Eighty-five members of the rotomolding community from ten countries met in Belfast in June for a meeting we will never forget. ARM organized this Executive Forum and Tour as part of our 50th anniversary and to recognize the rotational molding industry’s long history with Queen’s University Belfast.
Our group left the Grand Central Hotel Belfast on the morning of June 9 for the first factory tour of the day, Kingspan Water and Energy in Craigavon. As one of Europe’s most prominent rotomolders, Kingspan impressed us with its scale and level of organization, and the presentation on the company’s wider businesses and core values was fascinating.
After lunch we visited Collins Aerospace in Kilkeel. For anyone interested in Lean Manufacturing, the visit was inspirational, with lessons that could carry over to anyone setting up a roto plant on the same principles.
That evening, June 9, riots broke out across Belfast after a stabbing the night before. Masked men torched a bus, burned cars, threw rocks and bricks at police, and set fire to homes they believed housed immigrants. Businesses closed, trains stopped running, and schools let students out early. The city center stayed quiet. Our group met for dinner across the street from Belfast City Hall.
The next morning we began with a fresh start, touring Clarehill, a great example of a multi-generational, family-run business that has been pivotal in the development of the industry on the island of Ireland. Some of their custom jobs sit at the cutting edge of roto technology.
The threat of continued unrest appearing on social media that morning forced another change of plans. Road closures and the closing of the university made our scheduled sessions at Queen’s impossible at the last minute. Grand Central Belfast Hotel hosted our meeting instead and their chef prepared lunch on short notice.
We kicked off with “How Queen’s Became Rotomolding’s Research Home,” a panel with Mark Kearns, Paul Nugent, and Alvin Spence. Three people with deep ties to Queen’s and the industry traced the arc of innovation through the university’s different eras, from Roy Crawford’s early work through today’s Advanced Manufacturing Institute.
That evening the disorder returned on a smaller scale, with police deploying water cannons in Newtownabbey. Bus and train closures continued.
Our planned pizza and a pint party on the Belfast Barge became a hotel event, with ARM staff searching the quiet downtown streets for restaurants that hadn’t closed early and could prepare enough pizzas for our group. We all enjoyed a pub quiz led by Ronny Ervik that featured Northern Ireland and rotational molding trivia.
On June 11 we visited Queens University’s Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre, an exciting glimpse into the future of industry by previewing their brand-new state-of-the-art building. It was good to see rotomolding playing a pivotal role in AMIC’s development. That afternoon our education sessions continued at the hotel. For lunch and dinner we were served the menu from another group that had canceled their Thursday event.
Much of this was not the meeting we planned. But our hosts at every plant, our 85 attendees who rolled with every change, and our sponsors 493K, Matrix Polymers, and RotoLoad made sure the Belfast Executive Forum remained valuable for all. This was one we’ll be talking about for another 50 years.
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