We were delighted to welcome SMEs to our ‘Get Connected: Practical Digital Solutions to Transform your Business’ event on the 7th February 2017.

The event aimed to show SMEs the variety of support available at WMG to help evaluate current processes and implement cost-effective and practical digital solutions to overcome a range of business challenges. In attendance were small businesses, academics and large companies spanning a range of sectors, including automotive, motorsport, marine, digital health and aerospace.

Chris White, MP for Warwick and Leamington, gave the keynote address, speaking passionately about why adopting the techniques and philosophies of ‘Industry 4.0’ are vital to our economy, output and competitiveness, both as a nation and as a region.

 Our Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy, Jan Godsell will be presenting ‘Reconciliation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ next Tuesday (28 February) at Coventry Cathedral.

The first two Industrial Revolutions saw significant expansion and development for Coventry. But its success also made it vulnerable. It’s expertise in the automotive industry and in manufacturing made it a bombing target in World War II.

What’s more a reliance on these heavy industries further exposed the city to decline as the UK’s manufacturing sector was largely decimated with the Third Industrial Revolution during the latter part of the 20^th century. This has left the area with a range of employment challenges and industrial relations issues between large and small companies.

Last night (Tuesday 21^st February), we were honoured to join Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra and other esteemed guests, at the inaugural Young Women’s Trust awards ceremony. 

The Young Women’s Trust, is a charity supporting women aged 16 to 30 on low or no pay. The ceremony was held to recognise three amazing young women who have overcome barriers to success to make substantial progress in their lives.

In contrast to traditional awards, these awards sponsored by WMG, Venn Group and Clarion Housing Group, celebrate women starting out, rather than those at the top of their professions, to highlight how difficult it can be to get a foot in the door. Young Women’s Trust offers direct services to support young women into work and campaigns for fair financial futures.

WMG’s Supply Chain team, led by Professor Jan Godsell, is looking to understand the readiness of industry to embrace the opportunities of the cyber-physical age. To do this SMEs are invited to take part in a short survey that will assess your organisation against a range of different dimensions. The results will be aggregated to identify the readiness for Industry 4.0 of different countries, industries, and business types.

The results will be discussed at a special Supply Chains in Practice (SCIP) networking event on 20^th June. Company specific results will also be available after the event.

The term Industry 4.0 originates from the high-tech strategy of the German government, which sought to redefine the role of manufacturing post global economic downturn.

Cutting-edge technology has brought Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding cake back to life – thanks to research by WMG at the University of Warwick.

Professor Mark Williams at WMG, alongside the British Sugarcraft Guild (BSG), employed 3D scanning technology to recreate a full-sized replica of a wedding cake presented to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip – which was almost totally destroyed by vandals in 2015.

The technology was able to accurately scan the cake to within 0.1mm and reproduce a high-resolution 3D model that was then be used to digitally repair the cake.

“As recent news headlines have highlighted, the demand for health and social care services is growing at an unprecedented rate. Demographic changes, presence of long-term conditions, technological advancements, and patient expectations are just some of the factors driving this growth.

“Addressing the increased demand for service through an efficient integrated care delivery structure, that puts the patient at the centre of the service system, is an idea that has wide support. Developing that integrated framework of care will require thoughtful and systematic approaches however, including new ways of training the healthcare workforce, particularly those who are in middle management and tasked with the essential role of overseeing healthcare operational management.

“The increased demand is reshaping the service environment, making it dynamic and subject to rapid change. To address some of the challenges that come with such changes, it will be essential to provide health sector managers with the skills and knowledge to effectively operationalize issues of quality, productivity, and cost so as to ensure that the health service system delivers dual advantages of patient benefits while remaining efficient.

Last week the WMG Academy for Young Engineers race team, Academy Racing, won 3 awards at the regional F1 in schools competition finals and motored their way into the national finals hosted by Silverstone Circuit, the home of British motor racing.

The regional finals took place at the Shireland Collegiate Academy in Smethwick. Academy racing, headed up by Eddie Hodierne (17) won awards for best research and development, best team identity and were awarded second place overall.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has been appointed a trustee on the board of the Baker Dearing Education Trust.

Lord Baker and Lord Dearing created the Baker Dearing Educational Trust in 2007 to develop and promote University Technical Colleges (UTCs).

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has already played an integral role in the development of two University Technical Colleges – the WMG Academies for Young Engineers in Coventry and Solihull. The two state of the art learning campuses cater for students from Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull, and Birmingham.

Starting his career as a graduate apprentice at Lucas Industries, Professor Lord Bhattacharyya became Britain's first ever Professor of Manufacturing. Throughout his career he has been a passionate advocate for engineering innovation and the revival of British industry.

The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, visited WMG, at the University of Warwick, on Friday 20^th January 2017, taking up an invitation to see for himself the work underway to complete the new £150 million National Automotive Innovation Centre on the University Campus. He also saw the work expanding WMG’s Energy Innovation Centre which provides a one-stop-shop for the development of new battery chemistries to create advanced batteries for the automotive sector.

The National Automotive Innovation Centre is a unique automotive research centre, and the largest facility of its kind in Europe. It will provide high technology automotive manufacturing research that will be of significant benefit in the delivery of the key manufacturing component of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.