IfM News - Institute for Manufacturing

IfM News
Focus on: A decade of the IT support team
It is a tribute to how well the IT
systems work at the IfM that you
might only think about what the
IT support team do when your
computer stops working or there are
problems with the network.
Lewis Grantham, Computer Officer,
and Giles Hainsworth, Senior
Computing Technician, both celebrate
a decade at the IfM this month,
having joined on the same day, 4
May 2004. Lewis formerly worked in
IT and multimedia support at UCL
while Giles worked for IT support for
companies in the Bury St Edmunds
area.
Before Lewis and Giles arrived at the
IfM’s then home in Mill Lane, there
had been no structured IT support for
some months. As recorded in the May
2004 issue of IfM News, they were
immediately faced with a lengthy
backlog of ‘outstanding requests’
for IT help that had been sent to the
‘ml-bugs’ email address (‘ml’ stands for
Mill Lane). The article said: “It will take
some time for these guys to resolve
all the outstanding issues.” And in
bold type: “Please be patient.”
And for the past 10 years, Lewis and
Giles have been patiently and steadily
working though the requests as the
number of people, electronic devices
and services they have to maintain
has grown. The hardware has
changed markedly in the intervening
decade. As Lewis explains, in 2004
they were dealing with desktops and
some laptops. Now they are faced
with a plethora of devices including
touch phones, iPads and tablets in a
world where wi-fi is taken for granted.
Version 1.0: Above, the IT team’s arrival,
as reported in the IfM News in May 2004.
Below, Lewis (left) and Giles with their
own suggested lookalikes (Jason Statham
and Tim Henman) beneath
Tasks taking up their time at present
are the changes necessitated by
Microsoft’s withdrawal of support for
Windows XP on 8 April. There are also
plans in place to replace photocopiers
and printers.
The team try to schedule larger
projects such as infrastructure
May 2014
No 197
changes during the summer months,
when they cause the least disruption.
In the past 10 years, there has been
an increase in the number of staff,
researchers, students and visitors the
IT team have to support while the
number of IT support staff peaked at
three when Jackie Stewart joined
Lewis and Giles for just over five years.
Flexible work practices mean more
people are choosing to work away
from the IfM and this means more
support has to be offered remotely.
The IfM support systems are a far
cry from the days in Mill Lane. Lewis
recalls: “When we joined, you could
lose the whole network if someone
unplugged something.”
Lewis and Giles say they aim to be
responsive to queries – and these
sometimes stretch beyond problems
they can reasonably be expected
to solve. Queries include: “Why isn’t
my gmail account working?”, “Why
has Dropbox stopped working?”
and ‘’Why have I lost my files in the
cloud?”
They have each picked a prizewinning
question from those they’ve been
confronted with in their first decade
here.
Lewis’s favourite is: “Why does my
husband’s satnav not pick up a speed
camera on the A14?”
For Giles it is: “I had a message on my
computer the other day. Do I need to
worry about it?”
So next time you ask for help, try to
be a little more specific and give them
a helping hand. Contact Lewis and
Giles at [email protected]
Outstanding award for
‘push-pull’ paper
An article by IfM authors on
manufacturing start-ups in
emerging industries has been
chosen as the 2014 Outstanding
Paper winner by the Journal
of Manufacturing Technology
Management.
The article by Sarah Lubik,
Sirirat Lim, Ken Platts and
Tim Minshall, Market-pull and
technology-push in manufacturing
start-ups in emerging industries,
has now been made freely
available by the journal’s
publishers, Emerald Group
Publishing Limited, for the next
12 months.
The paper found that
technology-push start-ups
often changed to a market-pull
orientation because of new
partners, new market information
or shift in management priorities.
In contrast, many of the startups beginning with a marketpull orientation shifted to a
technology-push orientation
because early market
experiences necessitated a focus
on improving processes in order
to increase productivity or meet
partner specifications, or meet
a demand for complementary
products.
View it at www.emerald
insight.com/10.1108/
17410381311287463
Obama advisor’s
Babbage Lecture
Barack Obama’s
former Assistant
Director for Advanced
Manufacturing, Thomas
R Kurfess, delivered
the Babbage Lecture
on 13 May: The Digital
Future of Manufacturing,
Policy and Technology
Opportunities for
American Innovation.
Prof Kurfess, of the
Georgia Institute of
Technology, presented
an overview of
efforts to advance
manufacturing
with a focus on the
National Network
for Manufacturing
Innovation (NNMI)
which was discussed
in the 2013 and 2014
State of the Union
Addresses. He discussed
how technologies
can be employed to
move manufacturing
into a digital domain
by employing digital
models, in conjunction
with readily available
high performance
Eoin discusses industrial
strategy with Vince Cable
Eoin O’Sullivan was one of the
speakers with Business Secretary
Vince Cable MP in a panel discussion
on industrial strategy held by the
Institute for Government on 30 April.
Dr Cable discussed issues that make
it difficult for government to operate
with a view to the long term and how
to counter these difficulties.
Eoin spoke about approaches other
countries are adopting in relation
to domestic industrial strategy. He
highlighted common themes that
emerge, including a strong emphasis
Tim
tackles
triathlon
Tim Minshall will be swimming in the fetid
waters of the Cam, cycling the treacherous
alpine passes that surround the city, then
running twice round the city streets to
complete the Cambridge City Triathlon on
Sunday 28 September. To ensure that he
doesn’t wimp out, he will be doing this to
raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital
Children’s Charity. All donations to this
excellent charity are most welcome via https://
www.justgiving.com/Tim-Minshall-GOSH.
computing platforms
to enable rapid process
and production
planning for use in
both cost estimation/
quoting and, ultimately,
production and
verification. For more
see www.ifm.eng.cam.
ac.uk/research/brg/
on coordination across government,
partnership between government
and industry, and attention to the
role of networks, institutions and
cross-government coordination
groups. He said the UK could benefit
from international examples of
collective business attempts to
identify long-term strategic needs.
These include how Germany brings
together SMEs to identify long-term
needs and challenges within and
across sectors, while the White House
also has good examples of subcommittees focused on long-term
issues of growth and employment
which cut across different industries.
We love Paris in
the springtime ...
Phil Catton and his team completed their four-day 500km
charity pedal from London to Paris, ending up at the
Eiffel Tower on 17 May. Their impressive total raised for
Cancer Research UK and The Alzheimer’s Society already
exceeds £8,700. You can still sponsor them at http://
uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/LondonToParisMay2014
Phil said: “Getting out of London was the hardest bit, and there
are some big hills in Kent! After the first tough day, we had
amazing weather through beautiful (if rolling) French scenery.
The team is really grateful for all our very kind donations and
thrilled with how much we’ve raised – the thought of which
kept us going up those hills and into the headwind!”
Speaking at the plenary session: Eoin O’Sullivan
and Andrew Gill (right). Below, Jag Srai, Dai
Morgan and Judith Shawcross
Briefing Day attracts industry and policymakers
More than 150 senior representatives from industry and
government as well as UK and multinational companies attended
the annual IfM Briefing Day on 13 May.
Mike Gregory gave the opening introduction and the event
featured presentations on the future of manufacturing; capturing
value from global networks; science, technology and innovation
policy; inkjet technology; sustainability; industrial information
and automation; and developing the next generation of
manufacturing leaders.
Presentations and other resources from the day are available at
www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/resources/conference/briefing-day-2014/
Baroness sees how PrISMS programme helps small firms
Baroness Stowell of Beeston MBE,
Parliamentary Under Secretary of
State for Communities and Local
Government, visited the IfM on 29
April to meet some of the 100 firms
benefitting from a programme to
create and safeguard jobs across the
East of England.
She heard how the PrISMS
programme, managed by ECS, helps
start-ups and small manufacturing
firms develop their business
strategy, become more sustainable,
and identify the best markets and
products for their business. She met
the MDs of three of the companies
helped by PrISMS.
Baroness Stowell said: “Our aim is
to create jobs and support local
businesses. The businessmen and
women I have met are inspiring
examples to us all and I am proud
we can provide support to them
through projects such as PrISMS.”
Derek Ford, one of the ECS team
who deliver the programme, said:
“The success of PrISMS is it takes
a holistic view of a firm, directing
managers’ scarce time to those
areas of business that require
development or improvement.
“It also demonstrates that
University-led funded programmes
of this type can significantly
improve the UK’s manufacturing
capability.”
For more on PrISMS see www.ifm.
eng.cam.ac.uk/services/prisms/
Victoria arrives as
Rebecca
departs
Victoria Nash
has joined ECS as
temporary team
support to cover
Kat Harding’s
maternity
leave until August 2014. Victoria
previously worked at TWI as a PA
and Senior Administrator in the
Collaborative Group. She will work
five days a week, 9.30am-2.30pm,
and can be contacted at
[email protected]
Victoria replaces Rebecca Meagor,
who was with us from August until
her departure on 9 May – to start
her own maternity leave. Our best
wishes to Rebecca and her family,
the new arrival is due in late June.
NASA executive joins ECS
John Saiz, a NASA executive
and formerly Chief Technology
Officer at NASA’s Johnson Space
Center, has joined ECS as a
Senior Industrial Fellow. He will
be responsible for providing
innovation and technology
management consultancy and
education support to energy and
aerospace organizations in the
US, combining leading methods
researched at CTM with John’s
deep knowledge and experience of
the oil & gas and aerospace sectors.
John was the CTO of the Johnson
Space Center (JSC) in 2008-13. He
was the principal advisor to JSC
senior leadership on research and
technology development, and was
New visitors
Peizhong Zhu joined
CIM as a visiting
Jacky’s scholarship funds PhD student under
the supervision of
CIS PhD researcher Pu (Jacky) Liu
Yongjiang Shi. His visit
won a China Scholarship Council
is sponsored by the
(CSC) Cambridge Scholarship
EC-HVEN grant and his research will
to cover his tuition college fees
focus on summarizing the specific
and expenses in Cambridge. His
rules of indigenous innovation
research interests are the end of life
and technological catch-up of
process of wind turbine blades and Chinese corporations embedded
advanced materials for the blades.
in international manufacturing
Abigail on CUE for award networks. He is undertaking his
PhD at the School of Management,
Well done to MET student
Zhejiang University, China. His
Abigail Bush, part of the
research interests are business
SimPrints team that won the
model and technological
social entrepreneurship award
innovation, and international
at the Cambridge University
manufacturing networks.
Entrepreneurs (CUE) grand final. It
Yue Zhang joined CIM as a visiting
is developing a low-cost, portable
PhD student in April, under the
fingerprint scanner that wirelessly
supervision of Yongjiang Shi. She
syncs with mobile phones so health is a PhD candidate at Institute
workers can link patients to their
of Policy and
records anytime, anywhere. Abi is
Management, Chinese
doing her MET IIB Long Project with Academy of Sciences.
the team and pitched the company She graduated with
to angel investors at the final.
a BA in Finance from
Minzu University of
Mohammed’s speaker
China (2010). Her
academic interests are
award
innovation processes and evolution
CSA researcher
dynamics of emerging high-tech
Mohammed
industry, and innovation policies
Zaki (left) was
and catch-up strategies in emerging
presented
countries.
with a Speaker
Maria Holdago, a PhD student
Award for
at Politecnico di Milano working
his participation on the service
on sustainable value creation
analytics panel at the Service
in manufacturing through the
Research and Innovation Institute
provision of maintenance services,
(SRII) 2014 Global Conference, held is visiting CIS. Her main areas
in Silicon Valley, California.
of interest are sustainability,
instrumental in
developing NASA’s
Space Technology
Roadmaps.
In 2013-14,
John worked
with a leading
multinational oil
and gas service
company on assignment from
NASA, reporting to the Vice
President for Technology at its
global HQ in Houston, Texas. He
holds a B.S. degree in Petroleum
Engineering and a M.S. degree
in Mechanical Engineering. His
industry experiences include time
as a ‘mud logger’ in the Texas
and Louisiana oilfields. John will
be based in Houston and can be
contacted at [email protected]
sustainable value,
product service
systems, maintenance
management and
maintenance services.
She has been involved
in the European
project SustainValue (Sustainable
Value Creation in Manufacturing
Networks).
Shiven Rastogi, a visitor to DIAL,
is a second-year undergraduate
in mechanical engineering at the
Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT), Delhi.
He is working with
Ajith Parlikad on a
London Underground
asset management
project to determine
the frequency to replace machinery
cost effectively. Shiven will be
here for another two months and
hopes to pursue a PhD in the fields
of mathematics, economics and
management.
Vijay Dodwani, also visiting DIAL,
is a fourth-year undergraduate in
chemical engineering at the Indian
Institute of Technology
(IIT), Bombay. He is
working with Torben
Jess and Duncan
McFarlane on the
ALADDIN project to
create an information
recommendation
system for users searching
databases. It will also involve
interaction with staff from Boeing.
Vijay will be here for another two
months and hopes to pursue a
PhD in computer science and
technology.
Lessons from the
coalface
Poster judges and researchers: From left, Ian Hutchings, Denise
Chappell, Jessy Zhou, Tianqi Dong, Jon Parkins and Mike Gregory
First year PhD students showcase research
The 1st year PhD Students’
Conference, organised and
run by the students, was
held at the IfM on 21 May.
They showcased their work,
ideas and results in a day of
presentations, ending with
a poster competition. The
winner was Jon Parkins
(CIP) (supervisor Bill O’Neill,
advisor Martin Sparkes), for
Increasing throughput of laser
additive manufacturing in
metal powders for biomedical
applications.
Titanium biomedical parts
with a porous outer layer
similar to the structure of bone
can be built using additive
manufacturing. Laser additive
manufacturing currently has
slower process rates than
competing technologies
despite other advantages. In
his research, Jon looks at the
industrial demand, process
limitations and potential
technologies for designing
a rapid laser additive
manufacturing system. To
see Jon’s poster email him at
[email protected]
Joint second place went to
Tianqi Dong (supervisor
Bill O’Neill) and Jessy Zhou
(supervisor Yongjiang Shi).
More than 80 people
from 50 companies
and the University met
to discuss lessons and
insights on how best to
manage collaborative
research between
academia and industry.
Delegates gathered
at the Engineering
Department’s biennial
conference on the
subject, Engagement in
practice – lessons from
the coalface, chaired
by Tim Minshall at
the Moller Centre
on 1 May. Speakers
from Boeing, Dyson,
PragmatIC Printing, the
John Lewis Partnership
and the Engineering
Department described
their research
partnerships, successes
and failures from a wide
range of collaboration
models over very
different timeframes.
Despite the differing
backgrounds, key
messages emerged
about the importance
of flexibility to seize
the serendipitous
discovery, continuity to
build trust and deeply
competent teams, and
frequent interaction
to build a shared
understanding of each
partner’s priorities and
imperatives.
Philip Woodall, of DIAL,
spoke about A decade
of building and refining
a strategic research
partnership with Boeing.
CSTI’s Eoin O’Sullivan
and Tomas Coates
Ulrichsen spoke about
Building and Sustaining
Long Term Strategic
University-Industry
Partnerships: Experiences
and Insights from the UK
and US.
A report of the
conference highlights
will soon be available
from Charles
Boulton (cb683@
cam.ac.uk), manager
of the Engineering
Department’s Theme:
Inspiring Research
through Industrial
Collaboration.
Open Innovation
Health Forum launch
The launch of the Open
Innovation Forum in Health
was held on 14-15 May with a
networking dinner at Christ’s
College followed by a full-day
workshop at IfM looking at
open innovation skills and
trends and drivers in health.
Potential members
attended from across the
health industry, including
participants from GSK,
Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Fujitsu,
Spire Healthcare, Procter
and Gamble and Suntory.
Feedback from the event
was extremely positive:
memberships are now being
formalised for the next
meeting in late September or
Notice board
Be snappy for competition
Time is running out to submit
your entries for the Engineering
Department 2014 photo competition
– the deadline is 14 June. It is open to
all staff and students and is sponsored
by ZEISS. The winning photos will
feature on the Department and
University websites and previous
winners, including those from the IfM,
early October.
Companies interested in
joining should contact Jim
Trueman [email protected]
have received press coverage for their
photos and videos. See www.eng.cam.
ac.uk/news/photography-competitiondepartment-engineering
Final PPG seminar of term
The final PPG seminar this term will
be The cement industry and its carbon
footprint, by Daniel Summerbell, at
11.30am on Friday 20 June in Seminar
Room 3.
Jim has been
invited to speak
at the plenary
session on open
innovation
at the ISPIM
Conference
in Dublin on
10 June. He
will provide
insights from
IfM OI forums
in food/FMCG
and health,
alongside
speakers from
Alstom and Moy
Park.
Courses and events
l Purchasing and Supply
Management for Smaller
Businesses
Tuesday 3 and Tuesday 10 June
l Strategic Roadmapping
Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 June
Trio take best paper award
Well done to Nancy Bocken, Sam
Short and Padmakshi Rana of
CIS on winning a best paper award
at the International Conference
on Sustainable Design and
Manufacturing, held in Cardiff on
28-30 April. The paper is Bocken, N,
Short, S, and Rana, P (2014), Using
the value mapping tool for sustainable
business thinking.
As part of collaborative research, a
value mapping tool was developed to
assist in the exploration and design
of sustainable business models
(Bocken, Short, Rana, Evans, 2013).
This research investigates whether
the tool can be used more broadly
to facilitate ‘sustainable business
thinking’ – to balance and align value
creation for all stakeholders including
the environment and society at all
levels and through all a business
activities. The research question is:
how can the tool be used to enhance
sustainable business thinking?
Downloads after a decade
The journal Technological Forecasting
& Social Change published a list of
its most downloaded articles in 2013
– and the second most popular was
by written by IfM authors almost 10
years earlier, in 2004. The paper is
Phaal, R, Farrukh, C J P and Probert,
D R: Technology roadmapping – a
planning framework for evolution and
revolution, Issue 71 (1-2), pp 5-26.
Recent publications
Ford, S, Routley, M, Phaal, R, and Probert, D (2014): The industrial emergence of commercial inkjet printing, European
Journal of Innovation Management, 17(2), pp 126-143.
Short, S W, Bocken, N M P, Barlow, C, and Chertow, M (2014): From Refining Sugar to Growing Tomatoes: Industrial
Ecology and Business Model Evolution, Journal of Industrial Ecology (article accepted).
Conference papers:
Bocken, N, Short, S, and Rana, P: Using the value mapping tool for sustainable business thinking, International
Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Cardiff, 28-30 April.
Chertow, M, and Bocken, N: Industrial Symbiosis as a Sustainable Business Model: theoretical and empirical findings,
Resilience 2014, Montpellier, France, 4-8 May.
Evans, J, and Bocken, N: A tool for manufacturers to find opportunity in the circular economy – www.circulareconomy
toolkit.org, International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Cardiff, 28-30 April.
Fernando, L, and Evans, S: Case study of an organisation trying to re-imagine its place in the supply chain: transformation
towards industrial sustainability, International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Cardiff.
Litos, L, and Evans, S: Understanding eco-efficiency through environmental performance benchmarking – a qualitative
approach, International Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, Cardiff, 28-30 April.
Read all about it: IfM in the news
Here is a selection of our latest media coverage:
Baroness visits Cambridge to see how the university is helping small businesses
Visit by Baroness Stowell to meet firms helped by the PrISMS programme and the ECS team.
Cambridge News online
www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Business/Business-News/Baroness-visits-Cambridge-to-see-how-theuniversity-is-helping-small-businesses-20140429160453.htm#ixzz30SBI4PZV
‘We buy factory-farmed meat and clothes made by slaves and that’s ludicrous’
Fashion blog for The Guardian by Jessi Baker, former MET student and Provenance co-founder.
The Guardian online
www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/apr/25/jessi-baker-clothes-slaves-fashionprovenance-website-revolution-consumer
IfM maps out the future of global manufacturing
Report on the IfM Briefing Day.
Business Weekly
Print and online at www.businessweekly.co.uk/manufacturing/16967-ifm-maps-out-the-future-of-global-manufacturing
Reshoring: back to the source
Jag Srai on using data from the UK and overseas to establish what are the trends in reshoring.
The Sunday Telegraph (Business Reporter supplement)
Print and online at http://business-reporter.co.uk/2014/05/reshoring-back-to-the-source/
Why ultra-precision manufacturing is such a big deal
Feature-length interview with Bill O’Neill on ultra-precision manufacturing on (original article
published in the IfM Review).
Phys.org
http://phys.org/news/2014-04-ultra-precision-big.html
Roundtable on UK-India manufacturing policy
Blog by Vijay Iyer of the Science and Innovation Network (S&IN) on the IfM manufacturing
workshop and roundtable held in India.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office ‘Global conversations’ blog
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/science-innovation-network-india/2014/05/06/roundtable-on-uk-indiamanufacturing-policy/

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