• Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing goes on all around us and simply put it is the process of making things, big things, small things, and the things in-between. Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and people to make things for use or for sale.

Usually when we think of manufacturing we think of Ford cars on production lines and large sweaty warehouses with lots going on, but manufacturing is the process of making anything, from pens to planes!

Boeing are one of the worlds greatest manufacturers of planes and use huge warehouses to hold all the massive plane parts. For all you plane spotters out there did you know that Boeing have the largest enclosed structure in the world. America is where they created the 767, 787 and 747. That’s manufacturing on a giant scale!

Entrepreneurs in manufacturing often appear on Dragon’s Den and loads of money can be made from making things other people will buy. For example Sir Arnold Clark is one of the wealthiest businessmen in Scotland. Making his fortune in the car industry, Arnold Clark Automobiles is now Scotland's largest car dealership, with over 145 new and used car dealerships spread throughout Great Britain. The company sells over 200,000 cars per year and has an annual turnover of over £2.2 billion. Wow!

Another high achiever in the manufacturing industry is Sir John Rose who is the chief executive of Rolls Royce. Under the leadership of Sir John, Rolls has emerged as the world's second-largest engine maker and it invests billions of pounds to research and develop the next generation of fuel-efficient machines.

Rolls Royce currently have an apprenticeship scheme whereby you can turn your interest in engineering into a qualification, whilst being paid. Perhaps you could help design David Beckham's next Lamborghini - how exciting would that be! To find out more about the apprenticeship scheme visit:

http://www.rolls-royce.com/careers/apprenticeships