The Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) is staffed by manufacturing specialists with a proven track record of troubleshooting across a wide range of technologies and industrial sectors in Scotland.
Our practitioner team consists entirely of hands-on experts in process improvement, lean manufacturing, innovation and allied disciplines. They are practical, down-to-earth people with passion, commitment and a credible track record in improving manufacturing processes for bottom-line benefit. Specialist help is also available from our team of associate partner organisations.
Together the team brings over 500 years of manufacturing expertise from shop floor through to director level.
Find your local SMAS consultant:
Contact us, If you would like to speak to any of our SMAS consultants.
Nick Shields, Director of SMAS
Nick has held senior positions in engineering and operations management both in multinational and SME businesses. With over 20 years of expertise in companies such as Teknek and Polaroid, Nick now heads up the SMAS team.
Areas of expertise:
- Lean manufacturing
- Organisational change and development
- New product introduction and development
- Quality management systems
Lindsay Branston, Business Development Manager
Lindsay has over 12 years expertise the chemical sector working in research and development as well as technical marketing for companies such as Zeneca, Lubrizol and FujiFilm.
Areas of expertise:
- Process and product development
- NPI/NPD stage gate systems
- Technical marketing
Barry Mole, Regional lead practitioner for the North of Scotland
Barry was educated to MBA level and has 20 years manufacturing experience working across the food & drink and electronics sectors. He has held senior positions in Kraft, NEC and Baxters Food Group.
Areas of expertise
- Cultural and transformational change
- Development of Key Performance Indicators
- Leadership and team development
- Executive coaching and mentoring
Gillian Macleod
Gillian’s 22 years of industry experience have been acquired through a number of technical and advisory roles within the food industry. Main focus areas throughout this period have been been in Quality, NPD and Continuous Improvement.
Areas of experience:
- Six Sigma
- Lean Manufacturing
- Quality Management Systems
- Coaching and Mentoring
Gillian Reid
Gillian has 20 years experience gained through employment in technical, quality and business improvement roles across a range of sectors including textiles, engineering, and medical devices.
Areas of experience:
- Lean Management
- Business Improvement
- Business Counselling
- Quality Management
Martin Riddell
Martin has over 10 years industry experience working in Engineering and Operations management roles. Having worked within Oil and Gas, FMCG and Pharmaceutical sectors he has developed a broad manufacturing experience.
Areas of expertise:
- Design Engineering
- Project Management
- Engineering and Maintenance
- Leadership and Team development
Calum McCafferty
Calum has over 10 years operational experience acquired through production and operations management, primarily in the food and drink sector, for companies such as Gordon & Macphail and Scottish Shellfish.
Areas of expertise:
- Operations management
- Engineering and maintenance
- Development of key performance indicators
- Relationship management
Ian McCormick
Ian has 40 years experience gained in Production and Operations at Technician and Senior Management level, in the Textiles, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Industries.
Areas of expertise:
- Cultural Change Management
- Production & Supply Chain
- QHSE
- Lean Manufacturing
Jamie Sansom
Jamie has over 12 years operational experience acquired through operational management and continuous improvement roles within SMEs and multi-national FMCG businesses, focusing on operational efficiency in the food and drink sector.
Areas of expertise:
- Value Stream Mapping
- Layout design and production line philosophy
- SMED
- Bottleneck analysis
Jerry O’Dwyer
Jerry is an Honours Graduate and an Associate in Metallurgy and Materials with 33 years experience up to Director level. Jerry set up a design and bespoke manufacturing supplier to the semiconductor industry and latterly was European Product Director for FSI.
Areas of expertise:
- Business improvement / Excellence
- Problem Solving
- SPC / DOE / Six Sigma methodology
- TOC / Bottleneck management
Rob Lloyd
Robert’s 25 years of experience have been acquired through a number of Manufacturing Engineering and Management roles with major Aerospace & Automotive companies throughout Europe with a particular emphasis on Innovation
Areas of expertise:
- Lean Manufacturing
- Design for Manufacture/Assembly
- Innovation
- Product/Process Analysis & Continuous Improvement
Jerome Finlayson, Regional lead practitioner for the East & South of Scotland
Having worked within the food and drink and pharmaceuticals sectors with companies such as Diageo, Johnson & Johnson (Ethicon) and Glenmorangie plc, Jerome has built up 15 years of operational management experience. Jerome also has experience within a consultancy role developing business efficiency programs with manufacturing organisations.
Areas of expertise:
- Lean manufacturing principles and tools
- Continuous improvement strategies and techniques
- Management control and reporting systems
- Individual, team and cultural development
David Gardner
From a background in design and production engineering, David has over 25 years manufacturing management experience. This has included responsibility for significant manufacturing operations at companies including Marconi, Motorola and Philips. David has also headed up several smaller manufacturing operations, including a number of factory start ups.
Areas of expertise:
- Manufacturing management
- Lean manufacturing
- Supply chain
- Developing and delivering change programmes
- Project management
Ian Collinson
Ian has over 17 years senior management experience in supply-chain, production and quality within the food and drinks sectors working for companies such as Glenmorangie and Burtons.
Areas of expertise:
- Business value-chain analysis
- Business Performance Improvement
- Quality & Continuous Improvement Management
- Coaching & Change
Keith McCormack
Keith's 26 years of manufacturing experience has been gained in a number of operations management roles within the semiconductor industry and latterly within in food manufacturing.
Keith is experienced in all parts of the business cycle, with a continuous improvement background.
Areas of expertise:
- Lean manufacturing, principles and tools
- Manufacturing control and reporting systems
- Quality Management systems
- Coaching and developing staff
Richard Henderson
Richard has over 9 years engineering and manufacturing experience with 6 years focused specifically on cross-functional high impact business improvement roles. Richard has also held engineering and production management positions and has worked with companies such as AWE, Rolls-Royce Aero Repair & Overhaul.
Areas of expertise:
- Introducing business improvement framework/strategy
- Six Sigma toolset
- DMAIC methodology
- Measurement System Analysis – GR&R
Stephen Gray
Stephen has over 24 years of experience in a variety of disciplines (Manufacturing, Production Planning, Logistics, Engineering, and Sales) and has held senior management roles in companies primarily in the semi-conductor industry.
Areas of expertise:
- Change of Working Practices/Change Management
- Performance Management & Staff development
- Planning Processes
- Quality Management Systems
Thomas Lapsley
Thomas's 22 years of industry experience have been acquired through various technical and operational roles in both high volume and pilot scale manufacturing organizations within the semi-conductor industry.
His main focus areas throughout this period have been been in Product / Process Continuous Improvement, Process Development and Quality
Areas of experience:
- Six Sigma, DMAIC methodology
- Total Productive Maintenance
- Developing and delivering change programmes
- Quality Management Systems
- Coaching, Mentoring and Staff Development
John Cadden
John's 23 years of industry experience have been acquired through a number of engineering and senior management roles within the electronics sector. Main focus areas throughout this period have been in Quality, Product Engineering and Project Management.
Areas of experience:
- New Product Introduction
- Project Management (PRINCE2)
- Product Process/Continuous Improvement
- People and Team Development
Agnes Pollock
Agnes has over 20 years experience in senior production management with a high level of Lean implementation experience across all areas of the supply chain. This includes large FMCGs and SMEs, across manufacturing-cosmetics (Boots), food & drink, & engineering, as well as distribution and retail environments.
Areas of Expertise
- Culture Change Management
- Lean Implementation
- Business Improvement
- Operational management
Chris Chapman
Chris has over 17 years senior management experience in international manufacturing business start up and development. Having served as an RAF Engineering Officer, Chris was also the MD and founder of Datum Dynamics in the UK, Hungary and USA.
Areas of expertise:
- Developing Manufacturing Strategey
- New product development and introduction
- The Lean front end
Colin Allan
Colin has in excess of 15 years extensive management experience in manufacturing operations, from design and development through to processing and dispatch, within the low to medium volume industrial process control and domestic white goods industry sectors. This includes senior positions in Keystone Valves, Sunvic Controls and Wallace Cameron.
Areas of expertise:
- Strategic business development.
- Business performance improvement.
- Lean Manufacturing.
- Process development, analysis and control.
Martin Breen
Martin has 20 years manufacturing experience, such as National Semiconductor, Seagate and Motorola in senior process engineering and continuous improvement positions. He performed this role for several companies making major yield and manufacturing improvements using Lean and Six Sigma DMAIC techniques, of which he is a fully trained Black Belt.
Areas of expertise:
- Six Sigma,
- Lean Implementation
- Quality management
Robert Cowan
Robert has over 30 years manufacturing management experience covering production, engineering, quality and planning functions. He has work in the engineering and food and drinks sectors for companies including Rolls-Royce, Wilson Sporting Goods and Allied Domecq.
Areas of expertise:
- Change Management
- Supply Chain improvement (including SC21)
- Business Planning
- Production Management and Improvement
Steve Borris
Steve has almost 40 years experience in equipment engineering, maintenance, training and customer support working for companies such as Eaton Semiconductor UK, Varian and National Semiconductor UK.
Areas of expertise:
- OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency)
- Lean Manufacturing
- SMED (Quick Change-overs)
- Problem solving