View from the Mill - March 2010 Archive

In a recent post we covered the origins of our company, and mentioned two towns in the UK and South Africa that share our name. However, it was with some consternation that we recently received a Google alert for an article that described the commercial success of the Renishaw commode!

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It was with some shock and sadness that we learnt this week about the demise of our long standing design/advertising agency Barneys Ltd, who ceased trading on Tuesday. With a relationship dating back some 34 years, and with the frequent changing of senior marketers (and therefore agencies) in many businesses, there must be few other partnerships of this type with such longevity.

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It's always good to receive recognition from your industry peers, whether for manufacturing innovation, product performance or for personal achievement. Therefore to receive three international engineering awards for the same product is truly something special and is exactly what happened when our REVO® five-axis measuring system for co-ordinate measuring machines was honoured recently when it won the Platinum Award for the Most Innovative Product at the ENGIMACH 2010 exhibition held in Gujurat, India.

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We’re pleased that during National Science and Engineering Week, which is in part designed to inspire young people to consider a career in science and engineering, that the UK’s National Apprenticeship Service has added us to their employer roll of honour – the recognition is given to companies who are committed to apprenticeships.

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We’re now half-way through the UK’s National Science and Engineering Week which runs from 12th to 21st March – and with so much happening, the ‘week’ clearly had to stretch to ten days to fit everything in. Now in its 17th year the programme of events and activities is aimed at people of all ages and aims to present a positive image of science and engineering.

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A few months ago we posted an item entitled 'Illuminating history through science' which highlighted how new analytical tools, including our Raman spectroscopy systems, are removing the risks of damage to historical artefacts during restoration projects. Given this new focus on cautious conservation, it was therefore surprising to read a short article in the March issue of Current Archaeology magazine titled 'Museums that break their own exhibits'.

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Following the contentious recent takeover of the famous Cadbury chocolate company by Kraft Foods, we were approached by 'Cotswold Life' magazine to ask why Renishaw is still happy to remain an independent business. The article, which includes other Gloucestershire-based companies, is not available on the web so we would like to share our response with you, as it highlights a few points which we believe are important to understanding our business philosophy:

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One of the constant challenges in raising the profile of the engineering profession and therefore safeguarding the next generations of skilled professionals, is making it seem relevant to the general public – in the UK for example, the term 'engineer' generally conjures up images of people fixing washing machines or household boilers. It’s a long term battle for the industry, and with few politicians having any experience of the sector (out of 646 members of the British Parliament elected in 2005, only one is believed to have any manufacturing experience), it’s a long campaign that will generally need to be fought alone. 

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Diablo, Murciélago, Gallardo – all names that conjure up an image of speed and style - Italian passion personified in four wheel form. But the roots of the world renowned Automobili Lamborghini brand are in fact very modest; the product of an unlikely combination of military and agricultural engineering.

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