£3.5million sustainable manufacturing institute opens in UK
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will today announce a £3.5million boost for manufacturing innovation at the opening of a new High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute in Essex.
The new facility has been created in partnership with the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence and Ford Britain. Located near Ford's Dagenham car factory, it will develop new and innovative ways to improve manufacturing techniques and increase productivity, with the aim of ensuring Britain remains a top choice for investment. It is expected to generate £80m to the local economy.
According to a statement, the institute will develop state of the art virtual manufacturing systems to assist companies to develop and implement world leading manufacturing processes, which are often too costly for many organisations to design themselves.
It will bring together leading lights from the worlds of business, engineering and academia, employing 22 researchers and PhD students to work alongside six Ford research staff to create programmes that will help develop the highly skilled work force needed to operate such systems.
Joe Greenwell, Ford of Britain chairman, said: "Ford is delighted to be a founding partner in this exciting new initiative. The institute will accelerate research and development in innovative manufacturing systems that will help underpin the future of the UK's high value manufacturing sector. This complements the work that Ford is already doing in this area and also provides significant opportunities for supply chain partners."
