news

SMARTA project benefiting marine companies

SMARTA, a project jointly funded by the Regional Development Agency and European Union Regional Development fund, has now helped over 30 marine companies achieve substantial improvements in their profitability.

Through the project, clients have been able to benefit from free consultancy provided by experts in environmental management and resource efficiency; manufacturing process and quality optimization and designing for sustainability.

Some clients have worked closely with the Manufacturing Advisory Service and have made substantial savings through improving production processes whilst others have saved valuable time and effort through working with the Designing Demand team to ensure the process of identifying, appointing and working with design, public relations or marketing agencies was stress-free and achieved the required outcomes.

See Kittiwake Developments and Discovery Yachts case studies at http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/smarta/downloads/ )

Many of our clients indicated a requirement for help with marketing; particularly marketing communications. Through the project, Force 5 Marketing and ProAction Creative have worked with around 20 companies, analyzing their current marcomms strategies and tactics and making recommendations for improved effectiveness. Feedback on this provision has been very positive.

The SMARTA Sustainability Network (SNN) continues to grow and provides the latest marine-related environmental news to close-on 150 clients. SNN has so far held two well-supported seminars and plans more for 2012.

The next phase of the project will involve working with selected companies to improve their supply chain readiness with respect to wind farm development.

If you'd like to find out more about the project please contact Steve Sharp on 02380 111594 or email steve@marinesoutheast.co.uk

Posted 2011-12-22 09:36:11

SMARTA Sustainability Network event brings businesses and universities together

Marine South East recently hosted delegates and speakers from more than 21 organisations at a SMARTA Sustainability Network event held at Port Solent.

The theme was an exploration of the ways in which businesses could enhance their research and development activities through working with universities and research organisations.

The first speaker, James Grazebrook of Halyard (M&I) gave a fascinating insight into two pieces of work completed with the University of Southampton. The first involved working on a Euro750,000 EU-funded project (Soundboat) to investigate methods of verifying acoustic limits set by the European Commission under the Recreational Craft Directive (RCD) in 2000. The second involved the development of a Helmholtz resonator silencer. The collaboration helped Halyard progress from a 25 employee company with £2.5m turnover in 2000 to an 80 employee company turning over £6.5m in 2008.

Ned Minns of IT Power talked about the tremendous benefits they've seen from working with graduates from Bristol and Southampton Universities. Three graduates on Eng.D programmes joined the IT Power team to work on various projects. Thea Morgan (Bristol) explored improvements in Systems Engineering, Jack Giles (Southampton) undertook an investigation into a flow acceleration system and Mark Leybourne (Southampton) undertook an investigation into the validation and scaling of the OWEL wave power system.

The final speaker, Susan Phillips of EchoPilot spoke about the history of the company and how they had worked to great advantage with QinetiQ and Bournemouth University to develop forward looking sonars.

Following the presentations, a panel comprising representatives of Southampton, Portsmouth and Southampton Solent universities answered questions on the services and facilities available from the universities and how these could best be accessed by marine businesses.

The delegates' response to the event was whole heartedly supportive, with many stating how useful and informative it had been.

If you would like to join the SMARTA Sustainability Network, please email Steve Sharp stephen@marinesoutheast.co.uk

SMARTA is a project part funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund

Posted 2011-11-08 11:36:51

SMARTA Sustainability Network (SSN) grows in strength

The SMARTA Sustainability Network is going from strength to strength and now has in excess of 80 members.

The monthly environmental newsletters are proving popular with members, providing a condensed round-up of the latest marine environmental news. You need to be a member to receive the newsletter, so if you're not already signed-up, you can complete an application form via the following link

http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/smarta/downloads/

To find out more about the SMARTA Sustainability Network please call or email Steve Sharp at Marine South East.

Tel: 02380 111594
stephen@marinesoutheast.co.uk