The Manufacturer Podcast

Hello again listener - we hope your ears are ripe for this one.

We start this episode with a story from Joe. A giant cricket infiltrated his home this week, and we fear he may have to go home and fight the bloody thing. The winner presumably gets to live in his house.

The standout in the headlines this week - BAE Systems pledges it's support to Ukraine.

And see if you agree with this week's submissions for 'Made by a Moron.'

There's all that and more in today's episode.

The podcast returns with the first episode of a mini-series on the topic of leadership.

Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire discuss future events, namely The Manufacturer Live, taking place in Liverpool in November (14-15).

We also hear about recent factory visits to BAE Systems in Rochester, Nims Crisps, Phinia and RS Group in Corby.

We've got that, and some really stupid stuff - like Joe's "crappuccino" story and the time a friend of his took a dump in the wrong hotel room. ****HORRIFYINGLY LOW-BROW!****

If you're looking for something more cultured then, I don't know, stick on Radio 4 or something....

Hi listener, with your ears so ripe.

Allow us to treat you to a podcast on this year's International Women in Engineering Day.

As well as thoughts from Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire, we've got interviews from Dawn Childs – President of WES, Women’s Engineering Society, Joanna Whiteman, Head of Diversity at the Royal Academy of Engineering and Susan Scurlock, CEO and Founder of Primary Engineer.

Enjoy!

Hello to you, listener/viewer

The cameras are back on for this review of Manufacturing and Engineering Week 2023. We've got some more show content in this episode, namely exhibitors Prove Anything and ØRN Gloves. One company brought an eagle to the show floor, the other brought Darth Vader. We managed to evade an attack from the eagle, but not from Darth, much to the delight of James Devonshire.

Before James jumped on a plane back home to The Philippines, he was joined by Tom St John, Joe Bush and Lanna Deamer to record this podcast. This episode also features a pod debut from Nineteen Group CEO, Peter Jones, who reflects proudly on a successful MandE Week, and gives us a glimpse into what this show will look like in years to come.

Excited? Well then get your ripe ears around this latest episode.

In this live (or as live as we could make it) podcast from the show floor of Manufacturing and Engineering Week, we look at some of the companies and keynote speakers that caught our eye on the first day of the show.

Join Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire as they broadcast from The Manufacturer Studio.

What's new, listener?

Here is the final episode of our Sustainability Series, where we look back through the news headlines of the last few weeks, and look ahead to the upcoming Manufacturing and Engineering Week in Birmingham.

We also feature an interview from Debbie Lentz, President of ESG Solutions at RS Group plc.

Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire team up as the hosts.

Listener, what an episode this is!

Hear about Tom St John and Lanna Deamer's visit to Sweden to see steel manufacturer, Ovako.

In the quiet, picturesque town of Hofors, they got drunk on shnapps, sung a variety of Scandinavian drinking songs - including ABBA songs with alternative lyrics, and were shown a true example of sustainable manufacturing in the European steel sector.

Joe Bush and James Devonshire join them to discuss all that and more.

Here’s another one, listener.

Churned out at the end of a busy 4-day week, but hopefully not lacking in the quality banter department.

We discuss how the chicken ever made it into chicken pox, why doesn’t a Fitbit record your steps properly if you’re pushing a pram? And what unwelcomed household pest is worse, snake or mouse?

And in a bid to make the episode slightly about manufacturing, we discuss some of the news headlines of the week and hear from Susanne Wright about the sustainability journey of Northeast manufacturer, Clearly Drinks.

Get ya ears around that. BOSH!

Alright listener?

In episode three of this Sustainability Series, we catch you up on editorial goings on, as well as the usual rundown of headlines in the Sustainability section of The Manufacturer website.

We also take a look at an excellent feature that appeared in the latest edition of our magazine – an article on EV trucks and the good work that manufacturers Tevva and OX Delivers are doing in that space.

And we have chicken pox updates, a vanishing beer, a near death experience and who do you reckon refers to fizzy drinks as pop?

Editorials Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire return as your hosts.

Hi there, listener. Our podcast series in promotion of Manufacturing and Engineering Week continues with a Supply Chains Special episode. 

Your host Tom St John chats with colleagues Stuart Biddle (and maybe Henry Anson) about the partnerships and solutions that are being sought out by manufacturing companies, as the headaches over raw material supply, managing emissions and general global disruption continue to persist. 

We also hear from Nigel Paine, Supply Chain and Operations Director at Britvic, who talks through some of the supply chain approaches of a global drinks manufacturer. 

Enjoy!

We're back!

Tom St John, Joe Bush and Lanna Deamer (James Devonshire was too full of gin) catch up after a few weeks of radio silence.

Find out about Lanna's horrific house move and why it's all a man called Paul's fault. Hear how the start of a stag do turned into a story about biofuel in commercial planes. And see why a recent sustainable headline on The Manufacturer website leads us to calling out social media sensation, Big John. BOSH!

We also preview next week's Industrial Data Summit in Birmingham by hearing from two keynote speakers.

Enjoy listener!

Hi there listener,

After a short break, the podcast returns with this special episode on sustainability - which we're also making episode one of our Sustainability Series.

This is a taste of some of the discussions you might hear at Manufacturing & Engineering Week in June. We have Andrew Frankland from Forest Nation, one of our partners of the event. He talks about some of the communities that his company works with and the impact that sustainable marketing solutions are having.

We also chat with Richard Lloyd at the Park, who gives an insight into what good looks like when it comes to sustainable business practices.

That’s all crammed into this episode, so take a break and have a listen.

Hi listener,

We say farewell to our People & Skills Series, for now, with this season finale.

During a string of factory visits in the Midlands, we visit the sites of TMMX Award Winners in the People & Skills category. Lisi Aerospace and Lander Tubular Products are the two previous winners of this award and both companies feature in this episode. We speak to a wellbeing coach and two young engineers.

This episode was recorded at the UK HQ of FANUC, our podcast sponsors. We start the episode by talking to Oliver Selby of FANUC about the need to secure the future of automation through education.

Hey listener, keeping well?

We have a special episode for you focussing on the topic of people and skills. Separate from our current series on this same topic, this episode is in promotion of Manufacturing and Engineering Week, taking place in Birmingham this year on 7-8 June.

This episode features a fantastic interview with Natasha Lyth, Sustainability Manager at Gripple and Catriona Booth, System Engineering Manager at Thales.

Natasha and Catriona are the two most recent winners of the The Manufacturer MX Awards' Young Manufacturer of the Year Award. Both women sit down with our reporter Lanna Deamer.

Hey listener, fancy another one?

In the fifth episode of this People & Skills Series, we chat to some of the winning categories at The Engineering Trust Awards which took place in Oxford on Wednesday night.

And our hosts; Tom, Joe and Lanna discuss whether apprenticeships are creating the right opportunities for women in manufacturing.

Enjoy!

Listener, welcome back.

In this episode Rashitha Jayasekara of Rolls Royce discusses how the digital skills gap is impacting the ability to scale projects and unlock the next stages of digital transformation. After partnering with Multiverse, who are supplying training and apprenticeship programmes, Rolls Royce is upskilling it's staff with modern digital capabilities.

As well as this, one of the first ever exemplars from our Top100 programme, Adrian Maxwell, Owner of coffee machine manufacturers Fracino, gives his take on the shortage of skills and the struggles of attracting and retaining younger people.

Tom St John, Joe Bush and Lanna Deamer are your hosts.

Our next episode features Elliot Bloor, an apprentice at Siemens, who speaks about his route from school into the world of manufacturing. This is taken from a recent episode of The Manufacturer Podcast’s People & Skills series, and was part of our extensive coverage of National Apprenticeship Week 2023.

This episode of The Manufacturer Archives is an interview taken from our 2023 People & Skills Series on The Manufacturer Podcast with Angela Lawlor. Angela set up Marvellous Manufacturing, an idea that came to her during the 2020 lockdown. This is part of her mission to link manufacturers to schools, colleges and universities. 

Her interview is taken from an episode of The Manufacturer Podcast, aired during National Apprenticeship Week 2023, conducted by our International Reporter, James Devonshire.

This episode features Anita Davenport, the Group HR Manager for Lander Tubular Products, who won our Manufacturer of the Year Award at The Manufacturer MX Awards of 2021

Anita is also the Regional Chair for the West Midlands Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. You may have heard her already in the People & Skills series of The Manufacturer Podcast, which aired during National Apprenticeship Week 2023. This is the full length version of that interview, with our reporter Lanna Deamer.

Noorzaman Rashid features in this episode of The Manufacturer Archives, after we took a visit to The Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence. Or as it’s known, CEME

Noorzaman featured in episode two of our people and skills series of 2023, this is his interview with Multimedia Editor, Tom St John, in full.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives it's another interview taken from the show floor of Smart Factory Expo in 2022. Sumeet Ladsaongikar, Partner at Kearney, was a keynote speaker at Manufacturing Leaders Summit that same year. Here he is talking about the value chain trilemma of financial, resilience and sustainability performance.

Hey there, listener!

The third episode of our People & Skills Series coincides with National Apprenticeship Week 2023. Our coverage of the week has been extensive, to say the least.

In keeping with that, we've got a packed-out-pod, featuring Anita Davenport-Brooks from Lander Automotive and Angela Lawlor who set up Marvellous Manufacturing in 2020. Both discuss the importance of promoting apprenticeships and the reasons for the disconnects between the industry, young people and education.

We also feature Elliot Bloor, who talks about his journey from school to an apprenticeship degree with Siemens.

We've got all that, plus the thoughts of the editorials - Tom St John, Joe Bush, Lanna Deamer and James Devonshire.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives we speak to Andrew Schofield, Chair of the Northwest Aerospace Alliance, an initiative which supports the county’s advanced manufacturing and engineering companies. This interview was taken from the show floor at Smart Factory Expo 2022.

In this episode, we hear from Susan Brench, CEO of Starbons - manufacturers of mesoporous carbons from bio-renewable biomass. We spoke with Susan following her involvement in SME Growth Summit 2022, to find out more about the company and its journey so far.

In episode 2 of our People & Skills series, sponsored by FANUC:

Learn more about the support that Lloyds Banking Group is providing the AMTC. (Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centre) A sponsorship package worth £15m will support AMTC apprenticeship programmes and the wider UK manufacturing sector.

As well as that, CEME (Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence) is geared towards inspiring young people through the content it provides them.

There’s that, as well as disruptive stomach rumblings, geographical disputes and goose stuff.

Hey listener. 

Episode 1 of our series on People & Skills kicks off with a look at the Team Tempest project. The development of new technologies that will be integral to the next generation of combat aircraft will also centre very much around people.

We look at that and more in this episode.

You're listening to The Manufacturer Archives. In these episodes you'll get to hear interviews, in full and largely unedited, with some of the best manufacturers, leaders, industry analysts, young pioneers, innovators and solution providers.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives, we have the full interview with Mark Hughes of Epicor from The Manufacturer Studio at Smart Factory Expo.

You're listening to The Manufacturer Archives. In these episodes you'll get to hear interviews, in full and largely unedited, with some of the best manufacturers, leaders, industry analysts, young pioneers, innovators and solution providers.

In this episode, we have the full interview with Nick Davis of Deloitte from The Manufacturer Studio at Smart Factory Expo.

You're listening to The Manufacturer Archives. In these episodes you'll get to hear interviews, in full and largely unedited, with some of the best manufacturers, leaders, industry analysts, young pioneers, innovators and solution providers.

This episode features the CEO of Make UK, Stephen Phipson, speaking to us from the manufacturer studio at Smart Factory Expo 2022. We caught him just before he delivered his keynote speech at the SME Growth Summit.

You're listening to The Manufacturer Archives. In these episodes you'll get to hear interviews, in full and largely unedited, with some of the best manufacturers, leaders, industry analysts, young pioneers, innovators and solution providers.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives, Sebastian Elmgren, Head of Business Development & Product Marketing at Ericsson, speaks to us at The Manufacturer Studio at Smart Factory Expo 2022.

You're listening to The Manufacturer Archives. In these episodes you'll get to hear interviews, in full and largely unedited, with some of the the best manufacturers, leaders, industry analysts, young pioneers, innovators and solution providers.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Archives, it's an interview from Gordon Macrae, Special Projects Manager at Gripple, our TMMX Manufacturer of the Year winners.  This is Gordon's interview from The Manufacturer Studio at Smart Factory Expo 2022.   

Welcome back, listener - and happy new year! 

In this first episode of 2023, we're talking you through the packed events calendar for this year as well as some of the stuff you can expect to see popping up across all of The Manufacturer's content platforms. 

Re-join the fun with Tom St John, Joe Bush and Lanna Deamer. 

Also hear reaction following the UK's first orbital space launch mission attempted by Virgin Orbit. International Reporter James Devonshire also returns to the podcast, having followed this story closely. 

Hi there listener, 

In this bumper episode of The Manufacturer Podcast, we say goodbye to 2022 with an end of year special. 

Our most excellent podcast sponsors Accenture join us to review the trends in manufacturing and technology innovations. Stephanie Lindan and George Long join us to discuss common misconceptions, the areas where manufacturers are making progress and abundant rewards that can be achieved through innovation.

Elsewhere, our editorial team look back over a wonderful 2022. What interviews and bits of content have they enjoyed bringing you most? Lend us your ears, and we'll tell you.  

RUNNING ORDER

PART 1 - ACCENTURE ON INNOVATION: 04:09

PART 2 - EDITORIAL TEAM REVIEW THE YEAR: 18:11

‘Sup listener?

In this final episode of our miniseries on sustainability, we hear how this topic is viewed in The Philippines, a country where the average monthly wage is just £250 and severe weather concerns are frequent.

Our International Reporter James Devonshire loves this country that he calls home but says that sustainability just isn’t a high priority.

We also feature Jim McConalogue, CEO of Civitas, who spoke at this year’s SME Growth Summit and joined us at The ManufacturerStudio during Digital Manufacturing Week.

Civitas, supported by the ERA Foundation, have released a survey assessing the top challenges SME manufacturers including those posed by energy costs, resilience and cleanliness of supply to future growth.

Get your ears around that!

Hi listener. 

In this episode, we have Graham Malley of Accenture, our podcast sponsors, and Brian Holliday of Siemens. A line up that would leave even Gareth Southgate spoilt for choice! 

We explore the various manufacturing trends when it comes to green practices and evaluate how well the UK is doing as a whole, what more it could do and how sustainability is increasingly making its way to the forefront of the industry's mind. 

We hope you enjoy this episode. 

Hi listener, 

This podcast comes a full week after our editorial team's trip back from Liverpool, following an epic Digital Manufacturing Week - they still haven't fully recovered. 

We have snippets from a wonderful night at The Manufacturer MX Awards, where bottle manufacturers Encirc were crowned the 2022 winners of the Sustainable Manufacturing category. Hear what category judge Alison Beard-Gunter, of Thermo Fisher had to say following the announcement of the winners. 

And in an interview from The Manufacturer Studio at Smart Factory Expo, Brian Riley, Digital Technical Lead at Ox Delivers, talks about the work his company are doing to develop clean transport eco-systems in developing countries. 

Listen for all that and more. 

Hola listener. 

In this episode of The Manufacturer Podcast, John Mills from the John Mills Institute of Prosperity chats with our editor Joe about last months pound plummet. Find out why a low pound isn't necessarily a bad thing for Britain's manufacturers. 

And find out how our Multimedia Editor Tom fared as he swapped the pound for the dollar while out in Miami covering IFS Unleashed. He spoke with Christian Pedersen, Chief Product Officer at IFS, about some the trends he's seeing within the sector. 

There's all that and more in today's episode. 

Hello listener - welcome to series 4, episode 4

In this episode, we welcome our podcast sponsor Accenture. With Neil McTiffin, Industry and Transformation Lead Industry X – Accenture Managing Director, and Sarah Dana, Head of Information Software North Europe and META at Rockwell Automation, discuss what leadership looks like within the context of Industry X. You may remember from our previous series, Industry X is the integrated approach to digital transformation, which uses the combined power of data and digital to reimagine the engineering and manufacturing of products.

Our editorial team also briefly run through some of the articles in the September edition of The Manufacturer Magazine. 

There's all this and more in today's episode. 

Watcha listener! 

In episode three of our Leadership Series, we speak to Brompton Bicycle CEO, Will Butler-Adams. He speaks of his time as a leader, the passion that he and the business share for making city living and travel more sustainable and the shake-up needed to promote the "unbelievably cool" careers in manufacturing. Much of this is mentioned in his recent book - The Brompton: Engineering for Change by Will Butler-Adams and Dan Davies (Profile Books)

On a trip down to Poole, where the editorial team met three manufacturers, we get the thoughts of Jason Muller - Global Manufacturing Director at Lush. Lush has a completely manual manufacturing process to making its various products - Jason explains why in his interview.

There's all that and more in this episode.

In this episode of The Manufacturer Podcast - A panel discussion of leaders, a European site visit and a new category at our TMMX Awards. 

The John Mills Institute for Prosperity hosted a panel discussion to propose solutions to some of the issues within UK manufacturing.

We travelled up to Sewtec Automation, which is a global automation specialist based up in Wakefield as the panel discussed whether now is the most opportune moment for a manufacturing revival in the UK. 

Hear what the team made of their trip to Leuven, Belgium to see additive manufacturers Materialise and learn more about the wide range of 3D printed end applications. 

And the TMMX Awards finalists were announced recently. Returning to this year's event is the Manufacturing in Action category which is chosen by the editorial team. Find out which manufacturers have made the cut following various site visits and interviews over the past year. 

Our Leadership Series kicks off with two excellent interviews. Firstly, we have an exclusive with John Pearce, CEO of Made in Britain, who celebrated their 10th birthday this year. John has been at the helm for the last 7 years, and discusses what has changed in this time as well as what he believes the next 10 years could hold. 

We also have an interview with Juergen Maier that we did at MACH 2022 back in April. Juergen speaks about the changes we've seen in the last couple of years and his admiration of UK manufacturers progress in digitalisation and the net zero push. 

The editorial team also discuss some of the fantastic leaders they've encountered, be it through meeting them at factories and facilities or through awards programmes such as The Manufacturer Top100. 

We've got all this and more, so get stuck in listener! 

Hi listener - we finally have the final episode of series 3 for you. Through record breaking temperatures we hid in our homes, turned the fans on full blast and sat in ice baths to bring you episode 6 of our Technology Series. 

This episode features a fascinating factory visit to BotsAndUs; manufacturers of autonomous robots that are used to capture data in real time across warehouses and factories. We preview the July/August edition of The Manufacturer Magazine which is about to hit desks and doorways. We also feature two interviews from our recent Manufacturing Digitalisation Summit up in Manchester which took place last week. 

There's all that and more to enjoy in this episode - take a listen! 

Hi there listener - we have another special episode for you to mark National Manufacturing Day 2022.

Today, as part of a UK-wide Open House, and to celebrate NMD, manufacturers are opening the doors to their factories and sites and inviting people in for a behind-the-scenes look at how their facilities work. Make UK are heading this up in partnership with a host of UK manufacturers, in a bid to showcase the diversity of our sector, the range of highly skilled jobs on offer and the amazing opportunities for reskilling and career development within manufacturing. Jamie Cater, Senior Policy Manager at Make UK starts by giving an overview of National Manufacturing Day. 

We also look back over some high profile interviews that we've conducted over the last year, to give you a taste of the issues affecting manufacturers, and what the sector, as well as government can do to drive a continuation of innovation, sustainable growth and diverse workforces, to name but a few aspects. 

Listen back to interviews with Lee Rowley, Industry Minister and Member of Parliament for Northeast Derbyshire, Lord Karan Bilimoria, President of the Confederation of British Industry, (CBI) founder of Cobra Beer and a cross party peer in the UK House of Lords and Rosa Wilkinson, Policy Director at The High Value Manufacturing Catapult. 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Hi there listener, after a few weeks break we're back to bring you a special podcast episode for International Women in Engineering Day. We've got three excellent interviews from women who share some of their experiences, and give us an insight in to what they believe needs to happen to level the playing field on gender within the sector. You'll also hear what these various businesses and individuals are doing to change perceptions and create equal opportunities for women in manufacturing and engineering. 

We have Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of WES, (Women's Engineering Society) Hilary Leevers, CEO of Engineering UK and Krystina Pearson-Rampeearee, Senior Flight Engineer at BAE Systems who also runs her own business, AviateHer. 

We hope you enjoy this special episode! 

Hey there listener! The Manufacturer Podcast returns with episode five of our series on Technology. 

We welcome our podcast sponsors Accenture on to talk about the latest manufacturing technology, and how it’s being applied in the manufacturing world. Dan Farrell at Accenture, along with Severine Trouillet from Dassault Systèmes discuss how this new and exciting tech can enable sustainable growth within the industry. 

We also look back at a gem of a keynote speech from Amber Case, an American cyborg anthropologist, who spoke at Digital Manufacturing Week in 2020. Listen back to a snippet of her presentation on "Calm Technology," which refers to technology that isn’t time consuming, annoying or unreliable. 

We hope you enjoy this episode.