Why are you backing the Best Factory Awards?
We've been involved with the awards since 2005 and enjoyed a great deal of success over the years. In fact, we won three awards in the first year we entered and seven in total. It wasn't until we became involved, though, that I realised what an important role they play in manufacturing. It's our duty to raise the industry's profile and I really do feel that not enough is made of how influential the BFAs are in making that happen. They give backing to what is a vital sector and should be acknowledged for this at government level. There are still 2.5 million people employed in manufacturing, so it is a key economic driver, contributing hugely to our exports – which is, after all, where our recovery will come from.
Which is the most memorable factory you've been inside?
Without doubt, Yamazaki's new factory in Worcester, 1993. It was beyond anything I'd ever seen before – even though I'd spent much of my time with automotive manufacturers. When I went there to quote for some equipment and saw what they were doing, I could hardly get my breath, they were so far ahead of the technology. Now I'm proud to say that we've been working with them for the past 19 years, and they are a customer and partner of ours.
What is the best business advice you've ever received?
That's a tough one, because you get so much good advice. But my greatest influence has been GE's Jack Welch [chairman and CEO of GE from 1980 until retirement in 2001]. He was my mentor, if only from a distance, to the extent that if it was good enough for Jack, it was good enough for me, especially around Six Sigma. It's a philosophy I've carried right through the business at PP Electrical Systems and it was the impetus for opening up our own in-house training school. And I have to say at this point that anyone who thinks training is an expense is just plain crazy. Imagine athletes coming out onto the track to compete at the recent Olympics, not having trained! And how often were the winners trained by former Olympic champions themselves? Believe me, training can offset its own cost tenfold.
What makes British manufacturing great?
Who says it is? At best, we are average and I don't see that many manufacturers have any ambition to be better. We can't pretend we are great when our productivity is little short of appalling, and that at a time when competition is coming from every part of the globe. At PP Electrical Systems, apart from providing high added-value manufacturing solutions to world-class OEMs, we also provide external training, and get far more interest from Wales, Scotland and even Ireland than we ever do from our base in the heart of the Midlands. Maybe it's a legacy of having had all the stuffing knocked out of it over the years, but that isn't good enough. As a nation, we need not only to bounce back, but to get to grips with quality. It's no use settling for seven out of 10 on that scale; we have to aim for 10 out of 10. If you look at the companies that are part of the BFAs, that's where they aim to be. They have shown that ambition; that's why those who take part in the awards are such great company to keep.
If you could bestow one gift on UK manufacturing, what would that be?
I'm not sure if it's a gift, but my wish would be that UK manufacturers became more impatient to get better. There's no reason under the sun why we can't strive to be the best. The problem is that we are settling for less, to the point where many manufacturers don't even know what good looks like. That has to change, if we are to turn our fortunes around and take on the rest of the world once again.
