A Journey To The Future Of Food And Drink Manufacturing

Keith Thornhill: Business Manager UK & Ire – Food & Beverage, Siemens Digital Factory

Keith Thornhill is the UK and Ireland Food and Beverage Business Manager for Siemens Digital Factory division. He started his career completing an apprenticeship with British Rail Engineering Ltd in Crewe and entered the automation industry in 1986 as an internal sales engineer with Electro Craft Ltd - one of the UK’s Motion Control pioneering companies. After key account management and business manager roles. Keith joined Siemens in 2001 as a business development manager in the Siemens Motion Control group.

Keith’s career has mainly been focused on encouraging innovation for UK packaging machinery manufactures and latterly as Siemens Food and Beverage Business Manager identifying the operational efficiency and production flexibility benefits that automation technology and the Digital enterprise will deliver to the food and beverage and the consumer packaged goods manufacturing sector.

The food and beverage industry faces many distinct challenges, around investment, innovation and skills. Keith is working with industry to address these by working in partnership through strategic collaboration, and assisting manufacturers become more agile, efficient and productive.

Simon Keogh: Business Factory Automation, Siemens Factory Automation

Simon Keogh has been involved in the Automation industry for the past 30 years. Having joined Siemens in 1994 he has worked closely with Siemens customers across many sectors to develop their automation and control strategies and for the last 7 years Simon has been responsible for Factory Automation and Control Products in the U.K. covering automation technology such as Programmable Controllers and visualisation systems (SCADA) for manufacturing and infrastructure. An active member of the Automation Advisory Board a collaboration of leading automation vendors and the Manufacturer magazine whose purpose is to educate owner managers and factory directors about what automation equipment can do and the benefits it can bring to UK manufacturers. Simon has regularly contributed to the discussion on Digitalisation and the impact and opportunities that this represents for the entire UK manufacturing sector.

Martin Leeming: CEO, TrakRap

Martin Leeming, TrakRap’s CEO, studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and has an MBA from The University of Huddersfield. Today, Martin is a Retail Professional who joined TrakRap after working for Asda for 15 years, holding Director roles in Buying and Supply Chain. He led a major change programme to lower the cost of goods from source to shelf including Retail Ready Packaging and effective supply strategies.