Engineers Insight Newsletter #34

Inspire

I'm sick of hearing about why kids aren't choosing engineering, or what "young people are interested in".

Why don't we just ask them?

I fed back to The MTC last week, why don't instead of having 5 senior people on a panel, let's put an apprentice on each one. And we ask them "Why did you choose to be an engineer?" "Who and what inspired you?" and "Why did your friends choose to be something else?".

I don't think it's rocket science.

Unfortunately, a lot of "skills shortage" conversations just feel like lip service at the minute. We have fantastic companies like Marvelous Manufacturing inspiring primary and secondary school children to think about a career in manufacturing but can't get the support from manufacturers.

They're the first to moan about it though.

I'll be talking to thousands of students, apprentices and graduates this year and I'll be asking them those questions myself.

?? A round up of this week's Engineers Insight app posts:

KUKA KR Quantec Robots.

Camozzi Automation - UK Series PRE Proportional Pressure Regulators.

Matara UK Limited - A Rubix Company MCQI2 Series Profile Pneumatics.

Siemens Motion Control - UK SINAMICS G120D Distributed Drives.

???Learn what makes people tick, not what they sell.

Linking to my initial moan about inspiring kids. I hope this podcast series, can become a platform, that does just that.

Because similarly to the next generation, I don't care about the products people sell, I care about the people in industry. Where they've come from, the struggles they've faced, how they coped in those moments.

In episode 4 Martin Hurworth explained he had worked in Pizza Hut and got his 5 stars at McDonalds, now he's a CEO of a vision company and an investor at a VC.

Even if 1 viewer watches and thinks "I can be like that person", then the podcast is successful.

Episode 6 with Michael Sharp is now live...

Through the Eye on Spotify!

Through the Eye on Amazon Music!

Episode 6 - ”20 years at the top, to start all over again.”

What have we been up to?

Another busy week!!

On Monday I met Nathan Sanghera from Crowe UK to discuss how they approach manufacturing companies and whether the podcast could be a good route to market. Thanks to Jacob Walker for setting this up.

Tuesday afternoon I was joined by Andy Miller from YASKAWA UK & Ireland at Tresham College (Part of The Bedford College Group) giving their engineering students an insight into robotics and automation. Andy went through who Yaskawa are, the products they manufacture, typical applications in industry and the Motomini demo.

On Wednesday I visited the Logistex show at the NEC and managed to catch up with a lot of people in one day.

I spent time at the SICK Sensor Intelligence stand with Nathaniel Hofmann putting the world to rights and introducing me to a couple of new contacts - Paul Roberts from Universal Robots & Mark Williams from Basler AG .

Then got to catch up with my old friends at Cognex Corporation & Bytronic Vision Intelligence - Paul Morrison , Thomas Walsh , Martin Hurworth , John Dunlop , Brian Davies , Stewart J. & George Gentle .

Shoutout to Daniel Monson-Smith for buying my lunch ??

Thursday was a trip to Manchester for the RBTX event, with igus UK , hosted at the North of England Robotics Innovation Centre (NERIC) . Huge thanks for the invite and a fantastic facility in the north west, showcasing robotics and automation from Yaskawa, UR, KUKA, Mitsubishi, ABB, Festo and of course, Igus.

Stephanie West Matthew Aldridge Ashleigh Boyce Adam Sanjurgo Harry Worts Robert Powell Angelos B. James Kennedy Saul Jones

I managed to get home in time for my meeting with the 西门子 UK team to discuss their progress in the app, what's working (very well) and the next feature we're releasing. Also, how do we reach their customer base to tell them to download. A huge thank you to Jasmine Aldous for all her hard work and collaboration over the past few months, making sure Siemens products are uploaded every week and the analytics make sense for the team.

In between all the visiting I managed to do a bit of real work.

Want to learn?

Siemens Webinar Series: Sign Up Here!

If you have some training courses or webinars you want to promote here, let me know.

March Events:

26th March > Postponed to 23rd April - Meet, Make, Manufacture at The MTC, Coventry. Sign Up FREE

27th March - Universal Robots Cobots in Packaging & Palletising Masterclass at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, University of Lincoln. Sign Up FREE

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