Exclusive: Advisory service wins £1m lifeline to help firms

The support provided by the Manufacturing Advisory Service Yorkshire & Humber (MAS) was thrown into turmoil last October after regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, which will close in March 2012, withdrew funding and asked the organisation to wind down the service by March 2011.

Since then, MAS has provided a skeleton service to the region’s manufacturers, but after presenting its case to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), it received £1m to step up its advice and support until December when the service will be delivered on a national basis.

Robin Watson, MAS regional director, said: “It has been an extremely frustrating period as we have not been able to provide the in-depth expert advice manufacturers are seeking.

“We have been able to offer broad advice, support and guidance for manufacturers, but this funding means that we will now be able to provide in-depth consultancy support again. That is something we have not been able to offer since last September when we were advised to wind down the service.

“The difficulty is that funds were constrained at a local level and yet, nationally, MAS was highlighted as a success.”

He added: “I did have the opportunity to present our case for this region personally to BIS directly. It was a matter of helping them to understand what was happening.

“Yorkshire Forward have been as supportive as they can be, and from a manufacturing beneficiary point of view, our objective now is to give maximum benefit to the region’s manufacturers until the end of the year.”

MAS is a BIS initiative providing hands-on advice and support to manufacturing businesses to improve productivity and efficiency.

MAS Y&H is jointly supported by Yorkshire Forward and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is managed by YFM Business Development, part of the GLE Group, which is a not-for-profit enterprise development company.

The new funding will be drawn down from a combination of Yorkshire Forward’s remaining limited resources, the ERDF and a significant sum from BIS.

Mr Watson said: “The MAS service can lead to real and lasting benefits for businesses, including safeguarding and creating new jobs and increasing turnover and profitability by helping to improve competitiveness, enabling new business to be won.

“Now we have the funding in place, one of our priorities will be to advise on operational issues including introducing ‘lean’ techniques and revising factory processes and layout.”

The service is typically contacted by 50 manufacturing businesses a month seeking support. It helped around 1,000 business in the region in the 12 months to October 2012, which it said generated more than £30m of gross value added (GVA), the measure of an area’s ability to generate wealth. It also claimed to have safeguarded more than 3,000 manufacturing jobs with its work.

Mr Watson said: “From December, the MAS service will be delivered on a national basis. The GLE team are seeking to play a role in the new contract so that we can continue to use our experience and knowledge of manufacturing improvement techniques, which we have built up over the past eight years of delivering the MAS service in Yorkshire & Humber.”

MAS: A story of success

Multi-disciplinary firm Ardeth Engineering was given a new lease of life following expert help and advice from the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS).

The company, which is based in Elland, West Yorkshire, employs 120 people and has a turnover of £12m. Last year, it considered relocating its struggling plastics division but MAS advised the company to keep it. The organisation also helped to improve the layout of the factory.

Following the support it received, Ardeth said its productivity increased by 15 per cent, heating costs went down by 22 per cent and it is now looking to maximise its opportunities in advanced manufacturing.