Lambert’s new Wainman Innovation Centre, has been officially opened by company co-founder Peter Wainman, in a day of celebrations attended by local government, business and academia representatives together with a number of the company’s customers and key suppliers.
The Lambert name has become synonymous world wide with automation processes and transformational technologies. Naming the Innovation Centre in his honour recognises and acknowledges Peter Wainman’s contribution to the development and growth of the company. His original guiding principles, when the company was formed in 1973, were to provide only the very best products, backed by the very best customer service. This ethos, which remains at the heart of the company’s philosophy today, now also embraces a partnership product design process and the definition of technical roadmaps to establish certainties at an early stage – a resource valued by the company’s Medical and Healthcare customers.
The new facility will support Lambert’s collaborative partnerships with their customers, local colleges, universities and automation industry specialists, operating as a state of the art technology, innovation and learning centre. The Wainman Innovation Centre also reinforces Lambert’s pro-active approach to research and development, seen by the company as key to defining and delivering the automation solutions that will transform their customers manufacturing processes in the future.
Housing a comprehensive range of automation modules, and backed by some of the UK’s most experienced automation and development engineers, the Centre will allow Lambert and their customers to trial and develop automation processes, validate product design and establish “Proof of Principle” at the earliest stages of a project. Systems developed within the Innovation Centre will also be capable of being transferred to a customer site for pre-production trials, where required by industry regulations.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Lambert managing director Warren Limbert commented, “Innovation is the lifeblood of our business and it is fitting that we now have this new facility, named after Peter, to recognise the significant contribution which he made to the company throughout his time here. This dedicated Innovation Centre will also help Lambert continue to deliver transformational manufacturing processes for our customers in the years to come.”
Peter Wainman commented, “I was grateful and honoured when Warren asked if the company could name the new Innovation Centre after me, especially as it is dedicated to the ongoing development of new technologies and processes. However it is also important to remember that it’s not just about high technology equipment, it’s about Lambert’s people, their skills and commitment to keeping the company at the forefront of the industry ”
The development of the Innovation Centre was supported by a grant from the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Programme. The LEP promotes the Leeds City Region’s interests, nationally and internationally, helping business and enterprise to thrive through engagement and partnership and create new employment opportunities.
David Whiteley, advisor at the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), commented: “Investing in R&D is vital to the future success of English manufacturers and it is great to see a company like Lambert building on their core strengths with the opening of its new innovation centre”.
The investment by Lambert in the new Innovation Centre reinforces the company’s commitment to helping their customers achieve profit and growth by delivering corporate IP and exceptional automated systems, irrespective of the technical challenge.
