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The sales and marketing director for the hybrid electric vehicle specialist is looking to use over 25 years’ industry experience to remove the ‘sticking plaster fix’ surrounding learning and create a whole new generation of engineering skills.

“Emerging nations, such as India, China and Eastern Europe, are no longer cheap production opportunities. They are maturing and growing their talents and the challenge for the West Midlands is to rise up again and become even more competitive through state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and added value,” explained Steve.

“At the heart of this strategy will be the skills agenda and ensuring that our companies have access to the training and development programmes that will make a real difference and not just tick a box in the best practice business handbook.”

He continued: “It’s a real culture change and there has got to be an equal emphasis placed on manufacturers to get involved and tell academia what they want.”

Steve is an essential part of the forward-looking management at Zytek and has masterminded the growth of the company into one of the world’s most progressive automotive businesses, supplying powertrain management, control systems and hybrid electric vehicles.

This has seen the firm make the transformation from an engineering business into a manufacturing operation and secure landmark deals with General Motors and Mercedes – the latter to convert one hundred smart fortwo’s into electric drives.

“MAS-WM has helped us immensely in recent years and added real value to our business,” continued Steve.

“It offered us the right level of expertise when we needed it and this is why I felt it was so important to be involved in helping develop its offer in the future.”

He went on to add: “The personnel within MAS have tremendous experience from their time in industry, not to mention access to a raft of expertise through their contacts and networking. All in all, this provides a rapid, cost effective solution to the manufacturing skill shortages any organisation may face.”

Steve joins six other industry experts featuring in the new team, including Chandru Ray (Ecolec), Kerry Mashford (Ove Arup), Lorraine Holmes (Business Link West Midlands), John Liddle (Ceram), John Parker (Cast Metal Federation) and Steve Norgrove (GKN Autostructures).

The new members join an established board and bring with them a cross section of commercial manufacturing experience and considerable knowledge in the latest industry support.

David Wright, Chief Executive of MAS-WM, was delighted at the appointments: “Like any business, we have to keep evolving so that we represent and meet the interests of the West Midlands vast and varied manufacturers.

“The seven individuals are all extremely experienced in business support and industry and this will provide an extremely important sounding board and knowledge bank to tap into.

“Our portfolio of products is continually being updated and currently includes anything from tackling complex manufacturing issues and factory layouts, to our much sought-after sourcing service and our work with the SMMT Industry Forum on the new Midlands Productivity Alliance (MPA).”

Established in 2002, MAS-WM has assisted over 4000 companies to improve their products, productivity, processes and people, adding over £108m to the turnovers of those firms that have embarked upon in-depth business improvement projects.

Going forward, it will look to maximise its relationship with the new Business Link West Midlands service to make sure even more companies can access its unique mix of in-depth support and strategic assistance.

The Manufacturing Advisory Service - West Midlands (MAS-WM) is funded by Advantage West Midlands and delivered by West Midlands Manufacturing Consortium Ltd, a partnership between Business Link West Midlands, EEF West Midlands and Warwick Manufacturing Group.