Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It's coming up with ideas, testing principles and perfecting the engineering, as well as final assembly.
If you really want to improve technology, if you want things to work better and be better, you've got to protect the person who spends a lot of effort, money, and time developing that new technology.
As an engineer I'm constantly spotting problems and plotting how to solve them.
Design and technology should be the subject where mathematical brainboxes and science whizzkids turn their bright ideas into useful products.
Engineering is treated with disdain, on the whole. It's considered to be rather boring and irrelevant, yet neither of those is true.
The important thing is to learn from mistakes - something graduates are adept at. Our graduate engineers are working on new technology - from uncharted applications for our digital motor, to a new take on the hand dryer. With an unhindered mind, nothing is off limits.
The key to success is failure… Success is made of 99 percent failure.
Arbitrary benchmarks cheat kids out of a fulfilling education.
[In my home workshop,] generally I'm mending things, which is interesting because you learn a lot about why they broke.
In the past, the U.K. got away with selling things that weren't unusual. Now it's no use trying to export without having something that's unusual and better.
When I started off, I was working in a shed behind my house. All I had was a drill, an electric drill. That was the only machine I had.
The one size fits all approach of standardized testing is convenient but lazy.
We need to encourage investors to invest in high-technology startups.
Today, computers are almost second nature to most of us.
One of the most fun inventions of my lifetime is the Mini.
I think people are realizing that engineering and science are extremely good degrees to get and you'll be very highly paid once you've got them.
Most robotic vacuum cleaners don't see their environment, have little suction, and don't clean properly. They are gimmicks. We've been developing a unique 360 vision system that lets our robot see where it is, where it has been, and where it is yet to clean. Vision, combined with our high speed digital motor and cyclone technology, is the key to achieving a high performing robot vacuum - a genuine labor saving device.
Engineers are behind the cars we drive, the pills we pop and the way we power our homes.
Apartments are getting smaller on a whole. Houses are getting smaller. People don't need great big vacuums anymore.
I just think things should work properly.
My interest in film is sort of catholic - apart from science fiction and horror movies, I'll watch almost everything.
Emerging markets are hugely important.
I was frustrated as a child when I had to use a vacuum. It had a screaming noise and the smell of stale dog and a lack of performance.
China can and will be an invaluable trading partner to both the U.S. and the U.K.
In the digital age of "overnight" success stories such as Facebook, the hard slog is easily overlooked.
