BFPA Strategy Teams update

26 October, 2022

Education and Training (Team Lead: Gary Fuller, Festo Ltd)

Industry and Standards (Team Lead: Neal Milne, Lanxess Ltd)

Health, Safety and the Environment (Team Lead: Stuart Gardiner, Hydrasun Ltd)

Statistics (Team Lead: Kevin Mooney, Moog Industrial Group)

All four teams held face-to-face meetings at Chipping Norton over the summer, supported by the BFPA’s external facilitator. The aim of the initial meetings was for each team to select a few key projects on which to focus over the 12-month period running up to next year’s AGM in May.

With the kick-off discussions completed, on 20 September, the BFPA held a follow-up meeting in Warwick for all the teams. Some 30 people from across the BFPA membership attended along with guests Paul Cooke, ex-Interim BFPA CEO, and Rebecca Galley, current BFPA Vice President. Each team spent a few hours discussing key projects and after lunch presented their projects to the group.

Each group has produced a Mission Statement as follows:

Education and Training Mission Statement: “Raising awareness of the Fluid Power Industry to young people.”

Industry and Standards Mission Statement: “Increasing the relevance of the BFPA by promoting and recognising standards development, technical excellence and innovation.”

Health, Safety and the Environment Mission Statement: “To drive a positive step change in communication and engagement in HSE across the association.”

Statistics Mission Statement: “Make BFPA Business Intelligence more user friendly and relevant to Members’ needs

Dr Neal Milne, Senior Technical Service Manager at LANXESS Solutions UK Limited Industry and Standards Team Lead commented: “Our team is looking forward to making the important national and international standards, which are so vital for the quality and safety of our industry, more user friendly, understandable and accessible to our members. In addition, we will be producing material to help our members understand and address Sustainability which is set to have a major impact on our industry and on our customers and suppliers.”

Stuart Gardiner, Operations Director at Hydrasun Limited and Team Lead for the Health, Safety and Environment group added: “With the formation of the 4 strategy teams, and the further definition of each teams strategic initiatives, we have seen a positive step change in communication and engagement across those that have volunteered to be part of the strategic teams, and with their passion and willingness to make a difference, we are already seeing the benefits of this collaboration through the initial strategy sessions.”

Gary Fuller, Programme Manager for Festo Training and the Team Lead for the Education and Training group, commented: “I think one of the key attributes of this team was that everyone listened to each other. Because of this, everyone felt that they could contribute to the conversations and add value.

“Every meeting was positive from start to finish and the quality of discussions enabled us to quickly arrive at our chosen focus project. Many were keen to take on actions and seek further information/data that would give the team a better understanding of the STEM World. 

Many secondary points were discussed and noted, including a very challenging point on how modern technology and controls now affect fluid power in the modern engineering production environment. Is Fluid Power still a standalone discipline or should the controls aspect (automation) be brought into the fold?”

After the meeting, BFPA asked Rebecca Galley, Managing Director of Hydroscand UK Limited and BFPA Vice President, who had been invited as a guest for the day, for her views and she commented: “It was great to see so many different people getting involved in the important issues we are all facing. Their energy and enthusiasm was encouraging. Overall, it was a really positive day.”

The next steps will be to present the project ideas to the BFPA Board in November.

For more information about the BFPA, visit www.bfpa.co.uk or phone 01608 647900

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