Top 100 manufacturing award for engineer

A Shropshire engineer has been named as one of the UK’s outstanding manufacturing professionals.

Carolyn Lee, who is a contracts engineer manager at Filtermist Systems Limited, has been featured in The Manufacturer’s Top 100 list at a high-profile event in Liverpool.

The prestigious competition is designed to create more role models to help inspire the next generation of engineers and she was named in the ‘Young Pioneer’ category that recognises ‘a person who has made an impact disproportionate to their years, providing inspiration for the future of manufacturing in the UK.’

Judges praised the Combined Engineering graduate for the way she has smashed industry stereotypes to secure a senior position at just 27-years-old and for how she is now using her skills to help companies create cleaner and safer work environments for their staff.

“This is a major honour for me, especially when you consider the quality of manufacturing people that have made the list, including names from Airbus, BAE Systems and Nissan,” said Carolyn, who prior to joining Filtermist Systems spent eight years in engine development and industrial plant with Jaguar Land Rover.

“The Top 100 recognition will support my aim to inspire more young girls to consider a career in this sector, so that it’s no longer a rarity to see females on the shop floor, in senior engineering teams and on the board of major manufacturers. We’ve got to make it the norm so there’s not men and women engineers, just engineers that are really good.”

Carolyn has been at Filtermist Systems for just under a year and in that time has helped lead a concerted move into offering turnkey clean air solutions for customers in the automotive, aerospace, food processing, paper and woodworking sectors.

Her significant experience in managing complex and demanding projects, as well as considerable expertise in health and safety, and workplace legislation has proven extremely popular with clients.

“We help companies explore how they can protect and better control their working environment to deliver improved productivity, quality and workplace conditions. This has seen our business evolve into a solutions provider, which means we will work with the client from the initial design of the extraction system, right through to specifying the filtration technology, installation, commissioning and then, if required, ongoing support.

“Clients now want a specialist to manage the entire process, so they can focus on doing what they do best - their core activity. This approach has seen us quote for a host of multi-million pound opportunities in the last month alone.”

James Stansfield, CEO of Filtermist Systems, said: “We are very passionate about investing in the next generation of engineers through apprenticeships, recruiting the best graduates and our internal training schemes.

“Carolyn is a fantastic ambassador for manufacturing. Recognition as part of The Manufacturer Top 100 is another way of taking our industry’s message out to the wider public; modern manufacturing is a fantastically diverse industry which offers a vast array of careers.”

The firm, which is celebrating 50 years in business, is responsible for manufacturing a range of product brands.

As well as Filtermist oil filters, the range includes Dustcheck process and venting filters, Ecogate energy saving technology for dust extraction systems, FastClip ducting, Gallito paint finishing equipment and Kerstar industrial vacuum cleaners.