Engineeringtalk: one of the largest design engineering publications in the world

We're quite excited here in the Engineeringtalk offices because the next few days will probably see the circulation of the newsletter reach 50,000, which is quite a milestone. While that figure makes us one of the largest design engineering publications in the world, we're well aware that it's still a long way behind, say, a paper-based giant like "Machine Design" (which will be familiar to readers in North America). However, in the fragmented European market, it's unusual for any business publication to have this many readers, and rare indeed in the engineering sector.
What's particularly gratifying however is that we know you all want to receive this newsletter, because turning it off is only a click away, and that's a big difference from all the paper-based stuff which pours through your letterbox or into your company mailroom. I probably get about ten free magazines a month, of which I (avidly) read two or three, but at least half of them never get unwrapped. Sure, I should do my bit for the environment and cancel them. How many of us do that though? It's ironic that with Engineeringtalk there's far less "waste", when unread copies wouldn't be a waste of resources anyway.
I'm still convinced, five years on, that electronic and paper-based publications will soon "converge". The only question is how. Will screen technology develop to make it as nice as paper, or will personal printing technology develop to make it cheap and convenient enough for us to print out electronic publications to magazine quality? I know Engineeringtalk readers who are working on roll-up, wireless screens, and I know others who are working on an amazing next generation of printers. Then it'll all be about commercial pressures on cost, and developments in communications infrastructure, to see where we go from there.

"Functional safety" seems to be what it's all about nowadays

I've always tried to keep up to date with changing safety legislation, although I don't envy those of you (particularly machine builders) for whom it's not just an interest but a necessity. We publish our fair share of news items on Engineeringtalk on safety-related topics, but it wasn't until we launched a specialist newsletter in this field at the start of the year that I really began to appreciate just how much is going on.
"Functional safety" seems to be what it's all about nowadays, and intimate knowledge of well-known standards like EN 954 Parts 1 to 4 is far from sufficient, although of course it's EN 13849 I should be referring to really. And then there's IEC 62061. And IEC 61508. And ...well, you get the drift.
What this is all leading up to is that I strongly suggest that any of you who need to keep up with developments in product safety or machine safety - and that must mean most of you - get on the circulation of the Industrialsafetytalk newsletter. It's fortnightly, it looks just like this newsletter, and of course it's completely free. Just send a blank email to join-industrialsafetytalk@news.pro-talk.com to be added to the circulation for the next issue. You may well be very glad you did.

What the manufacturing sector wants is stability

Few people expected yesterday's UK budget statement to address manufacturing-related issues strongly. With an election coming up at some time in the next few months, any governing political party might be forgiven for concentrating on helping individuals, especially those like senior citizens who get out and vote in numbers.
But then again, what the manufacturing sector wants is stability, and the current Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has delivered that in truckloads over the past few years. Even employers' organisations, whose politics are always to the right of most governments (and certainly to the right of this one), have found it hard to offer much in the way of criticism recently. I don't support the current government on certain major things it has done in the last two or three years (no prizes for guessing which). But on the economy, its record is awesome. Engineeringtalk has thousands of readers outside the UK who must wonder why their own governments can't match this country's record 50 quarters of consecutive growth. Inflation has stayed below the 2% target since 1998. Interest rates hit a 50-year low of 3.5 per cent in 2003. Unemployment has fallen to a 20- or 30-year low, while the number of people in work in this country is higher than it has ever been.
It's an extraordinary managerial achievement, and it would be a surprise if the government's arrogant and unpopular foreign policy results in it being voted out of office - but it is a possibility. The major problem the government now faces is that people take the economic achievements for granted. But we shouldn't: it was only 1992 when interest rates were 15%. So, what's the downside? Well, although some 2 million jobs have been created since 1997, almost 900,000 manufacturing jobs have gone. Clearly the figures above show that's not been a disaster for the economy as a whole, even if there's been little bright news for us in the industrial sector. However, manufacturing plays a crucial role for any nation of significant size, and if we can't compete with the Far East any longer when it comes to assembly, we must ensure that our design and innovation skills are given the support to compensate, including an investment in educating the next generation. There is plenty for future governments to do on that front.

Any amalgamation of professional engineering bodies is another small step in the right direction

The Society of Engineers, the third oldest professional engineering body in the UK, has voted to integrate with the Institution of Incorporated Engineers (IIE) after 150 years of existence. It describes the move as "showing acceptance of change, realism and pragmatism - good attributes of engineers and engineering". Long-time Engineeringtalk readers will know how much I regret the fragmented nature of UK engineering institutions, and how the situation must take part of the responsibility for the profession never having received the status in the public eye which has traditionally been enjoyed by professions which "speak with a single voice" and have single, universally-recognised qualifications and "letters after your name". Any amalgamation is, in the eyes of this observer at least, another small step in the right direction.
I know that most readers are members of a professional institution of one sort or another, and that opinions of them range from the "perfectly-satisfied" (particularly at a local level) to those who see them as no more than a necessary evil. There's no doubt that many of the major ones, with their need for unnecessarily ostentatious premises in the centre of London and their ponderous decision-making processes, do have a public relations problem. But there are some very good people working in all of them, and little by little, things are edging in the direction so many of us would like to see them go.

"Design" and "engineering" are integral and form a single process

The UK's own walking design engineering advertisement, James Dyson, has been doing the PR circuit highly effectively in the past few weeks, promoting the news that his company's range of vacuum cleaners is now the number one in the USA by revenue (although with the machines being two or three times the price of many competitors, he does have an inbuilt advantage there). In a series of interviews, he has once again used the opportunity to combine promotion of Dyson products with a promotion of design engineering, which is great to read.
Unfortunately, few of the articles seem to have been written by people who understand his philosophy that "design" and "engineering" are integral and form a single process. To them, "design" is adding groovy colours to, well, just another domestic appliance, whereas articulate owners of Dyson cleaners will quickly tell you that the reason they're happy to pay so much for the product are to do with good cleaning performance and features like a hose which seems to extend forever. He still has a lot of education to do in this respect, and he knows it.
"I am convinced that our love of retailing is part of the reason for our lack of interest in engineering and manufacturing"
Dyson's Richard Dimbleby Lecture reviewed
Good interview with Dyson from 2002