EDI Archives - Transfire

EDI Case Study: Launching Member Networks at IOM3

EDI Case Study: Launching Member Networks at IOM3

Launched by its Chief Executive in response to member demand, in 2021 the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) introduced three new member networks, to bring together and support people who may be in an under-represented group in their profession. Company Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Industry Membership organisation for Materials, Minerals and Mining Location London and Grantham, with members UK-wide and internationally Company Size 45 employees, 15,000 members Intervention Introduction of new community groups for members Specific challenges Making materials, minerals and mining topics accessible to everyone, against a background of declining uptake of qualifications in these areas and specific challenges for those in under-represented groups in their profession Outcomes Created a safe space for discussion, leading to new ideas and events being held. Next steps are to build up the groups, and adopt additional data collection to quantify the impacts. Photo Credit: IOM3. WIM3 [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-09-26T10:19:50+00:00September 26th, 2023|

Inclusive Innovation in the Foundation Industries

Inclusive Innovation in the Foundation Industries

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to meet Karen Souza, D&I Partner at Innovate UK KTN. I was excited to hear about their focus on Inclusive Innovation, and immediately asked her to join us for our next TransFIRe EDI Working Group Session. Our EDI Working Group brings together people who are advocating and leading change for EDI in their businesses and industries, from the TransFIRe research community and our industry partners. Our industry participants represent production, research and development, and HR roles, and I was excited to bring the Inclusive Innovation discussion into this forum. Karen Souza Roll forwards a few weeks, and our session did not disappoint. Karen explained how UKRI’s vision is to work with partners to shape a dynamic, diverse and inclusive system of research and innovation in the UK. While the UK has incredible diverse talent, it is recognised that there [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-07-25T08:08:06+00:00July 24th, 2023|

EDI Case Study: Glass Technologies

EDI Case Study: Glass Technologies

Glass Technology Services (GTS) has 53 employees, with some employees contracted by British Glass. Chris Holcroft, Principal Technologist, took us on a tour of the laboratory / research and development area, where we observed how the company conducts routine analysis, tests, assesses quality, and glass product innovation. GTS provides independent advice and support to the global glass manufacturing supply chain, from raw material suppliers to end users. They work with, amongst others, the pharmaceutical industry and glass, homeware and food and drink retailers, for instance on beverage glass failure analysis. GTS also carry out research and development, new product development, technical and environmental consultancy, assessment training and quality assessment. Additionally, the company also does analysis and analytical support for the glass supply chain, from batch to end users, from properties analysis, melting, defects trouble shooting to end-user complaints and failures. Testing includes quality assessment, environmental calculations and analysis, verification [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-05-23T12:46:10+00:00May 23rd, 2023|

EDI Case Study: Sheffield Forgemasters

EDI Case Study: Sheffield Forgemasters

For our latest site visit, the EDI team toured the foundry and heat house of the 66-acre Sheffield Forgemasters site, in Sheffield. Sheffield Forgemasters has 700 employees, and specialises in integrated steel production, from preliminary design and R&D through to melting, casting, forging, finish machining, testing and delivery. Their steel processing produces some of the most complex steel forgings and castings in the world, which are used in the most extreme environments. These include defence & marine, civil nuclear, offshore oil & gas, high pressure reactors, nuclear reactors, power generation, petrochemicals, renewables, construction, ingot & bar sectors. Sheffield Forgemasters was privately owned from inception in the 1800s until 2021, when it was purchased by the Ministry of Defence. The £400M acquisition is being utilised towards a recapitalisation programme, which will see significant investment in defence critical assets. EDI is overseen by the non-executive board that is linked to the [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-05-23T12:34:16+00:00May 23rd, 2023|

Spotlight Interview with Professor Mark Jolly

Spotlight Interview with Professor Mark Jolly

Can you introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your role within TransFIRe? I'm Mark Jolly, Professor and Director of Manufacturing and Materials at Cranfield University and I've been in post for about three and a half years. I'm actually a metallurgist by background and worked in industry for many years before moving into academia. After spending some time at Birmingham University, I moved to Cranfield about 10 years ago and became more and more interested in energy and sustainability. This led me to co-write and co-create the idea for the Transforming Foundation Industries Research and Innovation Hub, or TransFIRe. My role in TransFIRe is really to get foundation industries and academics together, to get them to work in the same direction and think in the same way, to help reduce carbon emissions and get to the Government targets of net zero by 2050. The programme is [...]

David Fryer2023-02-13T13:58:17+00:00February 13th, 2023|

Materials Processing Institute (MPI) EDI Focus Group

Materials Processing Institute (MPI) EDI Focus Group

30 January 2023 Following a tour of the Teesworks Industrial Zone conducted by Project Manager Simon Bailey, the TransFIRe EDI team visited the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) in Middlesbrough, where we were hosted by the HR Director & EDI lead Melissa Bevington and Jon Bolton the Executive Chairman. We were given insights on MPI’s vision, mission and EDI policy as well as a number of policies linking directly to the Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 including policies on menopause, working from home, flexible working, mental health and wellbeing, assistance animals, grievances, anti-bullying and harassment. Around 30%-40% of the eighty five staff at MPI work to a hybrid work pattern, with 3 WFH permanently. Employees are encouraged ‘to flourish wherever they are’, thus being inclusive of those who may have parental or carer responsibilities, and to support to those who may have mental [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-02-09T14:30:58+00:00February 9th, 2023|

TransFIRe Report: State of EDI in the UK Foundation Industries 2022

TransFIRe Report: State of EDI in the UK Foundation Industries 2022

The TransFIRe EDI team have brought together a series of findings in a "State of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Foundation Industries 2022" report. It is becoming increasingly apparent and widely accepted that equity, diversity and inclusion are of paramount importance in the success of any organisation or project. Yet research by UKRI has found the foundation industries to face a specific set of EDI challenges1. As a new topic to the foundation industries, there are many gaps in research, and EDI practices do not appear to be well established. The TransFIRe EDI survey set out to measure a baseline of the EDI capabilities of organisations in the foundation industries in 2022. All TransFIRe academic and industry partners were invited to participate in this survey, which consisted of 33 questions aligned to 7 major themes of common EDI interventions. The term “interventions” is used to mean any [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-02-27T15:03:50+00:00February 2nd, 2023|

Getting out and about

Getting out and about

As part of the EDI team’s activities, Mike Thakoordin, TransFIRe Post-doctoral Research Associate at Durham University, undertakes a number of site visits to companies within the foundation industries. This month has been extremely busy with several visits across the country. With each visit, as well as getting to know more about the company and its inputs and outputs, Mike looks to determine the level of awareness of EDI within the organisation, what the main challenges are, if and how they have tackled these, what the outcome of this has been and what the future plans are. Over the past few weeks visits have been made to Tandom, a specialist metals recycling company, Breedon Cement, Almath Crucibles, the Materials Processing Institute (online) and Constellium. Each organisation has its own unique approach to EDI and set of plans, some with little activity and others with some impressive ideas and ways of [...]

Joanna Johnson2023-02-01T10:44:27+00:00January 26th, 2023|