Our involvement in developing centres of excellence for engineering and manufacturing has spanned almost 20 years. Our principal consultants both had a leading role in establishing and launching the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence (CEME), which was opened in 2003 as part of a £400m regeneration project in East London. CEME was a state of the art £80m educational campus and small business incubator, formed as a partnership between public and private sector stakeholders to provide local businesses and the local community with access to high quality vocational training. Since opening CEME has helped incubate more than 400 businesses, create more than 3,000 new jobs, and has hosted the High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute (HSSMI) and East London University Technical College.
At Rolls-Royce we gained insight into the value to industry of partnering with advanced manufacturing research centres, whilst part of the Aerospace executive team. By accelerating innovation through new technology and new manufacturing methods, these partnerships enabled investment in new advanced manufacturing facilities and the creation of high-value jobs. They often also provide access to high quality technical training and education.
We have more recently advised on the development of a new advanced manufacturing research centre in the North East. The Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing (CeSAM) will be located on the new International Advanced Manufacturing Park bordering Sunderland and South Tyneside, and will provide industry with access to manufacturing research capability.