Bringing digitisation to oil and gas 9th July 2020

The construction industry has so far been able to cope with the corona crisis better than other sectors. Manufacturers of plastic pipes, which depend primarily on the development of the construction industry, will nevertheless also face very serious challenges in the coming months, if not years.

    Schneider Electric has teamed up with Rexel to offer electricians the opportunity to win up to £3,000 worth of Schneider Electric products in the Wise Guy Challenge.

The offshore energy industry, whether it is oil and gas or offshore wind, is one underpinned by remote and distributed assets, critical operations and harsh environments. As such, it’s one of the prime sectors to benefit from digitisation and embedded technologies to support improved maintenance and monitoring.

Hoffmann Group UK, Europe's system partner for quality tools, workstations and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), has transformed its national strategy in order to better serve its customers. To provide its customer base with a more bespoke, effective service, the business is bolstering the number of experts available to advise and consult with clients.

A new survey from SteelScout has found that more than 60% of professionals in the manufacturing industry expect the sector to recover from COVID-19 and return to business as usual by mid-2021. However, they highlighted issues in the wider supply chain which might impact the recovery, with almost 30% unable to access the materials they need and 36% adding that it is taking longer just to receive a ‘winning quote’.

Throughout 2020, the UK will be witnessing the wider rollout of 5G telecommunications networks, allowing for greater speeds and reduced latency. The introduction of these networks will support the development of more advanced computing applications like autonomous vehicles, and it’s got many businesses considering engineering on the edge.

Britain’s manufacturing industry is urging the Chancellor to pull every financial lever at his disposal in his forthcoming Summer Statement and put Industry, skills and job creation at the forefront of plans to rebuild the economy with skills, green and digital technologies at its heart. The call by Make UK in its submission to the Treasury comes on the back of data from its latest Manufacturing Monitor survey showing the number of companies planning to make redundancies in the next six months has jumped from a quarter at the end of May to 42%.

New guidance is being issued to homeowners for when they have tradespeople carry out work in their homes. The Work Safe. Safe Workcampaign, launched today (3rd July), has been developed by TrustMark, the only government endorsed quality scheme for tradespeople, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).