Episode one of the brand new podcast by The Manufacturer, TM Happy Hour. Covering a range of manufacturing and events topics by three manufacturing musketeers.

So 2019 was pretty interesting for UK manufacturing  - and not necessarily in a good way! 

The Manufacturer's editorial team look back at some of the highs and lows of the year, and offer their thoughts on how manufacturers can make the most of 2020.

 This podcast features interview segments with:

Will Bridgman, Chairman of Warren Services  at 3:30

Sir David McMurtry, founder of Renishaw plc at 8:36

James Smith, Director of Events at The Manufacturer at 14.27

Juergen Maier, CEO of Siemens UK and future Chairman of the Digital Catapult at 18:30

And talking of 2020 - don't forget to complete the survey for the Annual Manufacturing Report 2020. Just click here: https://hubs.ly/H0mkt-x0 

Juergen Maier is retiring as CEO of Siemens UK at the end of 2019, but he tells Nick Peters this simply marks a change in career, not an end.

Nick Peters speaks to Mike Hawes, the CEO of the automotive trade body SMMT, about the blizzard of challenges facing the UK automotive supply chain. From OEM to Tier 3, no one is exempt from the political, regulatory and technological upheavals facing the industry. For some, the challenge is existential. They simply might not survive.

Before Sir David McMurtry invented the touch trigger probe, it was extremely difficult for engineers to measure anything non-linear. He was working on the Olympus engines for Concorde at the time, in 1972 - which means that before then the accuracy of engineering on Concorde, and everything else, could only be calculated using a slide-rule, an invention of the 18th century. Sir David went on to found Renishaw, whose precision measuring devices can be found in engineering workshops the world over. Sir David's invention ushered in the possibility of mass manufacturing to identical spec - indeed, he made today's world of manufacturing possible.

It's one of the toughest challenges in the UK economy - encouraging small companies to grow into the powerhouse-medium sized companies that are such a feature of successful industrial economies like Germany.

It is happening at JJ Churchill, a small-sized aerospace company - it supplies parts to Rolls-Royce plc and jet engine makers worldwide - that is growing into a medium-sized company, through a mixture of agility, government support, and a laser-like focus on what it does best.

The story behind the company's origins,  at the birth of the jet age in the 1930s, is a fascinating one. 

Nick Peters spoke to Andrew Churchill, the grandson of the founder, about it at the company's headquarters in the very un-industrial surroundings of rural Leicestershire.

(Andrew Churchill is on the cover of the latest issue of The Manufacturer. Click here to learn how to get your own regular copy.

Brian Holliday is MD of Siemens Digital Industries in the UK. Here he talks to Nick Peters about how he and his team harnessed the power of digital manufacturing technologies to develop world- and competition-beating products. He also talks about failing German and technology at O Level (he failed German!), why he decided against university, but found redemption - and a career - in an apprenticeship and a fascination with how computers could change industry. 

Today Brian is at the forefront of the campaign to persuade UK manufacturers of the game changing benefits of deploying digital technologies. Given he has more than "been there, done that", he is worth listening to!

Confidence in elected politicians is at an all-time low - certainly within living memory - thanks to Brexit. In this podcast Nick and his guest Chris White, who knows a thing or two about how cruel politics can be, discuss why manufacturers must press politicians of all stripes not to let a positive industrial strategy for the UK fall foul of petty tribalism.  

 The launch of the Made Smarter Commission’s £20m North West Pilot last year is now bearing fruit. The project, which is designed to encourage, inform and assist smaller manufacturers into the process of adopting digital manufacturing technologies, has now appointed a chair of the Pilot steering board, whose job it will be to monitor progress of this vital initiative. Vital, because on its success hangs the fate of the entire manufacturing element of the government’s Industrial Strategy.

The new chair is Andrea Thompson, managing director for Europe & International Programmes at BAE Systems, which includes the F-35 Lightning fighter programme. She spoke about her role to Nick Peters.

In this episode, Nick Peters meets Jim McColl, engineer, entrepreneur, passionate Scotsman and the man intent on breathing new life into shipbuilding in the UK. McColl was born on the Clyde and served his engineering apprenticeship there, before embarking on a career that led him to establish Clyde Blowers Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on reviving under-invested or failing engineering companies. 

Ferguson Marine on Clydeside was most definitely one of those.