuations in statistics, today’s labour market figures give us reason for optimism.

“We are seeing a longer term trend towards an improved labour market picture in the North East, driven by job creation in a broad range of sectors.

“Manufacturing job growth demonstrates growing demand for the things we produce in the region and service sector job creation indicates broader economic growth and a sense of prosperity.

“Over the past year private service sector job growth in administration and support services and accommodation and food services has been particularly important, delivering 19,000 more jobs combined.

“The service sector will remain an important sector for economic growth of the region, and has more than compensated for public sector job losses over the past year.”

Chris continued: “Labour market inactivity has been a real challenge for the North East economy and with the national economy reaching full employment, it is essential that we get more people back into the labour market so that we can take advantage of economic growth opportunities.

“At 23.3%, we now have the lowest inactivity rate since the second quarter of 2014, where we hit an all-time low of 22.9%. We still need to do more to get people aged 50 plus back into work with a third of those in the inactive group.

“However, looking at today’s figures against a backdrop of strong GVA growth over the past few years we can see that the North East is on the up and good progress is being made towards achieving what we have set out in our strategic economic plan; 100,000 more jobs by 2024.”