Friday Brief Intro 06/04/2023

Welcome to this week’s Friday (Thursday) Brief! Unfortunately, due to some technical issues we were unable to send out a newsletter last week. Therefore, today’s brief is packed full of great stories for you, just in time for the Easter break!

To kick things off today we have story regarding the Moulding Expo. Tools and moulds are required in every industry in order to be able to manufacture high-quality products in large unit numbers. It is therefore becoming increasingly more important to organise the production process in an even more efficient and cost-effective way, and also take account of integrated solutions. A key role in this respect is played by reliable and innovative tool construction partners with modern and highly automated production as well as corresponding experience and know-how. Leading tool, pattern and mould making companies will demonstrate their expertise and offer solutions for different branches of industry at Moulding Expo from 13 to 16 June 2023. To find out more about the show please go to the story below.

The release of new dates for the ECJU Export Control training programme have been released. Targeted courses are for those wanting to learn about how to make better licence applications, control list classification, types of licences and licensing processes for specific sectors. To check out the dates please go to the story below.

With another year of weird bank holidays ahead of us, managing annual leave might already be stressing you out. That’s why our Associate Member Citation have this newly updated free guide to help you handle holiday leave. Download the guide below.

We would like to share with you an invite to attend an industry roundtable with the Department for Business and Trade on the UK’s post-Brexit approach to product markings. During April and May, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are holding a series of roundtables with stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, which will help them to understand how to make the UK’s approach to product marking as easy as possible for industry whilst ensuring we continue to protect consumers. These events will be held in London, Edinburgh and Manchester. You and your network can sign up to attend one of these sessions here. For more details please see the story.

BSI have released a new standard for your comments. The proposal states “Testing procedures for legged robots in industrial environments”. To get the full scope and purpose please go to the story.

If you have been a full or contract manufacturing member of the MTA for at least one year, and your company has an annual turnover of £10million or less, you should be eligible to apply for one of our grants or loans. Please go to the story to see the list of grants and loans available and also a link to the terms and conditions.

T Levels are a new qualification for students aged 16 to 19 in England who have finished their GCSEs. Each T Level is equivalent to 3 A levels and helps young people develop the knowledge, attitude and practical skills to thrive in the workplace. T Level industry placements are a free government scheme – you don’t need to pay to take on a T Level student for a placement. Take a look at the details in the story.

The impact that menopause can have on women’s mental and physical health is starting to be recognised – and not before time. Although awareness is improving, women still struggle to get the right medical treatment to help them to manage their symptoms and to get the support they need at work. Around one in ten leave roles they once thrived in. Irwin Mitchell have announced a webinar on the subject that you can register for through a link in the story.

The MTA are looking for expressions of interest from members for Asia’s leading exhibition for metal forming technologies and manufacturing technologies industries. IMTEX will be taking from the 19 – 23 January 2023 in Bangalore. The show attracts 450 – 500 companies and 35,000 – 40,000 trade visitors. Tooltech, Weldexpo and Digital Manufacturing Expo will be co-located alongside the show. All the details are in the story below so go check it out.

Lloyds Bank is holding a Midlands Economic Summit at the Birmingham Hippodrome on April 27th. Presentations are from 8.30 to 10am, with keynote speaker Jeavon Lolay, head of economics & market insight, Lloyds Bank Corporate & Institutional Banking. Interested? Check out the details below.

Jack Semple, Secretary of EAMA, has compiled an extensive note on a new strategic report from UKRI Innovate UK – KTN about the future of materials and manufacturing. This supports a new round of funding competitions which focuses on materials, smart design, supply chains, world class production and longer in-use and reuse within manufacturing. Please see the article below for more details.

With the information held over from last week, there is lots of economic news this time, headlined by the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The global manufacturing PMI slipped slightly further into negative territory with the UK seeing a sharper fall; a common theme behind this (we note similar trends in other economies) is an improvement in suppliers’ delivery times (often at a record pace) which has the perverse effect of reducing the overall PMI.

For the UK we focus on the UK national accounts data which included an upgrading of the GDP estimate to show marginal growth in the 4th quarter of 2022. We discuss the implications of this for the UK economy in this article and you can hear more on this at our Spring Economic Update event (where we will focus mainly on the UK) which is being held on 20th April – see https://www.mta.org.uk/event/mta-spring-economic-update-2023 for more details and to register – it is free for members to attend.

For economic news outside of the UK we cover the latest figures for the US market for both machine tools and tooling. In Europe, we take a look at the European Commission’s latest Economic Sentiment Index, report on the data for investment and profitability in the final quarter of 2022 and cover some highlights from the new edition of the CECIMO Toolbox.

We recently launched our biennial survey of charges made to customers for service engineers visits. This is always a valuable survey although members must note that this is a benchmarking exercise and it does not set out to provide recommended rates for the industry. To avoid too many unnecessary emails for members, we focused the mailing of this questionnaire on those members who supply or support machinery as this is the main area of relevance. If you have not seen this message, take a look at the item below which includes the survey questionnaire as an attachment that you use to participate in this survey – only those companies who submit their figures can get the results.

Finally this week, the MTA Business Survey for March is underway; this is one of the slightly longer surveys but we hope that you will still take a few minutes to participate – you can find the form at https://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-mar23. Similarly, for EIA members, your quarterly survey is also live with the survey form at https://www.mta.org.uk/EIA-survey%20Q1-23.

That concludes the Thursday Brief for this week! We’ll be back next Friday with some more great stories but for now we hope you have a wonderful Easter break!

Manufacturing & materials – UKRI Innovate funding and vision

UKRI Innovate KTN has launched a new round of funding competitions with a budget of £12 million: Resource Efficiency for Manufacturing & Materials (REforMM) (ktn-uk.org). Its focus is on the following areas: materials for the future economy; smart design; resilient supply chains; world class production; and longer in-use and reuse. Five areas are highlighted in […]

Lloyds Bank Midlands event

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR IMTEX, TOOLTECH, WELDEXPO AND MANUFACTURING EXPO 2024, INDIA

The MTA are looking for expressions of interest from members for Asia’s leading exhibition for metal forming technologies and manufacturing technologies industries. https://www.imtex.in/ IMTEX will be taking from the 19 – 23 January 2023 in Bangalore. The show attracts 450 – 500 companies and 35,000 – 40,000 trade visitors. Tooltech, Weldexpo and Digital Manufacturing Expo will be […]

Irwin Mitchell – Menopause in the Workplace

Tuesday 9 May 2023 – 11:00am – 12:00pm – Virtual Webinar The impact that menopause can have on women’s mental and physical health is starting to be recognised – and not before time. Although awareness is improving, women still struggle to get the right medical treatment to help them to manage their symptoms and to […]

T Levels: industry placements

T Levels are a new qualification for students aged 16 to 19 in England who have finished their GCSEs. Each T Level is equivalent to 3 A levels and helps young people develop the knowledge, attitude and practical skills to thrive in the workplace. T Level students spend 80% of the course in the classroom, […]

Apprenticeship and Training Grants

If you have been a full or contract manufacturing member of the MTA for at least one year, and your company has an annual turnover of £10million or less, you should be eligible to apply for one of our grants or loans. The grants and loans that are offered are as follows: The application form […]

Link to New Work Item Proposal for wider circulation

Please be advised that a New Work Item Proposal has been loaded to the BSI Standards Development Portal for comment. Any comments received will be submitted to the national committee AMT/10 “Robotics ” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Proposal: Robotics — Legged Robots — Testing procedures for […]

UKCA Industry Roundtables April-May

FREE GUIDE | Manage holiday leave

With another year of weird bank holidays ahead of us, managing annual leave might already be stressing you out. Bottlenecks of requests, employees taking time off during your busy periods, confusion working out holiday pay for zero-hour or part-time staff – holiday management certainly isn’t a breeze. That’s why our Associate Member Citation have this […]

EXPORT CONTROL JOINT UNIT COURSES

The release of new dates for the ECJU Export Control training programme: ECJU advise you to review the learning path and think carefully about what you need to achieve from these courses, before deciding which level suits you best. ECJU no longer run the Foundation Workshop, and therefore suggest you watch the Webinar: Strategic Export Controls […]

The Champions League of the industry in one place

Moulding Expo will highlight the importance and efficiency of the tool, pattern and mould making industry. Tools and moulds are required in every industry in order to be able to manufacture high-quality products in large unit numbers. It is therefore becoming increasingly more important to organise the production process in an even more efficient and […]

MTA SERVICE ENGINEERS CHARGES SURVEY

We have just launched this biennial survey (although we missed the 2021 edition due to the pandemic’s effect on workload) – this was circulated by e-mail earlier this week. This has always been a valuable resource for those companies who have Service Engineers – just a reminder that only participating companies can get the results. […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – OTHER

European Commission Economic Sentiment Indicator, March 2023: The European Commission (EC) draws from a range of surveys to construct confidence indicators for six sectors of the economy and then uses five of these (financial services is not part of the calculation) to make up its Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI). The March* report shows a small […]

ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK National Accounts, 4th Quarter 2022: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just published the national accounts for the 4th quarter. The new estimate shows that the UK economy grew marginally (+0.1% quarter-on-quarter) in the final period of last year – this is an upward revision from the previous estimate of zero growth. They […]

PURCHASING MANAGERS INDEX FOR MANUFACTURING

The Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing produced by J P Morgan using the data from S&P Global slipped slightly further below the crucial 50 level in March, although output increased for the 2nd month in a row as incoming orders stabilised. Ironically, it was a further easing of the supply chain situation that […]

Friday Brief