Page 3 - Industrial Technology magazine February 2021 issue

WELCOME

EDITORIAL
Editor
Mark Simms BSc Tel: 01732 773268 GREAT EXPECATIONS AND THE
mark.simms@itmagazine.uk.com
ADVERTISING CARDBOARD LET-DOWN
Regional Director (Home Counties & South East)
Mark West Tel: 020 8467 3613
mark.west@itmagazine.uk.com ith the entertainment value of our traditionally enjoyed
televisual entertainment starting to wear a bit thin, Mrs
Regional Sales Manager (Midlands) Simms and I looked to expand our possibilities beyond the
David Harman Tel: 01772 462596
Wstandard fare, to see what else we could find on a
david.harman@itmagazine.uk.com
download. Liking a bit of property renovation TV, we stumbled
Regional Sales Manager (North of England, Scotland & Wales) across a series that put homeowners with ugly houses in touch in
Jan Anderson Tel: 01978 314730 renowned architects who would help them transform their grisly
jan.anderson@itmagazine.uk.com abodes into something with a bit more kerb appeal, upgrading and
remodelling the living accommodation at the same time. All good
Deutschland/Suisse/Österreich
stuff, and we ploughed through the series.
Eisenacher Medien Tel: +49 228-2499860
But all the time, something was niggling away at the back of my
info@eisenacher-medien.de
head, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Finally, I worked
Overseas out what it was; in helping the home owners to understand the full
George Bennett MA Tel: + 44 161 374 5615 impact of the reworking and renovating of their house, the TV
it.marketing@itmagazine.uk.com
production team created computerised 3D models; very good, very
MAILING ADDRESSES detailed and really serving to highlight how not just the property but
Press Releases: mark.simms@itmagazine.uk.com also the lives of the occupants would be transformed.
Advertising Copy: production@itmagazine.uk.com Contrast that with the renowned, and presumably very
expensive, architects in each episode of the series, who simply
Head Office: Victoria House, 2 Mornington Road
rocked up with a bit of cardboard.
Sale, Cheshire M33 2DA
Now, don’t get me wrong; I’ve made a fair few cardboard models
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in my time, and know exactly how long they take to produce – as the
Circulation Department: PO Box 85, Sale M33 2BB
ever-patient Mrs Simms will testify. But I also know what it’s like to
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be disappointed by a cardboard model, and I’ll give you, as an
GENERAL ENQUIRIES example, the Needles New Battery on the Isle of Wight, telling the
Email: it.info@itmagazine.uk.com Tel: 0161 374 5615 story of how British space rockets were secretly tested there between
the 1950s and 70s. Promising a view of the original control room
recreated from photographs taken at the time, what you actually get is a
As a controlled circulation journal, Industrial Technology is sent free
cardboard representation. As someone who loves to look at tech, both new
of charge to individuals in the UK who meet the terms and
conditions of the publishers. To apply for free regular copies, write to and old, and the more hands-on the better, this was a bit of a let-down.
the Circulation Department. To those not meeting the terms and My thought, then, is that, just as technologies evolve and move on, so
conditions, the magazine is available on UK subscription at a cost of do customer expectations. If we’re doing exactly the same as were five years
£90 per year (10 issues). Single copies are £9. Overseas ago – or even 12 months ago – then it might be time to rethink our
subscriptions (airmail) are as follows: Rest of Europe including Eire
activities as a matter of some urgency. The pandemic is going to hit
£140 (single copies £14); USA $220 (single $22); Rest of the
World £170 (single copies £17). hard for some time yet, and as one CEO of a multi-national group
recently told me, before it’s over there will be blood in the water.
Printing & production by Pensord Press, Blackwood, Wales Ensuring we continue to live up to our customers’ evolving
expectations will be one of the keys to survival.
Industrial Mark Simms
Editor
Technology

MAKING MANUFACTURING FIT FOR THE FUTURE

tech spin-out from the University of Sheffield affordable device that would harness production data to FourJaw has received the grant funding from the
Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre empower technically excellent manufacturers with world- Business Productivity Programme – a £4.7 million
(AMRC) has secured grant funding to accelerate class productivity levels, enabling them to thrive in the collaborative venture which is part of wider approach in
Athe development of what has been dubbed the global marketplace. Sheffield and the region to creating an eco-system that
‘Fitbit for UK manufacturing.’ Early industrial adopters of “What we are looking at here is a potential game fosters industrial and economic innovation to boost
FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics’ technology are changer for UK manufacturing and the Business productivity.
reporting five-fold increases in productivity, but the firm’s Productivity Programme grant is just the financial Welcoming the grant funding, AMRC CEO, Steve
founders, CEO Chris Iveson and CTO Robin Hartley, are catalyst we need to make a swift transition from a rather Foxley, said: “It’s great to see the region backing two very
on a mission to make installing the output-boosting labour-intensive installation to a quick-to-deploy device talented and enterprising engineers who have taken their
technology even simpler for manufacturers to deploy. that will give production managers deep insights that experience at the AMRC to spin out a company that will
The two founders were research engineers at the enable huge gains in output and productivity,” Iveson help UK manufacturers – large and small – to capture
AMRC, part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) said, on learning that FourJaw had secured funding just and deploy the power of data and digitalisation to
Catapult, when they came up with the idea of an a few months after it was founded. improve productivity.”

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