In the first event of its kind, small and medium sized
businesses from the East Midlands boarded the Transport iNet's
"Innovation Express" this week.
Twenty companies offering engineering, design and manufacturing
services to the transport sector were given a tour of operations
and an audience with Bombardier engineers to find out what the
global leader in rail technology is looking for from suppliers and
how they can gain a competitive advantage.
Three groups of businesses joined the specially organised bus
tour to the Bombardier site at Derby and were given an overview of
operations by Jon Seddon, Director of Strategic Programmes,
Bombardier Transportation, a tour of the manufacturing facility and
a group session with Bombardier Transportation's Head of
Engineering and key design and R&D engineers.
Due to the bespoke solutions required for each of Bombardier's
projects, businesses were told that those who can demonstrate new
technology, the ability to work from limited specifications and
offer a quick turnaround are likely to be viewed more favourably.
In addition, flexibility, scope, the use of precision manufacturing
technologies and an ability to deliver concurrent processing and
design work provide a competitive advantage.
Jon Seddon, said: "Activities such as this are crucial for us to
understand what the region's small businesses can offer by way of
innovative design and technology and for us to explain our needs.
Although we have a procurement process in place for sourcing
suppliers, we are always keen to hear from businesses with novel
ideas which can help us to improve our offer to customers and save
time and money in the design and construction of trains and
associated component parts."
John Frodsham, the Transport iNet Project Director, said: "The
Innovation Express is the first event of this nature that the
Transport iNet has organised and intends to bring small and medium
sized businesses together to network with one another and to meet a
large organisation such as Bombardier to see where opportunities
lie. It is vital that we continue working to connect transport
businesses and encourage them to share ideas and knowledge to
succeed."
Les Donald, Instrumentation Engineer from Derby based Richmond
Measurement Services, said: "It was a useful insight into the
workings of a large organisation such as Bombardier. It is
notoriously difficult for businesses like ours to get a foot in the
door and events like this open up face-to-face dialogue and give a
direct point of contact. Even though it is likely to be a long time
before it translates into orders it is useful to understand what
the engineers are looking for so we can demonstrate our offering in
the most effective way and play to our strengths."
The Transport iNet, which is based at Loughborough University,
is funded by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and the
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The aim of the iNet is
to share expertise and stimulate the research and development of
new products, services and processes across the five transport
sectors, rail, marine, automotive, motorsport and aerospace.