WCA March 2024

Industry News

Sikora among top employers A survey of the top employers in Germany’s medium-sized business

the rating average and the number of ratings depending on the number of employees. Around 4,000 employers with the best scores across all groups were included in the final ranking. “The numerous positive evaluations of our company fill us with pride,” said Holger Lieder of Sikora’s executive board. “Only with highly motivated employees, who feel comfortable in their working environment, can we distinguish ourselves from other companies and be successful on the market in the long run. Therefore, we also attach great importance to working together in an appreciative manner and to making the working conditions at Sikora as attractive as possible.”

sector has placed Sikora in seventh place in the electric/electronics category, according to Focus-Business and its research partner, FactField GmbH. The survey process included the analysis of 650,000 employee evaluations from 36,000 companies – from both an online survey and existing online evaluations of employers. Companies with at least one location in Germany and a size of between 11 and 500 employees that achieved at least ten company evaluations with an average rating of at least 3.5 (out of 5) via all data sources were taken into account. The final ranking of the companies resulted from

Sikora employs around 400 people in Bremen, Germany, and at its 13 international subsidiaries. In addition to its own restaurant and health management, with massages and yoga classes, the company offers benefits such as flexible working hours, capital-forming benefits, individual training opportunities and regular employee events. At the “creative deck” on the top floor of the production building, employees can find working environments with creative areas, quiet workplaces and extended meeting rooms. Sikora AG www.sikora.net Holger Lieder with the Top Employer Medium-Sized Businesses 2024 certificate

Inspiring work environments in Sikora’s creative deck

Employing technology to seize growth opportunities Reversing UK manufacturing’s poor record for adopting new technology will be tackled at MACH 2024. The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) aims to promote growth by using the event to launch its new Knowledge Hubs initiative. campaigning for greater adoption of new technology for some time. It will expand upon this at MACH 2024, which opens at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, on 15 April. Each hub is being managed by one of the specialist centres from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).

A series of new Knowledge Hubs will focus on educating manufacturers in when and how to adopt new technologies. The hubs, which will have dedicated stands within the various exhibition zones, will each focus on a particular type of technology: automation and robotics; data and artificial intelligence; energy efficiency; additive manufacturing; and tooling.

The Catapult network collaborates with thousands of businesses across a wide range of sectors, including manufacturing, space, health, digital, energy, transport and telecoms. The MTC at Ansty Park, Coventry, UK, is one of the largest public-sector investments in UK manufacturing, with facilities to prove innovative manufacturing processes and technologies. The AMRC, across several sites in Yorkshire, UK, works with companies of all sizes, to help them improve productivity. The Factory 2050 facility in Sheffield, UK, combines a range of technologies including advanced robotics and automation. Manufacturing Technologies Association www.machexhibition.com

The programme will showcase the latest technology to exhibitors, helping manufacturers learn more about the potential offered by such technology, as well as when to adopt it and how to implement it to best effect. The initiative has been given a major boost with the announcement by UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of £4.5bn of funding to support advanced manufacturing. This funding will directly benefit several of the exhibition’s key themes, especially energy efficiency, where £960mn has been earmarked for clean energy manufacturing through a Green Industries Growth Accelerator. The MTA, which organises the MACH event on behalf of the engineering based manufacturing industry, has been

Attendees at MACH in 2022

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March 2024