editor/
publisher
assistant
editor
consulting
editors
art editor
national sales
manager
marketing &
special projects
manager
sales
display &
classified sales
executive
sales office
production
circulation
publishing
director
printer
Mike Excell tel 01992 587025
mike.excell@centaur.co.uk
Carolyn Ellison tel 01527 880827
carolyn.ellison@centaur.co.uk
Andy Sandford,
Steed Webzell
Emma Lunt tel 01527 834459
emma.lunt@centaur.co.uk
Karl Creamer tel 01584 879911
mobile 07714 660885
karl.creamer@centaur.co.uk
Brian Ridout tel/fax 0121 525 0085
mobile 07714 660898
brian.ridout@centaur.co.uk
Switzerland Robert Dormann,
Media Consultant Marketing, Postfach 574,
CH-8803, Ruschlikon, Switzerland
tel ++41 1 720 85 50 fax ++41 1 721 14 74
dormann@rdormann.ch
Taiwan Ms Felicia Wan tel 886 2 2755 7901
fax 886 2 2755 7900 Taiwan Bright International
4F-1, 200, Hsin Yi Road, Sec 3, Taipei,
Taiwan, ROC
Laura Hateley tel 01527 880803
fax 01527 880824
laura.hateley@centaur.co.uk
MWP
Sugar Brook Court, Aston Road, Bromsgrove,
Worcestershire B60 3EX
Jennifer Walker tel 01527 834422
jennifer.walker@centaur.co.uk
Customer Service Dept tel 020 7292 3720
engcirc@centaur.co.uk
Derek Rogers
tel 01527 834476
© Centaur Media PLC, St Giles House, 50
Poland Street, London W1F 7AX
Tel: 020 7970 4000 Fax: 020 7970 4493
Imagery, Kings Norton, Birmingham B30 3HB
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage or
retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the Publisher. ISSN 0026-1033.
MWP Magazine is published by Centaur Media PLC, the UK's premier independent business
publisher. For information about the range of products produced by Centaur Media PLC,
july 2009
mike excell
editor
the diary 05-10 Oct 2009 20-21 Oct 2009 05 Nov 2009
EMO 2009 -
World’s premier trade fair
for advanced
manufacturing equipment
and systems -
Milan
www.emo-milan.com
“It’s
remarkable
that we still
have a
significant
manufacturing
sector. What
characterises
the survivors? ”
MM Live 2009 -
Specialist event for
manufacturers of
precision micro
components -
IEC Ricoh, Coventry
www.micro-show.com
visit www.centaur.co.uk. The site also contains details of vacancies at Centaur. You can also
subscribe online to MWP Magazine at http://sales.centaur.co.uk. MWP Magazine technical
articles of full page length or over are indexed in the Library Association’s Current Technology
Index. The contents of MWP Magazine are reproduced in information storage and retrieval
systems. Subscription, and Reader Service departments address: Centaur Media PLC, as
Back to basics
MWP Summit 2009 -
Annual networking and
seminar event for senior
managers and directors
of engineering SMEs -
AMP Sheffield
www.mwponline.com
07-11June 2010
MACH 2010 -
UK’S premier exhibition
for advanced
manufacturing
technologies -
NEC Birmingham
www.mach2010.com
editor’s comment
THE happy highways of my student life finally took a nasty
turn into the real world in 1970. I’d been working in industry for
around two years, when one day we were summoned to the boss’s
office, to hear that business was bad, cuts had to be made - and that
he’d been made redundant. It was my first direct experience of the
effects of the business cycle, and the first hint that Harold Wilson’s
‘white heat of technology’ might be subject to slow burnout.
Since then I’ve been caught up in three serious economic
downturns. Each time, manufacturing has been hit badly, and under
the circumstances - intense global competition, the ‘brain drain’,
lack of respect for engineers and scientists, lack of understanding
from politicians, misrepresentation in the media etc, etc…it’s
remarkable that we still have a significant manufacturing sector. I
guess I’ve been given the opportunity to observe and reflect on what
characterises the survivors.
The most turbulent time in my working life was the early 1990s. I
was declared redundant by a company I’d been with for nine years,
over which time it had grown significantly. I didn’t like the
decision, but I could see the logic; turnover had plummeted, and the
owner was effectively returning to first principles, cutting back to a
small team, closing down loss-making activities - but maintaining
service and prices in the face of suicidal competition. He saw out the
bad times, and twenty years on, the company is still thriving.
In the wake of redundancy, I was offered a job by that company’s
main competitor, an innovative market leader, with some strong
brands, employing some of the best brains in the industry - or so I
thought. My precise role was unclear, although I soon discovered
that the main aim of the exercise was to pick my brains for customer
names; and that what I’d assumed was a high technology company
had abandoned its core values - technical and ethical - had
marginalised the boffins, and was now in the hands of a
disfunctional management ‘team’, fingers permanently on the
panic button. I didn’t last long, and was glad to be out of it. You can
probably guess the rest, although as a postscript I recently met
another (long term) former employee still seething over the way the
company in its death throes had ransacked the pension scheme.
You shouldn’t generalise, and sometimes the unfolding of events is
completely beyond anyone’s ability to predict or control. But one
thing that seems clear is that firms which, in adversity, stick to their
core values on technology, pricing, marketing, respect and support
for employees - all the things that brought success in the past, and
underpinned innovation - are best placed to prosper in the future.
08-10June 2010
SUBCON 2010 -
UK’S premier show for
subcontract engineering
and services, equipment
and materials -
NEC Birmingham
www.subconshow.co.uk
More details on the above plus other exhibitions, conferences and company open house events online at www.mwponline.com/events.aspx
quoted above. It is available in the UK on subscription of UK £58.00 Sterling per annum
(six issues pa), Overseas £90.00 per annum (six issues pa). For change of address notify the
circulation manager. Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the
Publisher’s discretion, unless specifically guaranteed within the terms of a
subscription offer.
MWP
07
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.