smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Businesses, which need help to develop their operations further, stand to benefit from a new manufacturing initiative recently launched by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Thanks to Ł60 million of Government backing twelve "Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres" will soon be based in academic institutions across the UK. The initiative is to be co-ordinated by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The centres will work in partnership with industry and will place a strong emphasis on business processes research. These will cover areas that help businesses operate more effectively. Subjects studied range from the hi-tech of e-manufacturing and laser processing to transport and healthcare.

The research teams intend to make sure that projects will add value and sustain a competitive edge in the marketplace, states the DTI.

Phil Burnell, programme manager for Innovative Manufacturing at the EPSRC, explained that the research projects could last for anything from a few months to several years.

Private companies or public sector bodies, in relevant fields, will also collaborate and provide input into the undertaking. For example, they could provide information on current business processes in their firms.

The research team will then use such material to develop their studies further. The results will then be moved back into the company or companies where it can be applied. It depends on the nature of the project as to how long this process may take.

"The process of technology transfer is also to do with people moving," said Burnell. Thus a company involved in the project may find post-graduates working on the research, coming into their business and applying the new processes they themselves have researched.

Seven of the centres are already up and running. A few more are due to start in next January and April. Although some of the projects are already under way, Burnell commented that one of the centres’ targets is to report on the different groups of companies they have worked with over five years. Assessors expect the centres to work on a range of different projects with a variety of different companies over this time.

The centres will also be holding regular workshops, which will be open to anybody, according to Burnell.

All the centres will be featured on the DTI's Manufacturing Advisory Service, due to be launched in spring 2002. They will be based in universities at Loughborough, Cambridge, Salford, Liverpool, Reading, Warwick, Nottingham, Bath, UCL and Cranfield.

In the meantime, small businesses eager to access this new source of research, should contact the ESPRC’s Phil Burnell at phil.burnell@epsrc.ac.uk.

With thanks to Lloyds TSB Success4Business. For more news and information visit www.success4business.com.

(5/12/01)

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