Friday Brief (08/03/2024) W10

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief. It’s looking like this weekend will be bright and sunny for once. We hope everyone has wonderful Mothers Day’s and enjoys the Springtime weather!

To kick things off today we would like to begin by inviting you to a Siemens event in Manchester. Siemens Transform is a two-day, free of charge conference and exhibition taking place at Manchester Central with focus on the economic, environmental, and societal challenges organisations are facing in the UK and Ireland. Take a look at the details below.

BSI have two new proposals for you this week that are awaiting your comments. The Proposals read ‘Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Part 140: Guidance on selecting and combining Interaction Techniques’ and NWIP CEN ISO/TR 9241-313 – (Draft Decision C 608/2024) (CEN/TC 122 N 1807). You can find them in two separate stories down below.

Each year, companies and professions specializing in watchmaking and jewellery, micro technologies and medical technologies meet in Switzerland for the world’s largest high precision trade show: EPHJ, which will take place at the Palexpo in Geneva from 11^th to the 14^th of June 2024. Become and official partner for free! Check out all the information in the story.

MACH 1014 is only 37 days away! As a valued member of the MTA we are reaching out to ask if you could support the Education and Development zone by providing apprentices to lead guided tours of the exhibition. The E&D Zone is fantastic opportunity to directly engage with the next generation of engineers. Find out more in the story.

This week the MTA were proud to support the National Transition Event (NTE) which brings together service leavers, veterans and families with employers to help aid successful and sustainable transfers into the civilian employment sector. Monday’s event was the largest Armed Forces transition event that has ever taken place in the UK. Take a look at what was included in the event and how it weant below.

TorFX offers a suite of transfer solutions designed to help corporate clients optimise financial operations and drive savings without compromising on reliability or efficiency. For businesses with international operations, managing payroll across different currencies can be a cumbersome and costly process. TorFX simplifies this task by offering competitive exchange rates and efficient payment processing, allowing companies to streamline payroll operations while minimising unnecessary expenses associated with currency conversion. Learn more about TorFX below.

The MTA have released a new report called The Future Of Manufacturing. They talk about the important of manufacturing, looking forward, what he challenges are and how the UK compare internationally. Read their full report in their story below.

We take a look at the Spring Budget Statement given by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday from the perspective of companies in the engineering sector. Many thousands (even probably millions) of words have already been written, especially viewing the Budget in terms of “what it means for you”, so we have focused on a few items (and there weren’t that many) that will (or could) bring some benefit to companies in our sector.

The main focus of the statement was electioneering – much of it sounded like a rowdy Party Political Broadcast, with constant name drops for policies that would benefit certain constituencies whose only common link was the marginal majorities of Conservative MPs. As such, there was unlikely to be much of benefit for manufacturing/engineering, especially given the big win of the permanent status for full capital expensing (FCE) last Autumn. Of the things he did say of interest to us, much was in the form of “jam tomorrow”, such as the “draft” legislation for consultation on including leased assets in FCE or the Carbon Border Adjustment to come in at the start of 2027.

The only economic news this week is our promised update to the Purchasing Managers Index for the manufacturing sector which was incomplete when last week’s Friday Brief was published.

Finally, a reminder (with thanks to those who have replied already) that the February edition of the MTA Business Survey is still open and you can access the questionnaire at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-feb24. Please take a moment to give us your input as we build a summary of the manufacturing technology sector that you can use to check your own situation against.

That concludes the Friday Brief for the week! We’ll be back with more stories next Friday!

ECONOMIC NEWS

Purchasing Managers Index (update), February 2024: The only economic news this week is to update our report on the Purchasing Managers Index for manufacturing that was being published as we wrote the Friday Brief last week. The overall Global PMI for manufacturing, produced by J P Morgan using data largely from S&P Global edged up […]

REVIEW OF THE SPRING BUDGET STATEMENT

Given that there are many sources from which to discover “what the Budget means for you”, this note will focus on the implications for business (rather than individuals) and, in particular, for those involved in the engineering sector. There was little of direct interest to MTA, EIA and AM-UK members in this week’s Budget Statement […]

TorFX – Currency risk mitigation made simple

In today’s fiercely competitive global marketplace, the risks posed by currency volatility are a critical concern for corporations, particularly those in the manufacturing sector. Fluctuations in exchange rates can significantly impact a company’s profitability, cost structures, and overall competitiveness. However, there are several strategies that manufacturing firms can employ to mitigate these risks. Manufacturing firms […]

MTC Manufacturing report

The MTC have released a new report called The Future Of Manufacturing. They talk about the important of manufacturing, looking forward, what he challenges are and how the UK compare internationally. The main topic of the report is If the UK is to think bigger and make a coordinated and dedicated effort to harness the […]

National Transition Event – Supporting the Armed Forces in Manufacturing

Apprentice support to inspire the next generation of engineers at MACH 2024

As a valued member of the MTA we are reaching out to ask if you could support the Education and Development zone by providing apprentices to lead guided tours of the exhibition. The E&D Zone is fantastic opportunity to directly engage with the next generation of engineers.  We will be providing guided tours of the […]

High precision trade fair in Geneva 11-14 June

Each year, companies and professions specializing in watchmaking and jewellery, micro technologies and medical technologies meet in Switzerland for the world’s largest high precision trade show: EPHJ, which will take place at the Palexpo in Geneva from 11th to the 14th of June 2024. As one of the major players in the high precision world, […]

BSI – NWIP CEN ISO/TR 9241-313 – Link to New Work Item Proposal

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 PH/9 “Applied ergonomics” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Proposal: NWIP CEN ISO/TR 9241-313 – (Draft Decision C […]

BSI – ISO/PWI 9241-140.2 – Link to New Work Item Proposal

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 PH/9 “Applied ergonomics” for consideration when deciding the UK response to the associated Standards Development Organisation. Proposal: ISO/PWI 9241-140.2 – Ergonomics of human-system interaction — […]

Transform 2024 Membership

Siemens Transform is a two-day, free of charge conference and exhibition taking place at Manchester Central with focus on the economic, environmental, and societal challenges organisations are facing in the UK and Ireland. Siemens Transform is an opportunity to learn from others undergoing change, engage with a cross-sector audience, and see the latest innovative technologies […]

Friday Brief