It's time to champion UK manufacturing
The Director of Manufacturing at Cranfield University writes ahead of the National Manufacturing Debate on 25th May discussing: "How can UK Manufacturing Growth match the best of the G7?"
Stories about manufacturing in the mainstream media often focus on plant closures, job losses and a general sense of decline in a sector that has for generations powered the growth of the nation.
There is a danger that this narrative infects the policy-making process and the majority of our efforts become focused on safeguarding, when we should be growing the sector and championing cross-sector collaboration. For too long, it has felt like we are prepared to let our manufacturing successes decline and wither on the vine – the message has become that Britain simply doesn’t do manufacturing anymore. This is simply not true. We remain a nation with manufacturing at its heart.
At the National Manufacturing Debate, we are trying to change the narrative of decline. To bring together those in the industry and those in authority to champion the potential of the sector and to shout from the rooftops about the wider benefits that manufacturing brings to the economy.
Recent research here at Cranfield argues that we have been undervaluing the Gross Value Added that manufacturing brings to the UK economy by up to £50 billion. This undervaluation has an impact, not just on the economic value, but on the value placed in it by policy makers. Our research highlights the essence of the problem – we do not realise the potential of manufacturing and its wider impact – the standard GVA measure doesn’t take account of design or the support that 21st century manufacturing brings. The Enhanced Manufacturing Growth Index that Cranfield has pioneered captures a more realistic picture of modern-day manufacturing.
By using this index, we can better capture the impact and value of growth areas such as Through-life Engineering Services (TES), which address the needs of high-value products and systems from conceptual design all the way to end of life and are predicted to have a global market of £1trillion by 2025. In the UK, we currently have a 5% share of the TES global market, but we can have so much more if we are bold, innovative and brave.
In July, we will be launching a national strategy for TES, in conjunction with industry partners, which builds on the work that Cranfield has been conducting with Durham University for the last five years.
If we are to move beyond just safeguarding manufacturing and to realise the ambitions of many of us in the sector then we need to take our current efforts to protect the current industry, redouble them and commit to innovation.
With this commitment we can shake off the negativity that faces the industry, inspire future growth and capture access to high-value global markets.
Professor Rajkumar Roy, Director of Manufacturing, Cranfield University.
The National Manufacturing Debate takes place at Cranfield University on Wednesday 25th May 2016 and will pose the question “How can UK Manufacturing Growth match the best of the G7?" and feature discussion between leading manufacturing professionals from global industries in a range of sectors.
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