Develop Consulting launches new podcast for maritime sector
With recent events pushing maritime sovereignty up the agenda in the UK, Develop Consulting has launched a new podcast for the sector. The first episode is available digitally now, with Tom Chant MBE, CEO of the Society of Maritime Industries, discussing the future of UK vessel building against a backdrop of renewed defence urgency and international competition.
Develop Consulting is an advisory firm focusing on applying lean principles, primarily in the manufacturing and healthcare spaces. But the firm also works to apply Lean principles for clients who are among the world’s leading organisations across rail, aerospace, automotive and maritime organisations. This recently led to the firm becoming a member of the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) – which represents over 200 maritime companies across the UK.
Growing from that new alliance, Develop and the SMI have launched ‘The Maritime Forecast’; a podcast to bring together industry leaders, government officials, shipyard operators and operational improvement specialists to discuss the critical issues facing the sector locally and globally. And with recent events in the Middle East threatening major disruption to the world’s shipping and energy supply chains, that launch has become especially timely.
Darren Jones, maritime director at Develop Consulting and host of the series, said, “The UK maritime sector stands at a critical juncture. With global tensions rising and increased pressure on NATO members to strengthen defence capabilities, there are significant opportunities for UK shipbuilding. But we also face real challenges around skills, capacity and international competition. The Maritime Forecast will tackle these issues head on. We’ll explore what UK maritime needs to compete on the world stage, how operational excellence can be our competitive advantage, and what lessons we can learn from other sectors like rail and aerospace that have already been through similar transformations.”
The first episode – now available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts – sees Jones joined by Tom Chant, CEO of the SMI, and Steve Boam, CEO of Develop Consulting, to discuss government procurement, the future of UK shipbuilding, and how continuous improvement methodologies could help UK yards compete against subsidised international competitors.
Chant opened his contribution on the podcast by highlighting the gap between government strategy and actual orders.
“Everybody’s waiting for the defence investment plan,” he said. “There are a number of projects hanging on this. People are exceedingly keen to see where the money is actually going to be spent.”
Boam meanwhile suggested that Lean methodologies could be key to moving beyond this sense of stasis – as the principle is “to build things in a simpler way, to make them more effective, efficient, with higher quality and safety.”
He added, “We need to be very good at how we set our factories up, how we set our process up, and how we get things out at the right cost, at the right time.”
