We would like to thank all those that took time out to attend the meeting held a week ago for attending and we hope it was as much use to them as it was to us.
The attendance was excellent, in fact the room was straining to fit everyone in and there was a fear that if anyone else had arrived without knowledge that we would be unable to actually fit a chair in for them!
First off was a presentation by Ian Wardle from Proctor & Gamble, the manufacturers of Ariel, Bold and Daz amongst many other leading brand names in consumer goods. The presentation highlighted the lack of knowledge by engineers on detergent technologies with much of the information being either totally wrong or simply out of date, this has highlighted a need for training in certain areas to Proctor & Gamble, an endeavour that UK Whitegoods has offered to help in.
Next was Sean Delaney who presented the UK Whitegoods training grants scheme to the attendees, this laid out a plan to give funding on specific areas of training and, when worked with some administration by UK Whitegoods, could reap potentially huge benefits and cost saving for the entire industry. It is very pleasing to not that support was surprisingly quick for the initiative from many of the assembled work providers and manufacturers. Positive reactions from nearly all included, MFI, NESN, ISDAL, CDSL, Elba/De Longhi, Electrolux and others!
This led onto a discussion on the use and release of spares and service information to the trade in general with Brian Cresswell from The Indesit Company answering all the questions very well and comprehensively. Much was learned by all during the course of the conversation and everyone was pretty upbeat about the outcomes.
After lunch Gareth Roberts gave a very interesting talk on the implications of the WEEE Directive as it currently stands, of course it has not yet been written into law and so some of the implications are, as yet, unknown. Some of the points raised and the manufacturer’s responsibilities could potentially cost a lot of money and could potentially bring about a significant price increase on many consumer products based on what is currently on the cards.
Full minutes of the Friday meeting are available in the downloads section as is the presentation on the training intuitive given by Sean.
The next UK Whitegoods meeting is scheduled to take place on the 23rd of September 2005, don’t miss it as we’re already working on making it even better!