EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

Sector expansion

UK accountancy and business advisory firm Johnston Carmichael is expanding its sector focus to offer greater specialist support to the engineering and manufacturing industry.

Engineering contributes an estimated £645bn annually to the UK economy and the recent Budget announcement includes an extra £4.5bn for strategic manufacturing sectors over the next five years to bolster economic growth. Johnston Carmichael’s service expansion follows the appointment of new partners, Jim Lockhart in Glasgow and Paul Shields in Newcastle, who will act as joint heads of the new service sector

For further information www.johnstoncarmichael.com

Mastercam announces new president

Mastercam, a global provider of CAM software, has appointed Susan Brandt as its new president. This strategic move will leverage Brandt’s extensive experience to drive Mastercam’s growth and reinforce its advanced manufacturing solutions. Brandt brings over 25 years of global business leadership and GTM (go-to-market) strategy expertise within the B2B software/SaaS domain, as well as infrastructure design and engineering software. Notably, she has held several senior leadership positions during her career, including at Bentley Systems, holding executive roles in sales and business development.

For further information www.mastercam.com

Leadership transition at Dean Group

Manchester-based casting specialist Dean Group is implementing an important strategic shift as part of its leadership succession plan. Effective 1 July 2024, Pulkit Ahuja will take up the role of managing director, succeeding the retiring Graham Stubbs. Pulkit, a key member of the Dean Group team since 2019, has been selected for his proven proficiency in directing the company’s commercial operations, contributing significantly to its enhanced positioning within the casting industry. This planned succession reflects the company’s commitment to a seamless transition in leadership that ensures continuity.

For further information www.deangroup-int.co.uk

ModuleWorks and MAL extend ties

ModuleWorks, a supplier of software components for digital manufacturing, is extending its partnership with MAL Inc, a developer specialising in physics-based virtual machining and optimisation solutions. The extended tie-up makes ModuleWorks the exclusive reseller of MAL Inc’s AppsPro software library, the NPro plug-in for Siemens NX and the DELPro plug-in for Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA.

ModuleWorks will also sell the jointly developed Machining Wizard that integrates machining physics and tool-path technology to assist engineers in selecting optimal cutting parameters for automated tool-path generation. The Machining Wizard subsequently uses these parameters in combination with a geometrical analysis of the workpiece to generate a tool path with optimised cutting parameters for each region of the part.

For further information www.moduleworks.com

Rolls-Royce welcomes Prime Minister

Rolls-Royce hosted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, Jack Lopresti MP, at its UK defence headquarters in Bristol earlier this month. The Prime Minister met with engineers, technicians and apprentices from across the business’ defence programmes and discussed how the organisation is committed to sustaining and developing critical key skills to provide high-quality careers for decades to come.

During the visit, the Prime Minister toured the facility where he met with the highly skilled workforce, who are supporting the UK’s operational needs and developing cutting edge technologies. While at the Bristol site, the Prime Minister opened FutureWorks, a new facility where Rolls-Royce teams are developing new technologies, advanced manufacturing strategies and skills to improve the resilience of existing fleets and power the capabilities of tomorrow.

For further information www.rolls-royce.com