Manufacturing output rises over consecutive months

It may be too early to say the recession is over, but two months of growth in the UK's manufacturing output is welcome relief. March saw a 0.2% rise in output, with a further 0.2% rise in April. Many pundits believe we may now see a second quarter with flat growth or even modest rises.

John Richardson's engineering diary

 A survey from the Keep Britain Working campaign has highlighted how one in three manufacturing workers ? the highest proportion in any sector across the UK ? have had their pay cut since the recession began, in an effort to help keep their companies afloat and save colleagues' jobs.

Becky Silverton writes 

Remember the days when reputations were built or broken on criteria of reliability and longevity? So when did this tacit acceptance that today's products don't last as long as they used to creep into our thinking? It's one thing to accept that you're going to replace a £200 flat screen TV when it packs up two years down the line, but it's quite another to accept that the control or power transmission equipment on your £200,000 machine will give up the ghost in the same period.

Congratulations...

 ... to Positioning Design Engineer Steve Drake of Cap Coder Ltd in Oxfordshire as winner of the Industrial Technology 2009 Readership Survey prize draw. If you visit their web site at www.capcoder.co.uk you can get an overview of the company by viewing Cap Coder's "Introduction" video as well as seeing videos of some of the machines with which Steve's been involved in the design.

Just click here to download the June 2009 issue of Industrial Technology magazine as a pdf file. You can read all the features as well as use the interactive links to view all the web sites of the companies we've written about and who've advertised with us. Instead of having to download the magazine in the future why not register to receive a copy free of charge each month? Click on the "Get a FREE copy" link on the left to register.