Friday Brief Intro 15/07/2022

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! It’s been a very hot week and it’s only going to get hotter so please make sure you are looking after yourselves throughout this heatwave!

To kick off the newsletter I would like to welcome a new MTA Member! Mitigo Cybersecurity has gone live as an MTA associate member this week! Check out their story to find out details about them.

IOE&IT has announced an event that will be taking place in Birmingham on Tuesday 12 July. Find out the details in the story below and a link to register.

On 6 April 2022 the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (PPER 2022) came into force. SHEP has a new webinar that aims to inform businesses about the recent changes, selecting the right PPE for the task, maintenance, face fit testing and compatibility. This will be followed by an interview with a sports psychologist on behavioural safety and the best tactics for encouraging employees to adopt safe working practices. Register below.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is to undertake a project to identify a base level of compliance with product safety. At present, it doesn’t know where that base line will be. OPSS is conducting a product safety review (PSR), with a view to introducing a regime that it hopes will put the UK at the cutting edge of PSR, globally. More details can be found in the story below.

BSI have published a new standard that can now be found on the BSOL website. Go to the story to find out more.

The MTA want to share with you the great experience we had on Wednesday at the TDI Challenge 2022 at YAMAZAKI MAZAK. We had the pleasure of listening to students between 16 and 18 years old who are passionate about engineering and science, creating very striking and useful projects for society. Check out the winners in the story below.

Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA has picked up the theme of last week’s Manufacturing Day which rather got overtaken by the political drama od the Prime Minister’s resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party and is suggesting that this is a good opportunity to raise the profile of manufacturing, at least among Conservative MP’s. He is suggesting that manufacturing companies should write to their MP – this only really applies to those in the Conservative Party – and has provided a draft format for such a letter. See the story below.

Government needs to be more effective in addressing workplace skills failings in England, says a new report from the National Audit Office. The NAO says that government has an enduring role in supporting workforce skills development, as the market does not supply all the skills the country needs to provide goods and services and to enhance productivity and competitive advantage. Find out more in the story below.

Our economic news this week is focussed on output data with the UK figures for manufacturing output in May having just been published alongside those for both services and construction which make up the monthly GDP estimate. May was generally a positive month with growth across the economy although manufacturing output in the UK has only just crept back above its pre-pandemic level – there is more detail around this and the monthly GDP figures in the story below. The other items in our economic news article cover the European industrial production data and the reports from the USA which track orders for machine tools and cutting tools.

We would like to remind MTA members that the June edition of our Business Survey is running at the moment and, with thanks to those who have already replied, you can let us have your input via the online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-jun22. The MTA Board is keen to maximise the response to this survey so we would encourage all members to consider participating; even if you don’t want to answer all of the questions a partial response is still useful in building the picture of business levels across the manufacturing technology spectrum.

For EIA members, your new quarterly is also still live – this questionnaire is at https://www.mta.org.uk/EIA-survey%20Q2-22 and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you all for keeping up to date with this week’s Friday Brief! We hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sun!

Conservative Party leadership election and the importance of manufacturing

Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA (of which MTA is a member) has reflected on the current political situation and notes that Kipling’s Kim said: “Those who beg in silence, starve in silence.” Therefore, now is a good time for the industry to raise its profile – to politicise manufacturing and advanced engineering, with a small […]

The TDI Challenge 2022

BSI Standards – Notification of Publication

Please be advised that the following Standard has been published and is available to view on BSOL. BS ISO 8000-64:2022 Data quality. Part 64: Data quality management: Organizational process maturity assessment: Application of the Test Process Improvement method If you don’t how to access to this benefit, please contact Sami Ortiz at [email protected]

OPSS to assess compliance levels

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is to undertake a project to identify a base level of compliance with product safety. At present, it doesn’t know where that base line will be. OPSS chief executive Graham Russell said this week that establishing a base line will allow measurement of the effectiveness of market […]

SHEP amended PPE Regulations and behavioural safety webinar

Monday 18 July 2022 12.00 – 1.00pm On 6 April 2022 the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (PPER 2022) came into force. They amend the 1992 Regulations (PPER 1992). They extend employers’ and employees’ duties regarding PPE to limb (b) workers. This webinar aims to inform businesses about the recent changes, selecting the right PPE for […]

STEMAZING course for female engineers

The MTA is always willing to encourage the young generation into STEM careers and are keen to support women in engineering, therefore, the MTA is sponsoring STEMazing Women – Inspiration Academy to reach the women in STEM and children with a programme that we know makes real impact. STEMAZINGWomen initiatives are to shine as a visible role […]

IOE&IT MemberCon22

If you’d like to hear more from experts about the digitalisation of international trade, make sure to sign up to IOE&IT MemberCon22, which is taking place in Birmingham on Tuesday 12 July. Digitalisation is the main theme of the event, with multiple panel discussions featuring government officials, trade experts and traders talking about what digitalisation means […]

The MTA is pleased to introduce Mitigo Cybersecurity as a new associate member

The number of manufacturing businesses being brought to a complete standstill after suffering a ransomware attack is increasing. The resulting chaos invariably includes a halt in production (average downtime of 26 days but it is frequently longer), disruption to supply chains, theft of confidential information, and ransom demands (average payment is £628,000 but it can […]

ECONOMIC NEWS

UK Manufacturing Output , May 2022: The latest headline data for manufacturing output from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows month-on month growth of +1.4% with 12 of the 13 sub-sectors having output higher than in April. This was led by growth in other manufacturing & repair and pharmaceuticals and the exception was in […]

Friday Brief