Programme
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24th Jun 2015
09:00 - 09:30Registration and coffee
09:30 - 09:45Chairman's opening remarks
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Dr Andy Sellars, Lead Technologist , Innovate UK
Andy joined Innovate UK in 2013 as Lead Technologist for High Value Manufacturing following a 20 year career in the electronics industry.
Andy completed an industrially sponsored PhD at Strathclyde University, which was commercialised by Diagnostic Monitoring Systems.
Following university, Andy developed high voltage transmission for Rolls Royce, high-definition RADAR for the MoD and advanced test systems for Spirent PLC. This led to financial transaction software, followed by photon counting sensors for health analytics while working at Abbott Diagnostics in Dallas.
As an independent consultant, Andy developed lighting to film James Bond, marketing strategies for IPTV and colour-blending algorithms. He also set up an events management company with charitable status, securing a keynote speaker from the House of Lords.
At Innovate UK, Andy takes responsibility for materials, electronics and precision manufacturing, helping to build strategic alliances to commercialise the UK’s excellent research.
Andy holds an Executive MBA from the Adam Smith Business School at Glasgow University.
09:45 - 10:15Opening keynote - innovation as the structure for manufacturing growth
Dick Elsy, CEO of the HVM Catapult reflects on the way the manufacturing industry can work with different players in the innovation landscape to bridge the gap between world-class research, technology, innovation and full-scale commercial production in the UK.
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Dick Elsy, Chief Executive, High Value Manufacturing Catapult
Dick Elsy is the Chief Executive of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The role brings together 7 world class centres of industrial innovation in the UK which help accelerate new concepts to commercial reality and thereby create a sustainable high value manufacturing future for this country. The Catapult has capability and manufacturing facilities which span basic raw materials through to high integrity product assembly processes.
He joined the Catapult from Torotrak plc, the global innovator in gearless traction drive technology which reduces CO2 emissions in vehicles. As Chief Executive, he led this technology and licensing business which is one of the few UK listed companies involved in innovative automotive engineering and one of the very few engineering companies in the UK making a success of the licensing business model.
Prior to this Dick was Product Development Director at Jaguar Cars Limited where he led the introduction of several new car programmes. Dick’s earlier roles were also in the automotive industry with a period of time spent with BMW in Munich leading a major car programme and a long career with Land Rover, where, as a member of the executive board, he devised, and went on to implement, the Land Rover Freelander.
Through his career, Dick has gained extensive experience in the process of innovation management and of the introduction of new technologies to market.
He has led both small scale and large scale organizations and is a passionate believer in value creation through technology.
10:15 - 10:45The innovation of simplicity
B & D Electromedical have recently been purchased through a capital investment group after nearly thirty years of being a privately owned and run manufacturer in the UK. The company has been able to uniquely position itself amongst global market giants including GE Healthcare and Philips as well as ResMed – another global billion dollar respiratory company. Consistently holding the position as UK market leader in terms of revenue and unit sales over the last few decades through the provision of product innovated to meet the requirements of the market and no more!
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Phil Hufton, Product Manager, B&D Electromedical
Formally a pub manager for Greene King and then Spirit Group moved into respiratory sleep medicine in 2005. Went from a marketing role in sleep medicine to a sales manager role in the high end home mechanical ventilation market before moving back into current marketing role. Have overseen launch of now UK market leading cough augmentation device and currently working towards the launch of next generation mechanical ventilators and cough assistor device expected to come to market in Autumn 2015.
10:45 - 11:15Can you run a tight ship and be a crucible of innovation?
The last fifteen years has seen radical changes in this SME with the introduction of a truly innovative decentralised organisational structure built from first principals by the Directors at MBS. Their unique approach starts with each person in the organisation having a P&L Account and Balance Sheet tracking their individual progress, and most importantly dictating the rewards they receive. Every aspect of the business has been subject to a radical overhaul- not only as individual parts but also as an interconnected whole. Productivity has risen by 300%, costs have fallen by 50% whilst average pay has more than tripled. The company is growing in both turnover and profit in this particularly challenging economic environment through diversification and increasing export sales.
This social experiment conducted over the past fifteen years provides a rich source of data and basic insight for anyone embarking on a significant change program. Whether you are engaged in a turnaround or a simple lean implementation the insights provided will be useful in understanding the big picture of culture.
Julian provides a presentation focussed on clearly exposing the danger of a program to remove variance from your business, through the application of standards, process and procedure (often delivered via IT systems) and the promotion of a culture based on conformance and compliance. Whilst this approach has undeniable short term benefits, in the longer term it undermines the pipeline of innovation and continuous improvement that must take place in every area of your business, because it is this constant evolution that provides your long term security.
This is a difficult balance to strike. ….a bit like spraying pesticide on your crops to protect them from those ravenous insects- it’s not so smart if that same pesticide wipes out all the essential pollinators too!
Command-and-control via conformance-and-compliance must be targeted and applied sparingly, otherwise curiosity, imagination and creativity will be the casualties – and these are your pollinators for innovation and continuous improvement.
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Julian Wilson, Director/Owner, Matt Black Systems
Julian Wilson: Director at MattBlack Systems, an SME in the Aerospace and Defence sector based in Poole, Dorset.
The last ten years has seen radical changes in this SME with the introduction of a truly innovative organisational structure built from first principals by the Directors at MBS. Their unique approach starts with each person in the organisation having a P&L Account and Balance Sheet tracking their individual progress, and most importantly dictating the rewards they receive. Every aspect of the business has been subject to a radical overhaul- not only as individual parts but also as an interconnected whole. Productivity has risen by 300%, costs have fallen by 50% and pay has more than tripled. The company is growing in both turnover and profit in this particularly challenging economic environment through diversification and increasing export sales.
11:15 - 11:45Coffee and networking break
11:45 - 12:15Realisation of high temperature electronics capability through research and development journey
Co-locating electronics with sensors in hotter environments in aero-engines and down-well applications can make the overall sensing system more accurate, reduce cabling and offer weight, cost and fuel savings. However, the hotter environment presents several challenges to conventional electronics and new semiconductors, passive components and assembly techniques are required.
This presentation will describe the R&D process to establish a high temperature electronics capability, including setting up collaboration with industrial/academic partners and the materials/components supply chain, challenging the traditional barriers to implementation of electronics into harsher environments and highlighting the pitfalls and obstacles that remain to fully realise and exploit the capability.
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Steve Riches, Business Development Manager, GE Aviation
Steve Riches has 16 years experience in research and development on interconnection and packaging of electronic devices and laser processing at the Welding Institute in the United Kingdom. His first project was to establish a Cu wire bonding process for electronic devices in the 1980’s, which is now widely used in consumer electronics.
More recently he has spent 15 years in business development at GE Aviation Systems – Newmarket on developing capabilities for ruggedised displays, microsystem packaging and high temperature and power electronics.
Throughout this time, he has been involved in many collaborative projects supported by the UK Government and the EU and has worked with numerous industrial partners, academic organisations and research institutes.
12:15 - 12:45Innovation is on the menu to feed 9 billion
A micro-SME from Solihull takes on two dominant multi-nationals, aiming to transform an antiquated global industry. The rice industry struggles to feed 3.3 billion people today and needs to feed a further 2.3 billion by 2050.
Multi-award winning Koolmill is about vision, belief and innovation delivering a technology that is humanitarian, environmentally friendly and socially responsible. Koolmill MD, Alec Anderson, shares the ups and downs of innovating a truly global displacement technology. Working with their JV in China to grow their user base, find out how Koolmill overcame the many technical, business and cultural challenges.
Koolmill is the UK engineering a better world.
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Alec Anderson, Managing Director, Koolmill Systems Ltd
A pioneering visionary engineer and innovator who has developed a radical disruptive technology transforming the globally significant rice industry, moving it to a sustainable future and lifting millions from food poverty. Koolmill minimises wasted power and rice, delivering power savings of up to 80% producing more food at a higher quality from a finite valuable natural resource.
Alec’s story is one of resolute belief, persistence and innovation. What Dyson did to vacuum cleaners, Alec is doing to rice milling. Changing the established culture of a largely antiquated global industry is quite a challenge for an SME from Solihull, but not impossible. Alec has overcome the many technical, business and logistical barriers not to mention the two multi-national companies (one Japanese one Swiss/German) who have let’s say, not always made life easy.
R&D and innovation are the heartbeat of Koolmill. We are continually pushing boundaries driving change and lifting performance to levels that many in the rice industry find difficult to believe possible. Our current IP is just the start of a new road. The old legacy technology is over 100 years old and at the end of its life cycle. Alec has opened an entirely new field in cereal milling technology and this will inevitably attract many new entrants. Consequently our job is not done, we have to continue to innovate to stay ahead and there are many new innovations and a range of machines to come.
Now working through a Chinese joint venture he is building a user base in China from which to launch the expansion of the business into the rest of SE Asia, the Indian sub-continent and South America.The significance of this development has been recognised in the UK (3 innovation Awards) and in China. In November 2014 Koolmill was awarded the prestigious GREAT British Product Award at the British Business Awards in Beijing. Particularly notable, as fellow finalists included the global supercar brand McLaren.
The Chinese Government has designated Alec as a National Expert in the Field of Technology and he has been placed on the Global Foreign Expert Recruitment Program (www.1000plan.org), one of only 1,000 global experts that will be recruited over a ten year period. He was awarded the West Lake Friendship Award for Foreign Experts by the Zhejiang Government in 2010, the only UK recipient that year.
12:45 - 13:30Innovation the Gripple way
Gripple are an award winning manufacturer who have won two Queens Awards for innovation. With an aversion to process, in this session Gripple will share with you their insights via a practical example covering design, manufacturing and selling.
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Gordon Macrae, Special Projects Manager, Gripple
Gordon Macrae is Special Projects Manager for Gripple and Incub. Incub is Gripple’s incubator which has brought five innovative products to market in the last four years. Gordon is an Innovation champion in the firm and preaches innovation to both schools and universities. Prior to joining Gripple he was Managing Director of Abru the UK’s largest ladder manufacturer, and a Director of Hepworth Home Products.
13:30 - 14:30Networking lunch
14:30 - 15:00Opportunities for collaboration between industry and education
Universities are a natural source of innovative technologies that can change the way we live, the way we do business or even how we view the seemingly impossible. Working with industrial partners allows these innovations to be scaled up, spun out and put to work for the benefit of society. As a result there are an abundance of opportunities for companies looking to advance their products or processes. Whilst this relationship between academia and industry can be highly profitable, it can also have its challenges.
In this talk Dr Hywel Jones will draw upon his 15 years of experience as an “industry facing” academic to describe some of the ways in which industry and academia can successfully collaborate and reduce the potential clash of cultures. Hywel will use a number of examples from his own career, ranging from simple consultancy projects to joint ventures such as Mikana Ltd – a producer of novel mixed metal composites for decorative arts and jewellery – and spin out companies such as XeraCarb Ltd – a manufacturer of ceramic armour technology.
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Dr Hywel Jones, Principal Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University
Principal Research Fellow, Materials and Engineering Research Institute
Sheffield Hallam University
Hywel is a materials scientist with a background in engineering ceramics. He has worked in materials research and consultancy for over 18 years carrying out a mix of applied research, knowledge transfer, contract research and consultancy with a wide range of industrial partners. His research has been exploited through a number of patents, licensed technologies and spin-out companies, and ranges from novel precious metals and decorative alloys to new ceramic composites for bullet proof armour.
He is a founder, director and chief scientific officer of XeraCarb Ltd – a spin out company set up to exploit the armour developments – and he is also a director and chief scientific officer of Mikana Innovations Ltd – a joint venture formed to exploit new ways of making mixed metal decorative alloys. In consultancy he helps companies solve materials based problems in their products or production processes using the university’s state of the art analytical equipment and laboratories.
15:00 - 15:30Technology is key - the trick to constantly developing new technology within manufacturing
For over 165 years Pryor Marking Technology has provided UK manufacturing with the technology to reliably identify its products. The company has endured by constantly innovating, looking for the next development to supersede its current technology.
The business has invested heavily in its design-to-order capabilities and now generates the majority of its revenue from delivering made-to-order, bespoke systems. This approach places a large emphasis on constant innovation, requiring project teams to work closely with customers to deliver custom solutions on an order-by-order basis.
By always seeking to find a solution to a customer’s need, even if it involves developing new technologies such as vision, robotics and software, Pryor ensures that it is at the forefront of market drivers in marking, traceability and identification.
Today the management of the company keeps innovation and technical development at the forefront of its agenda. The current managing director began in the company as an engineering student 30 years ago and moved through the research and development department, driving new technologies in the digital era.
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David Ray, Technical Director, Pryor Marking Technology
An engineering graduate, David Ray is the technical director at Pryor and has led the company’s 25% increase in growth over the last year through his technical innovations. Over the last year the company has won several awards under David’s leadership and for his technological advancements, including:
The Manufacturer award for innovation and design
The Made in Sheffield Award for Innovation and Design
The Sheffield Business Awards for Excellence in Manufacturing and their overall award for outstanding business of the year
The EEF regional award for business growth.
The company was the runner up for the china business award and the EEF Smart Product Award.
We were also a finalist for the MTA best supplier partnership award.David has led the company into the new market sectors of vision, robotics and system integration, leading the company into the development of software which has transformed the company into a traceability systems provider rather than just a marking company.
15:30 - 16:00Opportunities for Innovation through design
Previously, component and product design focused on designing for subtractive manufacturing processes for the ease of production and least cost. Therefore components were restricted by the manufacturing processes used. In contrast, the additive manufacturing process of creating components layer by layer, offers a new freedom in the design of complex 3D geometries. Croft’s exploitation of these design freedoms has led to innovation in filtration media delivering new filter designs that deliver cost savings and environmental benefits to the end users. In addition Croft discuss using AM design capabilities to deliver benefits in part production such as multi-parts to single parts to provide innovation opportunities for customers.
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Neil Burns, Director, Croft Filters Ltd
Neil Burns is a founder and co-director at Croft Filters and Croft Additive Manufacturing (CAM), and has more than 25 years’ experience developing and delivering high quality filtration solutions to a range of industries in the UK and overseas.
CAM provides state-of-the-art metal additive manufacturing opportunities and was recently selected as the first company to join the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) CERN Business Incubation Centre, which aims to bridge the gap between science and industry, and drive UK commerce. CAM was selected for its application of innovative AM technology and commitment to developing this.
Neil leads product development within the company and supports open innovation through academic partnerships and grant funding. Neil is currently the Treasurer of the Filtration Society UK, a Committee Member of ASTM Standards Board (USA), and a Committee Member of the ISS Standards Board (UK).
16:00 - 16:10Chairman's closing remarks and end of conference
16:10 - 16:30Coffee and networking break
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