Strong turn out for Naval Design Partnership

Over 30 representatives from our sector attended a special briefing at the Marine Design Centre on Wednesday 19th December.

 

 

Adrian Cudmore, Ship Design Authority, FIPT, a key member of the Naval Design Partnership, was our guest speaker explaining how partners can get involved in future warship and submarine projects.

Simon Ellis

Simon Ellis, Business Development Manager with the Marine Design Centre, said: “We were delighted to welcome Adrian to the region and the fact that over 30 companies attended the briefing reflects just how keen the marine design sector in the region is to engage with the Naval Design Partnership. There will be opportunities for regional companies to get involved and we will be liaising with Adrian early next year to follow this up.

“We had a very high attendance at the event and during 2008 we intend further high profile and influential decision makers to address the membership.”

Christmas comes early at Noble Denton

The festive season got off to an early start as one of our latest partners Noble Denton officially celebrated its arrival in the North East.

The firm, which is a leading marine consultancy and ocean engineering specialist servicing the offshore energy, shipping and insurance industries, held a reception for sixty guests at Trinity House in Newcastle.

Guests included representatives from offshore companies, universities, shipping agencies, local government and various suppliers.

Joining the celebrations was David Sutton CEO of Noble Denton who flew in from Abu Dhabi.

David Byrne general manager of the Newcastle office, said: “The marine sector is in tremendous shape and there is every reason to believe it will undergo sustained growth for a number of years. 

“We have immediate plans for expansion providing opportunities for experienced mariners and maritime engineers.  We are also keen to provide training opportunities to develop young talent.”

John Lockey

John Lockey, Business Development Manager with the Marine Design Centre, said: “We are delighted that Noble Denton has joined the Marine Design Centre, it is a very ambitious and forward looking business and we look forward to supporting it as much as possible with its plans for growth.”

Meanwhile, we are also very pleased to welcome SMC Pneumatics (UK) Ltd as partners.  The business, based in Milton Keynes, is a specialist supplier of pneumatic, instrumentation and process control components to a wide range of sectors including marine.

Its product range covers every conceivable product group and includes components and assemblies that are unique to SMC as well as adhering to international standards where required. SMC is wholly committed to addressing skills gaps in every industrial sector, supported by SMC Industrial Training Division.

David Hewitt

Are You Recruiting in 2008?

To assist partner companies with recruitment, we are adding a Vacancies section to our website. David Hewitt, Director of the Marine Design Centre said: “This is a service that we are delighted to offer the sector and believe that as demand for marine design engineers becomes even greater during 2008 that more and more members will view it as an important recruitment tool.”

This new addition to our website www.marinedesigncentre.com will go live early next year.

Jobs Fair

Many of you will be aware that the workforce at Tyneside semi-conductor plant Atmel are to be made redundant. We have been invited to attend a ‘Jobs Fair’ at the plant in January and would like to hear from partners who may wish to consider recruiting from Atmel’s pool of skilled workers, many of whom have transferable skills that would make them of value to the marine sector.  For further information contact John Lockey on 0191 255 1710. John.lockey@marinedesigncentre.com

Workshop Alert !! - February

We are delighted to announce that we have a simulation workshop planned in the first week in February with ANSYS, which is leading the evolution of CAE tools and technologies, delivering customer value by enabling companies to improve product development and processes.

 

The simulation workshop is a one day event. The morning session looks at Finite Element Analysis (FEA), while the afternoon will focus on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). You are welcome to attend either session or simply one. You will discover how you and your organisation can become more innovative, accelerate time to market, reduce design costs and optimise designs earlier in the product development cycle.

We will have more details available shortly, but to register initial interest please contact either John Lockey or Simon Ellis on 0191 255 1710 or info@marinedesigncentre.com

Seminar Alert !! : March

We are also delighted to announce that Alan Johnston CEO of BVT - the joint venture between Vosper Thorneycroft and British Aerospace - is to speak at the Marine Design Centre in early  March.  BVT is set to be a very big player in the maritime sector having a key role to play in the detail design and construction of the CVF.

Alan will outline BVT’s plans for the future and how best the Marine Design Centre and its individual members can engage with it.

Full details will be issued in due course, however demand for places will be high so to reserve yours contact us on 0191 255 1710 or email info@marinedesigncentre.com

Here’s To A Great 2008: David Bowles, Chairman, Marine Design Centre

2007 was a great year for the marine design sector in the North East and 2008 looks set to be even better. 

The Marine Design Centre will be here to ensure that partners are in the very best position to win new contracts from the commercial shipping, defence, oil and gas and renewables sectors.

There is no doubt that the prospects look very good indeed.  In the defence sector contracts are already being awarded for the new generation of aircraft carriers and 2008 will see the beginning of the MARS projects. In addition, there is every reason to be confident that our partners shall gain work from Future Surface Combatants.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas sector is booming globally and further design work will surely come our way. The same must be true with the renewables sector where there is set to be a rapid expansion in the number of wind farms located off the UK coastline.

To meet this exceptional level of demand we are seeing a number of companies undertaking major recruitment drives.  AMEC has taken on 150 design engineers at its Wynyard base, Fabricom, the international design house, has just announced that it is to locate an office in the North East and Seadrill, another of our partners, is expanding its North East office.

The only thing that can hold the sector back is the lack of skilled people.  This is something the Marine Design Centre is very conscious of and we will work very closely with partners, colleges, universities and other business support bodies to tackle this big challenge for the sector.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at the Marine Design Centre.