Employee perspectives - Adam White

I am a young manufacturing engineer on a mission to make production more efficient and sustainable.

Here Adam White, Manufacturing Mechanical Engineer at Renishaw, shares his graduate experience and explains how engineers can make a difference from day one.

My passion for technology and hands-on activities was apparent from a very young age through my natural interest in how everything works. I loved making and breaking things: magnets, slime, Lego, K'NEX and circuit boards, to name a few. I enjoyed modifying things too; the firing range of my NERF guns or the speed of my radio-controlled car. I liked to strip things down and fiddle with components until I had optimised the performance of them.

In my teenage years I developed a passion for building hi-fi stereo equipment; I built my first portable speaker when I was in secondary school and then went on to create more complex versions during sixth form. My passion for engineering finally came to fruition when I became a Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Nottingham.

Choosing my engineering career path

My journey to Renishaw began by first encountering their products while studying a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. I was intrigued by the variety of fields the company operates in and applied for a Manufacturing Mechanical Summer Placement in 2021.

Despite Covid-19 removing many placement opportunities in 2020, I credit my success in obtaining the 2021 Summer Placement by demonstrating my interest in engineering through other means such as creating a Bluetooth boombox with repurposed parts: an old car amplifier, a lawnmower battery, etc. The summer placement captivated my interest to learn more about the manufacturing applications of mechanical engineering, so I returned to Renishaw on the Manufacturing Mechanical Graduate Scheme in 2022 to pursue this further.

Scaling up additive manufacturing (AM)

One aspect about Renishaw that I find exciting is that we develop our own AM machines in-house, whereas many companies subcontract these operations. AM is already a proven technology for low-volume production, but has the potential to become a successful mass-production tool for certain applications. Historically, part cost has been a major roadblock to wider adoption. Demonstrating how we can leverage AM successfully where appropriate, across our variety of production lines, is critical to driving wider market adoption of this technology.

Making a difference from the start

Process improvement has been a core function of my graduate scheme experience and my role is all about developing new strategies to increase efficiency, improve product quality and reduce costs and waste. Automation is one way in which Renishaw is striving to improves its processes. For example, automating inspection of parts and subsequent adjustment of machining parameters in our machine shops enables us to reduce scrap by adapting on-the-fly to process variations.

Young engineers can bring new energy and ideas to process improvements, making a difference from the start. For example, in my first rotation, I was given the agency to develop a cleaning method to reduce cosmetic defects on parts in process finishing. This improvement enabled Renishaw to save significant scrap costs, reduce process waste and increase process control.

Renishaw's commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are also of great importance to me. We can only remain on the top of our game across the sectors we operate in by incorporating diversity of thought in our values, our processes and the products we make. It has been a pleasure to work as an EDI champion in helping shape the company's EDI mission, especially across our large manufacturing operations in the UK, and I am excited to see the company continue to grow in this regard.

Sustainability-driven engineering

Renishaw has ambitious sustainability goals. These targets, all set against an FY2020 baseline, include achieving Net Zero in scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 2028, a 50 per cent reduction in scope 3 emissions by 2030 and reaching Net Zero across all scopes by 2050 at the latest. This strong commitment to sustainability can be very inspiring for young engineers.

Reducing waste and energy consumption are core to my day-to-day work as a manufacturing mechanical engineer. An area of excitement for me is how we can utilise AM to our advantage in achieving our sustainability goals. Traditionally, most metal parts we manufacture are subtractively machined — a process that creates a significant amount of waste and associated carbon emissions. With AM, we aim* to only use the material that is actually needed for the end product; this can help minimise our scope 3 emissions by reducing the amount of raw metal we need to source.

* A small amount of semi-sintered and contaminated powder byproduct is wasted.

What's next?

The strength of Renishaw's Manufacturing Mechanical Graduate Scheme is in its design, allowing you to tailor it to your interests. Renishaw encourages you to identify your strengths through engaging with different engineering challenges and invest in supporting your development of a broad skillset. This prepares graduates well for any role they may seek going forward.

My last rotation has been in CNC machine programming for our New Product Integration (NPI) area. As I approach the end of my graduate scheme, I have been able to reflect on a wide variety of experiences across the Manufacturing Services Division (MSD) and make an informed decision on what the next step in my career should be. Consequently, I will be joining the NPI team on a permanent basis as I believe there is significant opportunity to learn and develop the fundamentals of my manufacturing skillset.