Serving the Teesside Business Community | 37
Free-thinking
techies apply within!
“Of course, they will reap the benefits and
advantages in the finished product, which
will be as much their baby as ours.”
AST plan to open a production facility for
The Hyve in the Tees region within the next
six months.
“I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t
achieve at least a 10-fold increase in turnover
within the next 18 months as we take the
business to production scale,” adds Marsay.
AST is planning the commercial launch of
The Hyve with detailed precision to ensure
they can meet the demand they know is
there.
“We’ve tried to keep the details of our
innovation hush-hush but people in the know
who have heard what we’ve got are banging
on our doors,” reveals Marsay.
“That’s because they know we’re set to
transform the industry. Leaders in the field
have been resting on their laurels for too
long.
“Collaborative robotics is the obvious way
forward but our established competition is
too busy manufacturing outdated technology
to exploit the opportunities out there. They
are basically too busy to change or innovate.
Everyone is trying to upscale but they are all
over capacity.
“In contrast, we are new to the market
so we don’t have those constraints and
demands that many established businesses
have in constantly trying to fulfil orders on
time. We had a clean whiteboard and we’ve
had the time to conceive and perfect our
product.”
Lofthouse adds: “We’ve got the perfect
product. Our clients will be able to instruct
the robot to achieve what is known as the
perfect batch.
“By that, we mean they will know what
their required end-product is and the robot
will work out how to repeatably create that
end-product in the most efficient manner,
without any of the manually introduced
variables that mean humans create different
formulations every time.”
But all three directors are determined to
wait until they are absolutely ready before
making The Hyve available commercially,
ensuring they can make the best possible
product available ‘off the shelf’.
“When our prospective clients have a
problem to solve, they approach several
robotics businesses to come up with
solutions that may take months to deliver,”
Marsay explains.
“In contrast, by working hand-in-hand as
partners with our clients, we’ll provide the
solutions they need in a matter of weeks.
“Customers will be able to go onto our
website and build their own autonomous
robotic system to their own requirements,
so we’re making The Hyve accessible to
everybody right from the start.
“I know this market well and it’s massive.”
A
pplied Scientific Technologies
is currently looking to recruit a
multi-disciplined chief engineer
along with ambitious apprentice
engineers as the firm transitions from
innovative start-up to production scale.
Director Jamie Marsay says: “We
are looking for good people including a
senior engineer – and apprentices, too,
because we have to grow and nurture
our own robotics engineers as there
aren’t too many of them about.
“Working at AST will all be about
creativity and free thinking so that we
give people the opportunity to succeed
or learn from failure – each having equal
merit.
“We want them to have the vision
to develop and drive forward some of
the stuff that would be knocked back
elsewhere because it’s not immediately
commercially viable. I want them to
push boundaries and not ask what
is possible but ask what could be
possible.
“We’ll have a culture and philosophy
of always believing the impossible is
possible, allowing a talented team of
free-thinkers to thrive.
“As Henry Ford said, ‘If I had asked
people what they wanted, they would
have said faster horses.’
“Our job, as directors, will be to see
which of their technological innovations
we might be able to commercialise.”
While AST’s directors expect to
create up to 20 jobs over the next two
years, they are confident they’ll create
even more growth in the local economy
as they pass work to suppliers across
the North-East.
Marsay adds: “Dozens of local
businesses are benefiting from this
because we’ve been keen to keep our
suppliers here in the North-East. We
are going to create jobs directly but
many more indirectly.”