The aim of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is to assist companies to grow and to increase their competitiveness across the business cycle, and thereby to help industry to create wealth more effectively. The IfM has recently introduced a number of new initiatives specifically aimed at helping local businesses.
By teaming up with Business Link for Cambridgeshire and the Manufacturing Advisory Service in the East of England (MAS East), the IfM have launched a new service for small to medium sized companies in Cambridgeshire. The service offers a 'one-stop shop' providing expert solutions to problems across the manufacturing value chain, from innovation and design to production performance and finance management.
In addition, they have joined forces with FoodFen, which represents the cluster of over 4000 food- and farming-related businesses in the region, to deliver tailor-made training courses for Fenland food companies. The first training course on 'Fundamentals of Manufacturing Management' was delivered recently to local companies in Wisbech, in a condensed two-day format.'
The IfM has also been working with local SME, Michell Instruments Ltd (Michell), to help them fund an increased investment in R&D through economies of scale with key suppliers and value engineering. This was successfully accomplished when a team from the IfM was invited to apply its established diagnostic tool to the company's operations. Michell is an internationally recognised and accredited expert in hygrometers, moisture analysers and hydrocarbon dew-point meters.
