26th June 2025
This event has unfortunately had to be postponed. There is currently no new date scheduled.
If there is an interest in the agenda topics, please email info@ppcanda.com for assistance.
Sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) are an integral and defining focus of modern manufacturing strategies. For machine builders and OEMs, and the general UK manufacturing community, embracing these principles goes beyond compliance; it’s about building competitive advantage and long-term resilience, not to mention a key driver for innovation.
Customers, investors, and regulators increasingly demand sustainable operations, traceable supply chains, and measurable impact. By embedding sustainability into operations, design, products, and skills development, manufacturers can drive positive change.
To highlight the ESG imperative and real-world success cases, PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) in collaboration with Schneider Electric, will be hosting manufacturing professionals at its award-winning facility in Cheslyn Hay on 17th September 2025. The event brings together experts from both industry-leading companies, with guest workshops and demos from Sustainable Advantage and Verciti.
Wednesday 17th September, 2025
9:30am – 2:00pm
PP Control & Automation
Landywood Green, Cheslyn Hay
West Midlands WS6 7AL
Postponed
PP Control & Automation (PP C&A), founded in 1967, is a UK-based leader in strategic outsourcing for machine builders and OEMs. Operating from a 5,500 m² Midlands facility with over 200 staff, they specialise in the manufacture of electrical control & automation solutions, electronics assembly, pneumatics, hydraulics, fluid systems, mechanical assemblies, and vacuum/gas systems. With over £1.5 million invested in automation technology (e.g., automated crimping and testing), PP C&A ensures world-class quality and efficiency. Accredited to ISO9001 and ISO14001, their ESG initiatives include installing rooftop solar, voltage optimisation, and forming an ESG committee recognised for its societal impact by Siemens. Award-winning and growth-focused, it provides module- or assembly-based, part or full machine build to many of the world’s most successful machine builders and OEMs, at scale.
Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy management and automation, championing sustainability through innovative solutions that drive efficiency and decarbonisation. With a bold ambition to achieve net-zero across all emissions by 2030, the company integrates green design into its products – from smart grid and building systems to energy‑saving industrial controls. Its EcoStruxure™ platform enables real‑time energy monitoring and optimisation, empowering OEMs and manufacturers to cut waste and emissions. Beyond technology, Schneider offers sustainability consulting, circular economy services, and community training programmes. With strong ESG governance and purpose‑driven partnerships, they’re accelerating the transition to a resilient, low‑carbon economy.
Sustainable Advantage is a UK-based ESG advisory and resource-efficiency specialist helping more than 500 organisations worldwide translate sustainability ambitions into measurable results. Carbon-neutral since its 2010 inception, the firm marries deep consultancy expertise with data-rich software dashboards to track energy, waste and carbon across complex portfolios. Services span ESG strategy, due-diligence and reporting, energy procurement and reduction, waste optimisation, and net-zero road-mapping aligned to Science Based Targets. Recognised as ESG Advisory Firm of the Year 2023, Sustainable Advantage also supports 40+ private-equity houses, embedding ESG value creation throughout the investment cycle while planting 20,000 trees in partnership with clients globally.
Verciti is an immersive augmented-/virtual-reality EdTech platform accelerating the net-zero workforce by delivering hands-on technical training in hydrogen, electrification, solar, wind and battery storage. Co-designed with industry, its AI-powered virtual campus combines 3-D simulations, game-based assessments and digital badges to upskill, reskill and new-skill engineers and technicians at scale. Learners access modules on smartphones or tablets and certify skills at approved Verciti centres, slashing classroom costs and time away from the job. Backed by partners such as The Blair Project and Manchester Innovation Activities Hub, Verciti tackles the green skills gap and builds inclusive, future-ready talent pipelines for clean-tech growth.
Wednesday 17th September, 2025
9:30am – 2:00pm
PP Control & Automation
Landywood Green, Cheslyn Hay
West Midlands WS6 7AL
Postponed
| 9:30am | Introductions & welcome, drinks |
| 9:40am | PP Control & Automation ESG approach and progress |
| 10:15am | Schneider Electric innovation on show in the marketplace |
| 10:45am | Break, drinks & networking |
| 11:00am | WORKSHOP 1: Innovation marketplace (Schneider Electric) |
| WORKSHOP 2: Facility tour (PP Control & Automation) | |
| WORKSHOP 3: Immersive EdTech platform for green skills demo (Verciti) | |
| 12:30pm | Lunch provided |
| 13:30pm | WORKSHOP 4: ESG strategy (Sustainable Advantage) |
| 14:00pm | Close |
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
Recent weeks have brought two important industry moments into sharp focus, concluding that demand for AI and automation is rising, but investment, skills, and long-term thinking must follow.
For decades, one question has sat at the heart of operational strategy for machine builders and OEMs: make or buy? It’s a familiar debate and it isn’t the wrong question by any means, but perhaps it is an incomplete one.
In most machine building businesses, change is still treated as an exception. A late-stage drawing revision, component substitution, or wiring tweak discovered during build. Each one is handled, resolved, and signed off. And then everyone moves on. But what if that’s the wrong way to think about it? What if change isn’t the disruption to the system but the system itself?
