Silicon Availability in Agricultural Soils

The provided content consists of 10 academic articles and 5 online sources related to manufacturing, technology, and business. The articles cover topics such as silicon availability in agricultural soils, spintronics devices, technology intensity, IS/business alignment management practices, palladium theory of aqueous-phase alkynylations, organizational cultures' support of Business Process Management, small-sized product fabrication with FDM for plastic components, and labor demand in Zimbabwe's urban informal metal sector. The online sources include company profiles, industry reports, and statistics on UK manufacturing, providing insights into the current state of manufacturing and technology in the country.

Contemporary Developments In Business and Management
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Brief overview of primary external influences to which Alpha is subjected and briefly explaining
the particular importance of each to company.................................................................................3
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................7
Analyze the technology change to Alpha Manufacturing and determine how it influences policies
and decision making of the organization.........................................................................................7
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of Alpha Manufacturing response..........................................8
Demonstrate some areas for improvement in the response of Alpha Manufacturing....................10
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Business environment consists of factors like political, social, economic, technological, etc.
that contain power to influence and control the business activities (Gutmann, Cantillo and Kappe,
2015). These factors put positive and negative impacts on the business like; with the economic
downturn, it brings declination in the business capital and their investment. The result of this is that
many large organizations have started terminating their employees to reduce the employment costs.
Firms are starting the restructure their strategies, liquidate inventory, adopting eco-friendly concepts
etc. The internal environment of a business involves various factors such as human resource
relation, structure of organization, policies and procedures, capabilities of employees, etc (Haynes,
2014). The present research is based on contemporary developments in business and management
and to determine their significance, Alpha Manufacturing of UK has been taken into consideration.
This company deals in manufacturing of metal sheets and other related products (About Alpha
Manufacturing, 2017). Objectives that will be highlight in the current research are external
influences to business, influence of policies and decision making on organization along with areas
of improvement in the response of Alpha Manufacturing.
TASK 1
Brief overview of primary external influences to which Alpha is subjected and briefly explaining
the particular importance of each to company
There are various external aspects which influence an organization in both positive and
negative manner (Sabio and et.al., 2015). These are very important for every type of industry and its
related companies. With the change in time, demand and needs of customers have also changed.
Alpha Manufacturing has given a close look to this problem and tries to meet the demands of
marketplace with advanced technologies, machines and equipment. Organization has supplied its
metal products to its business clients and other customers. In this context, some external factors
have influenced the business operational activities (UK Manufacturing Statistics, 2017).
Explanation of each element including their importance for the cited firm with the help of PESTLE
analysis is as follows:
Political factor: It is one of the elements which influence any business sector in many ways.
This can be created either favourable or unfavourable situations for the organizations. UK
government has developed several policies for the manufacturing industry (Zhou and Pindiriri,
2015). The reason behind taking this action is to minimize the gap between supply and demand of
services and products. Formulated frameworks have supported the organizations of metal based
goods manufacturing to maintain their maximum production capacities. Alpha Manufacturing firm
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has offered metal sheet fabrications services such as CNC Metal folding, Laser cutting, CNC Metal
Punching, MIG Welding, CNC Metal Turning, TIG Welding and full Powder Coating plant. The
cited business produces and designs sheet metal work components and their assemblies (About
Alpha Manufacturing, 2017). In this context, UK government has taken various actions in which
one of the most important is strengthening UK manufacturing supply chains. Administrative
authorities have boost up the innovation capacity of supply chain function of metal manufacturing
organizations. They have also offered required capital equipment and amount to support the supply
chain activities of firms. It has led Alpha Manufacturing and its similar kind of businesses to
combine innovation in product manufacturing process with business systems as well as procedure
(Schmiedel, Vom Brocke and Recker, 2014). This has enhanced the productivity of supply chain of
companies which has created a good balance between the supply and demand of sheet metal work
components. Along with this, generated waste of metal during the production of products has
recycled by combining with other materials (Strengthening UK manufacturing supply chains: An
action plan for government and industry, 2015). So, such kind of initiatives by UK government has
helped Alpha Manufacturing organization to develop business in the nation.
Economic factor: At the time of find out current and expected future value of a business or
investment related decisions, an organization should consider various economic factors. These are
taxes, cost of labour, government policies, interest rates, management, etc (Singh, 2013).
Manufacturer of fabricated metal products industry has played an essential role in the development
of economy of UK. This business sector has accountable for the production of wide range of
products such as steel beams, trusses, purlins and brackets. Fabricated metal products have used
diverse range of applications such as making tourist cabins, classrooms, etc. The best example can
be seen in Olympic venues where fabricated metal products have been used for the construction of
site offices and public toilets. It is expecting that manufacturer of fabricated metal goods industry
well generate £6.1 billion revenue in 2017 although it has declined with 3.5% in 2016 (Orozco,
Tarhini and Tarhini, 2015). The reason of decrease in percentage of revenue amount year by year is
declining the demand of metal based fabricated products among customers. Along with this, limited
availability of raw materials and production costs have increased the prices of final goods. It has
diminished the interest of end users to purchase them. But to decrease the final prices of fabricated
metal products, companies in this industry have increased their investment and use the automotive
machines as well as other process to bring reduction in the cost. On the other hand, because of
globalization, interactions between countries have increased and it has allowed them to better access
of materials (Joshi, 2016). Different taxation policies have been developed by both national and
international government. This has affected the payment system of Alpha Manufacturing and other
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similar companies of UK at the time of trading business at international level. Apart from this, the
labour costs in fabricated metal products sector are very high because there is lack of skilled and
talented employees. It has created challenges for the cited firm to hire staff members with diverse
talent. So, the above stated various economic factors have affected the business operations of Alpha
Manufacturing in a negative way (Gutowski and et.al., 2013).
Social factor: It is the combination of various elements such as attitude of people, buying
behaviour and habit of the end users, change in social aspects, living status, variation in income
level etc (Mehta, 2016). These all factors have given the shape of response of an organization. In
the context of fabricated metal products industry of UK, there are large numbers of customers,
business clients, suppliers, employees and other business partners. These are indirectly or directly
connected with Alpha Manufacturing. As a big fabricate metal production company, firm has faced
lots of social demand of the offered goods. At the time of running the business, organization has
concerned towards negative impacts of operational activities on UK communities (Choo, Nag and
Xia, 2015). To reduce the effective business activities, cited enterprise has organized several events
and services to societies such as CSR, training and development to unemployed people, education
of children etc. These all actions have helped Alpha Manufacturing to maintain wealth and health of
public. Along with this, cited company has closely worked with the customers where end users have
access to teams at the time of designing of new products (Dev, 2013). This close working
partnership with the business clients have ensured the enterprise that process start from design and
end to development of finished product has managed at all stages. Therefore, the above stated
evidences have helped to understand that Alpha Manufacturing focus on overall development of
community.
Technology factor: Alpha Manufacturing has worked on the list of requirements of the
customers by offering them wide range of the sheet metal fabrications. Company has designed and
produced metal fabricated components and assemble them (Graedel and et.al., 2012). For this, cited
business has used updated and leading technologies. These have facilitated the firm to design,
prepare prototype and manufacture the metal fabricated items in factor. Apart from this, technology
transformation of Alpha Manufacturing has supported the workforce productivity and efficiency. It
has helped the organization to deliver the quality products to the customers. With the time, company
has updated his technologies to maintain the working productivity. In the other hand, in the case
research and development of new metal fabricated products, Alpha Manufacturing has used separate
and several technologies (About Alpha Manufacturing, 2017). For this, they have given the training
to the employees to operate the machines. All usable and adopted machines, techniques and
software have licence. Along with this, for development of new products, cited organization has
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taken patens for this.
Legal: Employees who are working in metal fabricated product manufacturing industry have
faced the health issues with the time. By seen the various cases, it has decided by UK government
to develop and impose various legal implications over the sector (Trappler, 2013). In this context,
Alpha Manufacturing has followed legislations of governmental bodies to ensure the health and
well being of the workers. For this, several health plans have prepared by company in the favour of
personnel. Along with this, proper working conditions and facilities have offered by the
management to its staff members. There are some health camps held in the workplace for checking
the health of employees. These all actions of cited firm have tried to minimize the risk situations
and increase the safety of the personnel. Further, in many of the serious incidents and accidents,
Alpha Manufacturing has provided compensation to the staff members (Choo, Nag and Xia, 2015).
Environment: This is the major factor for metal fabric products industry of UK and its
companies such as Alpha Manufacturing. At the time of performing the business operations such as
manufacturing, transportation of material, distribution of the goods etc, it has affected environment
in negative manner. For this, UK government has formulated ETS or Emission Trading Scheme to
keep control over these issues (Gutmann, Cantillo and Kappe, 2015). It has helped in fight against
the global warming problems and minimizes other environmental problems. Alpha Manufacturing
has also taken several steps in the direction of save the environment to decrease the numbers of
risks.
On the other hand, metal fabricate product industry of UK has attained growth with the time
because of increase the applications of it’s in various areas. This has highly supported economy
conditions of the nation. With the help of Porter’s Five Force Model, analysis of Alpha
Manufacturing can be done in an effective manner which is as follows:
Barriers to entry: For Alpha Manufacturing, there are some factors which have restricted the
entry of the new firms in metal fabricated products industry. It is very well known that to start the
business in this sector, a huge capital investment has required (Dev, 2013). For example, to establish
a 1 mtpa capacity of integrated steel plan, there is a need of 30bn pounds have required. It has
included the costing of the location of the plant and use of technology. On the other hand, scales of
operations in metal fabricated products have highly matter. This has helped Alpha Manufacturing to
take the advantage of high economic of scale in the term of lower costs, better bargaining power at
the time of purchase the raw materials and decease the expenses of R&D. Along with this, UK
government have formulated several favourable policy for metal fabricated products organizations
such as Alpha Manufacturing (Haynes, 2014). So, it can be said that the barriers of entry does not
affect the business operation and growth of Alpha Manufacturing.
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Bargaining power of suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers for Alpha Manufacturing
has moderate because there are limited suppliers in front of the company which has offered quality
metal fabricated sheets. So, it becomes important for the organization to develop and maintain a
good relationship with the vendors in order to receive good quality of raw or semi-finished products
(Mehta, 2016).
Bargaining power of customers: In terms of metal fabricated products, there are not comes
under the segment if special of luxury goods and does not have any considerable price differences.
For Alpha Manufacturing, bargaining power of the end users has low because the company has
offered premium and quality sheet metal items to its end users and other business partners (Orozco,
Tarhini and Tarhini, 2015).
Competition: The demand of metal fabricated products in the market is always high. This is
the main reason of increase the competition in the marketplace of UK. For Alpha Manufacturing,
the differentiation and customized sheet metal fabric goods have helped in to deal with tough
competition and survive in the industry (Sabio and et.al., 2015).
Threat of substitutes: It has medium to low for Alpha Manufacturing because there are less
numbers of organizations in metal fabric products industry of UK which are offering similar time of
items to the customers. Although, it does not poses any significant threat for the cited firm because
the offer products cannot be completely replaced by other substitutes (Schmiedel, Vom Brocke and
Recker, 2014).
TASK 2
Analyze the technology change to Alpha Manufacturing and determine how it influences policies
and decision making of the organization
Companies have used various technologies in order to make the work manageable, effective
and productive with fewer defects. This advancement has put the mixed effects on all business
sectors (Trappler, 2013). In the past time, there were huge changes made in technologies and it was
modified production activities and its related process. This was also bringing the reduction in the
overall costing of manufacturing of products. Further, it was increased the volume of output by
optimum utilization of the resources. In recent time, there have many changes taken place in
technologies of metal fabricate products industry of UK. It has included alterations such as increase
reliability of the systems; decrease the size of the machines, enhance speed of the systems and
consume low energy to run (Singh, 2013). In the context of Alpha Manufacturing, company has
used some small to medium size machines and equipments to process sheet metal fabric to make the
various components and assemble them. To make the products perfect into size and shape, it has
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become impossible for human resource to prepare it. So, changes in technologies have assisted the
cited firm to develop fine, perfect size and shape items. Although, this process takes more time and
costs to complete it but to attain the quality standards and satisfy the customers. So, amendments in
technologies with the time have helped Alpha Manufacturing and other organizations of metal
fabric product industry of UK to access the new options of production of goods (Zhou and Pindiriri,
2015).
The above stated changes in the technologies have influenced policies and decision making
process of Alpha Manufacturing. With the help of this, organization has able to bring the innovation
at the time of development of metal sheet fabricate products (Dev, 2013). It has allowed the
company to optimally utilize the resources in an effective manner to produce the large number of
volumes. For example, by using different software, employees of cited firm have developed
different designs of items and then prepare prototype of them. Along with this, it has assisted in take
decision how the process will start and move to the next step as well as convert into the actual and
planned design (Gutmann, Cantillo and Kappe, 2015). This has lead to improve the speed of the
work of Alpha Manufacturing by reducing the delay in development of the sheet metal fabricated
products. In this regards, various quality related standards have set by the cited firm to make sure
that there are not defects in items and meet all quality measuring criteria. This has minimized the
number of defects in the end products by increasing the quality of them (Industry Demands Spark
Welding Technology Changes, 2015).
It is very well known that manufacturing and fabrication industry of UK is constantly
developed. It has created a challenge in front of the companies such as Alpha Manufacturing to seek
out new technologies because it will help them to remain competitive (Gutowski and et.al., 2013).
Welding equipments has highly used by cited firm at the workplace to assemble the metal
components together. With the time, changes have been made in this technique and it has benefit to
the organization to provide better services to the customers by saving the cost on welding operation.
Cited firm has adopted the more flexible welding solutions and it has provided the better options to
them to do better business in UK metal fabricate products industry (Haynes, 2014). By considering
this change in welding technology, Alpha Manufacturing decision making process has affected. It
has reduced the time duration of giving the training to the staff about how to operate them. Number
of quality standards becomes simpler because of delivering of quality items (Vision 2030 The UK
Metals Industry's New Strategic Approach, 2017).
Critically evaluate the effectiveness of Alpha Manufacturing response
The above discussion has based of changes in technologies and their impacts over the metal
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fabricate product industry of UK. It has found from this is Alpha Manufacturing has shown the
positive response towards these modifications. This has enhanced the overall productivity of the
organization by minimize the number of defects in the outcome and meet all quality standards. The
result of this is it has increase the profit and revenue of the business (UK Manufacturing Statistics,
2017). Along with this, it has attained the satisfaction level of clients and other business partners. In
the context of changes in technologies, responses of Alpha Manufacturing are as follows:
Managing quality: Joshi, 2016 has stated that with the help of advance technologies, Alpha
Manufacturing has achieved all quality standards such ISO standards, less defects etc. The need of
supervision of the end products has become minimized. It has made the process of manufacturing of
products from sheet metal fabric has managed and more systematic to produce large numbers of
components within minimum time duration. At the time of packaging and transporting the products,
orders have completely checked with right documentation (Mehta, 2016).
Forecasting: Orozco, Tarhini and Tarhini, 2015 has stated that another response of Alpha
Manufacturing in the direction of technology changes is adopting the new techniques to forecast the
demand and supply of sheet metal fabrication services. With the help of ERP system, management
has determined the upcoming demands and sales of the services. Along with this, the generated
information from this tool has allowed the company to take several business related decisions. In
this context, Sabio and et.al., 2015 has asserted that forecasting method has facilitated Alpha
Manufacturing to maintain and manage the production process in an effective manner. Further, it
has focused over the optimum utilization of the resources and this has reduced the cost of sheet
metal fabrication services.
Improved customer services: As the advancement in the technology, it has influenced Alpha
Manufacturing to show the positive response in this direction. In this direction, management has
adopted CRM approach to communicate with the customers. With the help of this, some
representatives of the company has directly established the communication with the end users. It
has allowed the management to solve queries of the business partners and the clients (Schmiedel,
Vom Brocke and Recker, 2014). The result of this, it has developed a good relationship between
Alpha Manufacturing and its target customers.
Flexibility: This is the most important response of Alpha Manufacturing towards the
changes in technologies. It has assisted the firm to adopt flexibility during the manufacturing
process. This has also helped in manage various procedure of production of sheet metal fabrication
services in an appropriate manner. It has leaded to enhance the productivity of the work and make
the processes more effective and efficient to meet the customer’s needs (Singh, 2013).
Sheet metal fabrication services of Alpha Manufacturing have used by many other industries
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in various ways. The reason of this is these are more durable in nature as compare to other
materials. Some business clients such as architectures, construction companies etc have consumed
the services of the cited firm in diverse ways. According to Trappler, 2013, sheet metal fabrication
services of the company have given the new and better look to designs. These are economic in
nature and do not harm the nature. It has contained the less cost of maintenance and replacement.
After breaking, these can again recycle with other metal sheets. So, Alpha Manufacturing has
offered sustainable sheet metal fabrication services to its customers. In this context, Zhou and
Pindiriri, 2015 has asserted that the offered services of cited organization has provided
sustainability, versatility along with economical features to diverse business areas. Along with this,
company has developed customized services as per the requirement of the end users. So, from the
above discussion, it can be said that changes in technologies have made the positive impact over the
Alpha Manufacturing. In this context, firm has shown the positive response in towards the
modifications in this direction.
Demonstrate some areas for improvement in the response of Alpha Manufacturing
After the BREXIT, UK and its different industries have faced various problems such as trade
with other EU countries, taxes, economic downturn, lack of foreign investment etc. These all have
widely affected metal fabricated product industry of the nation in negative manner. It has created
the wide risk for the organizations related to this business sector (Choo, Nag and Xia, 2015). To
deal with all these issues, Alpha Manufacturing has to focus some areas of improvements. For this,
cited firm needs to integrate technologies and employment of skilled workforce with each other.
The result of this is it will enhance the productivity of the organization better technologies and
innovations. In this context, there are some areas for improvement in the response of Alpha
Manufacturing (Dev, 2013).
The first area in the direction is modify sales and purchase process. For this, Alpha
Manufacturing has to adopt Point of sale (POS) and point of purchase (POP) methods. It will help
in gain the attention of the business clients and business partners towards the sales of the business in
metal fabricate industry of UK. This will clearly explain the sales growth of the firm of different
quarters. Along with this, POP will allow the cited firm to change the purchasing process (Gutmann,
Cantillo and Kappe, 2015). Through this alteration, Alpha Manufacturing will manage the purchase
process and maintain current inventory level. It will facilitate the suppliers of firm to manage the
purchase procedure and deliver the materials to the organization.
Rather than this, there are some other areas where Alpha Manufacturing should need to
improve. These are quality, prices, defects etc. With the application of various technologies and
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tools, company can maintain the quality of the end products. This will minimize the defects in
finished items. This will lead to the meet the demand of the customers and deliver a good consumer
satisfaction level (Choo, Nag and Xia, 2015). Along with this, by using diverse pricing strategies,
Alpha Manufacturing will able to offer the good quality metal sheet fabrication services to the
clients at affordable costs.
CONCLUSION
From the above research, it can be concluded that the contemporary developments have
affected the business operational activities in positive and negative manner. This has helped the
firms to make more competitive in nature and survive in the market place. It has included both
external and internal factors. Alpha Manufacturing has deal in the field of metal fabrication product
industry of UK. With the help of PETLE and Porter Five Force Model, impact of external business
environmental factors on the organization and evaluation of the business position and responses
have been done on the cited company. The determine elements from these processes have important
for Alpha Manufacturing to attain the growth and development in the industry. On the other hand,
technology changes have influenced metal fabrication product industry of UK in positive manner. In
this regards, cited organization has shown the positive response in this direction. With the help of
this, company has attained its business objectives in an effective manner. There have various
benefits such as quality management, customer relationship management, optimal utilization of
resources etc attained by company. Along with this, there are several areas of improvements where
Alpha Manufacturing has needed some improvements in the response towards the changes in
industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Choo, A.S., Nag, R. and Xia, Y., 2015. The role of executive problem solving in knowledge
accumulation and manufacturing improvements. Journal of Operations Management. 36, pp.
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Dev, C.S., 2013. Challenges in Contemporary Hospitality Branding.
Graedel, T.E. and et.al., 2012. Methodology of metal criticality determination. Environmental
science & technology. 46(2). pp. 1063-1070.
Gutmann, B., Cantillo, D. and Kappe, C.O., 2015. Continuous‐Flow Technology—A Tool for the
Safe Manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. Angewandte Chemie International
Edition. 54(23). pp. 6688-6728.
Gutowski, T.G. and et.al., 2013. A global assessment of manufacturing: Economic development,
energy use, carbon emissions, and the potential for energy efficiency and materials
recycling.Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 38, pp. 81-106.
Haynes, R.J., 2014. A contemporary overview of silicon availability in agricultural soils. Journal of
Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. 177(6). pp. 831-844.
Joshi, V.K., 2016. Spintronics: A contemporary review of emerging electronics devices. Engineering
Science and Technology, an International Journal. 19(3). pp. 1503-1513.
Mehta, S., 2016. Technology intensity and outward foreign direct investment from the Indian
manufacturing sector: A firm-level analysis. International Journal of Technology
Management & Sustainable Development. 15(1). pp. 37-59.
Orozco, J., Tarhini, A. and Tarhini, T., 2015. A framework of IS/business alignment management
practices to improve the design of IT Governance architectures. International Journal of
Business and Management. 10(4). p.1.
Sabio, J.C. and et.al., 2015. Palladium Theory of Aqueous‐Phase Heck Alkynylations for
Intensification of Discovery and Manufacture. Chemical Engineering & Technology. 38(10).
pp. 1717-1725.
Schmiedel, T., Vom Brocke, J. and Recker, J., 2014. Development and validation of an instrument to
measure organizational cultures’ support of Business Process Management. Information &
Management. 51(1). pp. 43-56.
Singh, R., 2013. Some investigations for small-sized product fabrication with FDM for plastic
components. Rapid Prototyping Journal. 19(1). pp. 58-63.
Trappler, E.H., 2013. Contemporary Approaches to Development and Manufacturing of Lyophilized
Parenterals. In Sterile Product Development(pp. 275-313). Springer New York.
Zhou, H. and Pindiriri, C., 2015. Informal sector labour demand: Evidence from Zimbabwe’s urban
informal metal sector. Botswana Journal of Economics. 13(1). pp. 26-39.
Online
About Alpha Manufacturing. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.alphamanufacturing.co.uk/about>. [Accessed on 3rd February 2017].
Industry Demands Spark Welding Technology Changes. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.qualitymag.com/articles/92667-industry-demands-spark-welding-technology-
changes>. [Accessed on 3rd February 2017].
Strengthening UK manufacturing supply chains: An action plan for government and industry. 2015.
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<https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/407071/bis-
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15-6-strengthening-uk-manufacturing-supply-chains-action-plan.pdf>. [Accessed on 3rd
February 2017].
UK Manufacturing Statistics. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.themanufacturer.com/uk-manufacturing-statistics/>. [Accessed on 3rd February
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Vision 2030 The UK Metals Industry's New Strategic Approach. 2017. [PDF]. Available through:
<http://www.alfed.org.uk/files/Press%20Articles/MIS%20printed%20report%202015.pdf>.
[Accessed on 3rd February 2017].
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