Meet the sponsors...

Why are you backing the Best Factory Awards 2013? We were invited as guests to last year's awards, as we'd worked closely with the Works Management team over the last few years and were interested in sponsoring the event. It was so heartening to witness such a celebration of manufacturing excellence and it made me feel very proud to be British. Manufacturing is the lifeblood of the UK economy, and it was great to see the passion, focus and determination of those companies present to be the best they can. It was a good opportunity to talk to the teams and understand their key challenges, and what they need to help take them to the next level. There was a strong commitment to sharing best practice, which is truly what Works Management is about. How would Britain's best factories fare in a worldwide Top Factory competition? Seeing such high standards on display at the awards last year, I think our factories would give anyone a run for their money! What's been encouraging of late is the repatriation into the UK of so much of the manufacturing that disappeared overseas. I believe it's driven by what we are best at as a nation – delivering quality and innovation, and having the ability to respond quickly to customer demand. It's all part of our proud heritage and it's nice to see British manufacturing growing again. What's the key challenge for UK manufacturers in the next 12 months? The world of manufacturing can be tough. Everywhere there are challenges being laid down – from customers, competitors and suppliers. That can put a lot of pressure on manufacturers, especially when they are expected to achieve exceptional levels of service, all at a lower price and without taking value away. At the same time, they are faced with rising costs, shorter production cycles and ever more regulatory controls. It's a huge challenge to get the balance right across all of those demands. Organisations are having to work harder to grow and yet are not necessarily being able to move forward, profit wise. They need to focus on eliminating cost where they can – reduce downtime, reduce waste and rework, improve product quality and consistency, and optimise production flexibility. If the lines are down or slow, why is that? Find the causes, understand your capabilities, improve your processes and you will be moving in the right direction. What should manufacturers know about QiSOFT? Despite being in business for more than 26 years, our CEO Kevin Luxton has been known to refer to us as manufacturing's 'best kept secret'. So just them knowing about us is a good start! We might be a software company at our core, but our ultimate aim is to help establish quality as a key focus and part of an organisation's culture, not just a set of tools that the quality team uses for quality control. We believe that quality is the responsibility of everyone – starting with the arrival of raw materials on site, through to delivery of finished product to the customer. Our system is designed to be a user-friendly tool that enables management and operators alike to collect, analyse and act on the large amounts of the real-time operations data available. This helps facilitate real-time, critical decision-making across process manufacturing operations – whether that be making paper, cheese or ice cream, or anything else for that matter! What's your favourite UK-manufactured product and why? Jammy Dodgers! I love them. More seriously, I would have to say that I find glass fascinating, with such innovation in its use – from self-cleaning glass, to light filtering in the automotive industry, to the way in which it helps regulate light, heat and energy efficiency in buildings. And the UK has a great heritage in this; it's a real strength. What do you wish was made in GB? Dyson – they were about innovation, quality and, most of all, British, taking on the market leaders and winning. It's a shame it has gone overseas, but it's a business, of course, and you do what needs to be done. We need more originality of that kind and have the talent to make it happen.