MEPCA is delighted to introduce Philip Silver, MD of Advanced Industrial Engineering (AIE), as our July Manufacturing Champion. Talking with our editor, Philip discusses the founding of Advanced Industrial Engineering, how instrumental his school experience was in fanning his passion for engineering, and shares the axioms that have helped drive the company’s success.
AIE is a mechanical and automation system designer, manufacturer and integrator founded in 2015. The company’s first base of operations was founder Philip Silver’s kitchen table. Today, the company has 22 staff and its customers include the likes of BMW, JRL and Tesla.
Philip recalls fondly the long days and nights establishing AIE while still working four days a week as a manufacturing engineer. “I was at work in Birmingham for seven o’clock Monday to Thursday, but I’d already woken up at three thirty and done a few hours designing because I loved it.” During this period, he was averaging three hours sleep a night, yet didn’t feel drained due to his passion for the work.
Inspired at school
While Philip’s father and grandfather were both engineers and played their part in nurturing this interest, he owes much to the encouragement he received at Ashby School, Leicestershire, under the tutelage of an inspiring engineering teacher, “a towering man with hands like shovels” who excelled at explaining how things worked in an engaging way. The department’s engineering suite was also kitted out with key machines needed to provide pupils with hands-on experience, a suite AIE recently added to by donating a set of bespoke lifters.
Philip has retained strong links with the school and has taken on four Ashby School alumni, with a fifth starting in September as a degree apprentice. He is a firm believer in apprenticeships as a route into industry and sees AIE’s formalised apprenticeship pathway as integral to the company’s growth. Philip has also talked at the school to help overcome outdated ideas of the industry and instil a passion for engineering in the next generation, much like initiatives to nurture future engineering talent.
One thing he sees as lacking in current engineering education is experience with manufacturing machines. While many of the candidates Philip has interviewed have heard of milling machines and lathes, few have a practical understanding of them. He maintains that it is invaluable for designers to have an understanding of manufacturing in practice: “It makes them into much better mechanical designers because they know the limitations of the machines.”
Advice for the kitchen table phase
What advice does he have for firms currently at the “kitchen table” phase? Firstly, and something Philip has in abundance: have a passion for the work you do. Secondly, he insisted that looking after your people is paramount to success, and this attitude should extend to your supply chain. “It’s not about the cheapest,” he insists. “When you need a bearing and it’s ten o’clock at night” for an order that goes out the next day, it will be the “one-man band” you’ve built a strong relationship with that will deliver. Finally, do one thing every single day to benefit the company. “It doesn’t matter how small it is, just one little thing to keep the momentum going.” This was vital to founding AIE and has seen it go from strength to strength since.
