MSC is graduates’ flexible friend
1 min read
The first graduates from The Manufacturing Institute’s MSC in Manufacturing Leadership celebrated success when they were awarded their degrees last month by mountaineer Sir Chris Bonnington, Chancellor of Lancaster University.
The MSc is a flagship programme designed to deliver real performance improvement and develop the high-level skills required by those who are driving lean and highly competitive manufacturing businesses.
It was developed specifically for manufacturers by The Manufacturing Institute in partnership with the six-star Lancaster University Management School – ranked as one of only two world-class research institutions in the UK.
The two and a half year part-time programme is delivered through a combination of web-based core learning, taught workshops and action learning sets and involves just 15 off-site days per year.
The programme has been developed with support from the Northern Aerospace Technology Exploitation Centre. It fuses practical manufacturing know-how from industry achievers with high level academic insights – focusing on the resolution of complex manufacturing and business challenges to bring real performance improvements.
Graduate Annette Weekes, who is operations director for East Lancashire-based PDS Engineering and used her learning to introduce lean best practice and boost productivity by 20% is also applying new cost modelling systems to the business to increase profit margins.
She said: “The globalisation module of the MSc gave me a wider understanding of the worldwide market we operate in and the potential threats we face. It reinforced the importance of PDS seeking competitive advantage through speed and agility in responding to local needs of our customers, and new opportunities in other markets.”
Matthew Byrom, improvement project coordinator for Cheshire-based Siemens Standard Drives said the course helped to develop his career and its flexible structure meant he could fit it around the demands of a full-time job and extensive travel. “The global markets and future manufacturing module gave me a wide understanding of the threats and opportunities available to the company. It made me consider the broad scale environment in all projects relating to stakeholders both internal and external – using tools introduced on the course in day-to-day project management,” he said.
Educational funding is available to manufacturing businesses based in North West England. Further information: 0161 872 0393, www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk
