Engineering Success Using Teamwork

The incoming President reviews his career which has primarily been in the development of shoemaking machinery and materials with British United Shoe Machinery Limited, subsequently USM Texon Limited, and also in the automobile components industry with Rearsby Automotive Limited. He focuses on the process of using teamwork in achieving successes in these businesses and describes two recent successes in highly sophisticated shoemaking machinery—a family of computer-controlled machines used in the process of bonding soles to shoes and an automatic stitching machine using an integrated vision system to identify and locate workpieces. He reflects on his involvement in the Institution running almost continuously from student membership to his election as the youngest President for 100 years and recommends active involvement as a good contributor to personal and professional development, especially for younger engineers. At a time when the new relationship within the engineering profession is being crystallized, Mr Price discusses the opportunities and challenges for the profession in the light of the ongoing need for strengthening of engineering and manufacturing in the United Kingdom. He concludes that progress has to be achieved by effective teamworking, both within the Institution, with other engineering institutions, with government and with other key organizations in the wider community.