Industry Forum will be running its Japan Best Practice Programme for its seventh consecutive year between 11th May 2012 and 19th May 2012. The programme is designed for Senior Executives, Managers responsible for their organisations continuous improvement or TPM programmes and graduates identified for fast track to senior management. Through Industry Forum’s unique heritage and …more

Created by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a structured approach to deploy a comprehensive set of tools and techniques in order to eliminate losses across a whole organisation. TPM involves the capabilities of the whole workforce to ensure effective and sustainable improvements are implemented. Industry Forum will be …more

This article was first posted on the SMMT website on Tuesday 13 December 2011   Caterpillar’s Building Construction Products Division has announced it is to invest £50m in its UK manufacturing facilities for new products and expanded production facilities in Leicestershire and Stoke-on-Tees. The news follows Caterpillar’s recent announcement to create 300 new permanent jobs …more

Industry Forum and the SMMT have launched a free to use TPM Forum. The purpose of the TPM Forum is to facilitate discussion on best practices used for TPM implementation and preparing for a TPM award assessment. The forum is divided into two sections, one focused on TPM consultancy and implementation, and one on TPM …more

This article was first posted on the SMMT website on Tuesday 13 December 2011 JCB, the world’s third largest manufacturer of construction equipment, today announced plans for a new £31 million engine development project in the UK that will create around 350 jobs across its Midlands and Wales plants. The programme will benefit from a …more

Challenges facing the UK Automotive Industry Supply Chain 2011 will have seen an important series of investments in UK automotive announced by Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Vauxhall and BMW amongst others. Research & Development  spend by UK automotive was 20% up in 2010 at over £1 billion suggesting a series of new models are in …more

The following article was first published on the SMMT website on Friday 9th December 2011 Over the past 18 months, Vauxhall Motors has awarded more than €230m worth of contracts to UK suppliers, making a significant contribution to the UK economy, securing higher revenue, export value and employment within the automotive sector. Suppliers across the …more

Toyota has announced today, that it is to build all its new generation C-segment hatchback models at its Burnaston manufacturing facility in Derbyshire, pledging a £100 million investment in the site. Becoming the sole European manufacturing centre for the new hatchbacks, including hybrid, petrol and diesel models, the Burnaston plant will see a significant increase …more

Developed by the German automotive industry VDA 6.3 defines a process based audit standard for evaluating and improving controls in a manufacturing organisation’s processes. Revised in 2010, the standard was comprehensively restructured to reflect the changes to ISO9001 and customer specific requirements in the automotive industry. The standard can be used by any organisation, either …more

Ever had difficulty finding the benefits of all that improvement activity on your bottom line? Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place in the wrong timescale…….. If there are unrealistic expectations about the short-term financial returns to be made from improvements this can lead to disillusionment and a scaling down of activity just when the …more