New funding will be available from the beginning of July to support manufacturers in West Yorkshire through Made Smarter, the national business support programme that is set to play a key role in the new industrial strategy and boost the UK’s manufacturing sector.
Designed to encourage adoption of digital technologies, the programme offers a combination of expert consultancy, training in change management, student internships and grant support towards capital investment.
Join Leeds Manufacturing Festival next week (Thursday 10/7/25) at electronics manufacturer SCC Worldwide to find out more about the new programme and the support that will be available to the region’s manufacturing businesses.
>>> Made Smarter: West Yorkshire launch event Tickets, Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM | Eventbrite
Jessica Armitage, project manager at West Yorkshire Combined Authority, will outline how manufacturers can use the programme to introduce new technologies and new ways of working that drive improvements in productivity.
Joining her will be Adam Swallow, managing director of Olympus Technologies and Kshamya Mittal, IT and data analyst apprentice at Schneider Electric.
Olympus Technologies works with partners across the UK and Europe to design and integrate innovative robot solutions. The Huddersfield-based firm offers off the shelf and bespoke solutions for metal manufacturing (welding, machine tending, press brake tending), end-of-line automation (case packing, collation, palletising), dispensing and vision inspection.
"We are excited to support the launch of the new Made Smarter programme," said Adam. "A number of our customers have already benefited from the support that Made Smarter offers, accelerating their journey into automating key processes, and in doing so improving
productivity, quality and reducing waste. We look forward to supporting further businesses who set off on their automation journey.”
Kshamya is a key contributor to digital transformation at Schneider Electric. She is the Leeds plant’s sole certified expert in MES and a central figure in business intelligence, developing and maintaining multiple tableau dashboards to support data-driven decision-making.
She will talk about her role in deploying digital tools to enhance efficiency and collaboration, as well as her part in a multi-site project in partnership with the Schneider Electric plant in Telford.
Businesses that have previously benefitted through the programme will also talk about the support they received and the impact it has had. Speakers include Ben Wilson, managing director at composites manufacturer MPM Group, Fiona Conor, managing director of Trust Electric Heating and Bart Niczyporuk, head of production at Pure Pet Food.
MPM Ltd is a supplier to the utilities, leisure and commercial vehicle sectors. With support from Made Smarter, the company made a strategic investment in portable 3D scanning equipment to generate precision digital models of products and components.
Combining speed and aerospace-grade accuracy, the technology offers a range of benefits for customers including detection of defects and irregularities, reverse engineering of patterns and moulds from originals, pattern verification and creation of a digital archive.
"The investment brought a new technology to MPM and improved internal skills and knowledge,” said Ben. “It has brought additional value to customers, increasing sales/turnover, and it has also stopped mistakes early in a project reducing scrap costs and ensuring we minimise lost time on schedules, to keep on-time delivery of projects inline with customer expectations”
