Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will tomorrow announce a £3.5million UK Government investment for manufacturing innovation at the opening of a new High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute in Essex.
The new Institute has been created in partnership with the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence and Ford Britain, who are investing a further £1.44 million, and is located in a manufacturing heartland a short distance from the legendary Dagenham car factory.
The Institute will develop new and innovative ways to improve manufacturing techniques and increase productivity that will ensure Britain remains a top choice for investment. It is expected to generate £80m to the local economy.
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 6 Ford research staff to create programmes that will help develop the high skilled work force needed to operate such systems.
Mr Pickles will be joined by Local Government Minister Bob Neill, Ford Britain chairman Joe Greenwell, as well as CEO Bill Williams and chairman, Martin Broadhurst of the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence. They met engineers learning the skills to drive the industry forward in the future.
