Webinar: Panel discussion: Business resilience - protecting plant, process and people from the impact of volatility and change by MA Business

Panel discussion: Business resilience - protecting plant, process and people from the impact of volatility and change

About

At a time of accelerating technological change, unprecedented demand for new skills, and historic levels of geopolitical turmoil (not to mention the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic) manufacturing and engineering organisations have rarely faced higher levels of uncertainty and change
This online panel discussion - hosted by The Engineer and RS Components – will bring together experts from a range of different sectors to explore some of the challenges that companies are facing and examine the measures they are taking to build resilience and future-proof their organisations.
The discussion will also explore some of the key findings of RS Components’ Resilience Index – a series of reports published throughout 2021 highlighting some key areas of improvement for UK manufacturing.

Key Discussion areas
• Resilience best practice
• Key areas of investment
• The importance of innovation
• Building a resilient workforce
• Addressing the productivity gap
• Cross-sector resilience lessons

Presenters

Emma Botfield

Managing Director for UK & Ireland at RS Components

Emma has a wealth of experience in customer service, strategic and operational management and has managed within large, complex organisations within the private and public sector. She has led teams to continually improve the customer experience, efficiently and effectively, driving change at a strategic level whilst supporting/driving change geographically across an international matrix organisation. Emma is a practicing ILM Level 7 Coach, an accredited Black Belt in Six Sigma and NLP Diploma qualified.

Andrew Wade

Host - Features Editor for The Engineer

Andrew Wade is features editor at The Engineer, where he has worked since 2015. Over the course of his journalism career he has covered everything from Irish general elections, Premier League football and the Japanese tsunami of 2011, to maritime satellite technology and the latest trends in robotics, renewables and the entire kaleidoscope of the engineering world.

Steven Wade

Technical Director at Atkins Global

Steven’s roles include technical lead for the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, strategic water resources planning for London, developing the case for major DFID climate services projects, training at ADB and the World Bank and his current roles leading weather and climate services projects in the UK and Asia.

Melissa Conlon

Commercial Director AMRC North West

Melissa Conlon is Commercial Director at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) North West. Melissa is a Commercial Director with over 30 year’s experience, she has extensive private and public sector experience and has developed and implemented a number of strategies for SME engagement. She has worked in a number of industry sectors including finance, education, software and advanced engineering and manufacturing. Her career includes senior roles at major corporates eg Repsol Petroleum, GE and BNP Paribas. In her role with GE Melissa was responsible for a number of change management programmes and has implemented ERP systems within a number of GE companies across Europe. She is currently a member of the LEP Innovation Board, The Digital Skill Partnership Board , REDCAT Advisory Board and Kirkham Prison Advisory Board. In addition to her role at the AMRC Melissa holds two NED roles for private sector organisations. Melissa is passionate about engaging more females into STEM careers and had a research papers publish in the Royal Academy of Engineers Year Book on the subject of “A Model for engaging women within BME populations into HE engineering programmes in East Lancashire”

Dave Rawlinson

Head of Technology Environments, AirWorks, BAE Systems

Dave joined the Royal Navy as a helicopter pilot in 1990 and served for 12 years, completed numerous tours in the former republic of Yugoslavia, multiple exercises and operations, commanded Royal Navy support helicopter operations in Sierra Leone and was UK Amphibious Helicopters Operations Officer during the start of the Afghanistan campaign. In 2003 Dave moved into industry to work for AgustaWestland Helicopters (now Leonardo Helicopters), working on the UK Apache attack helicopter programme. In 2007 Dave joined BAE Systems as a business development manager, supporting one of the company’s software groups across a diverse portfolio, before moving to support a strategic export campaign. In 2019 Dave was asked to lead cyber, information and digital delivery elements of the Future Combat Air System design, while also helping to write the company Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance strategy. Since 2021 Dave leads Air Sector Technology Environments with responsibility for delivering new methods, tooling and infrastructures to deliver radical productivity improvements across manufacturing, software development and data science.

Alan Dilworth

Programme Manager

Alain Dilworth is Programme Manager for Made Smarter's adoption programme in the North West, a government-funded and industry-led initiative to increase technology adoption and digital skills among SME manufactures.

After a 25 year career in manufacturing, Alin pursued his interest in economic development for the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) before moving to The Growth Company to deliver several regional and national government-funded programmes.

Since 2018 Alain has worked with BEIS to shape Made Smarter's adoption programme. The successful North West pilot has become the model for initiatives in the North East, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humber regions.

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