Engineering
North East England has been recognised for many years for its excellence in engineering. This excellence continues to this day with engineers from this region working across the world in the construction, process, oil and gas industries. Indeed such modern day iconic symbols as the arch over Wembley Stadium was designed and built by the Darlington based Cleveland Bridge Company.
20% of NEPIC members are engineering related companies and all Process Industry companies have an internal engineering function. Some Process Industry companies continue to have a broad in-house capability but these days there is an increasing reliance on contracted out engineering services and resources. The Process Industries are the largest manufacturing sector in the region therefore it is the largest user of engineering support. Consequently major users of these resources collaborate through NEPIC to gain a view of likely peaks and troughs in the engineering man-hours of both major projects and large scale maintenance shutdowns.
The broad capability is demonstrated by the number of small, medium and large Engineering companies that have bases in North East England that are involved in the design, construction and commissioning of major Process Industry projects. This includes ABB Engineering Services, Aker Kvaerner, AMEC, Day Zimmerman, DRD, Excelsyn, Foster Wheeler, Doosan Babcock, Jacobs Engineering, K Home International, Simon Carves, Baker Mallett, Stopford Engineering and Balfour Beatty Management.
Companies involved in minor capital works, turnarounds, maintenance and some specialist services are Altec Engineering, Balfour Kilpatrick, Carillion PME, Cordell Group, Entec UK, R. Blackett Charlton, NAP Partnership, Faithful & Gould, Lorien Engineering Solutions, Hertel, TAS Engineering.
There are many others providing specialist disciplines such as Fabrication, Machining, Cranage, Scaffolding, None Destructive Testing (NDT) Inspection, Leak Sealing, Facilities management, QS and Legal Advice. There are also a number of agencies who provide engineering manpower e.g. Solutions Recruitment, Wolviston Management, Kelly Engineering Resources, NRG Group and Roevin Management.
NEPIC facilitates combined links for the Process Industry and these engineering companies to Universities, colleges and Training Organisations such as TTE, NETA & TDR as well as the Sector Skills Councils - Cogent and SEMTA. We also collaborate with other organisations that promote Engineering in the region including the Tees Valley Engineering Partnership, NOF Energy, County Durham Engineering Forum, Northern Defence Industries (NDI) and the Energy Industries Council.
NEPIC Thrust Teams - Process Engineering Group (PEG), Skills and Education and Manufacturing and Productivity all address issues of common concern to both engineering and the Process sector, including issues such as industrial relations, resource availability, competency, efficiency, industry profile and market intelligence. All these group facilitate collaboration within the sector.
