David Goss, technical manager, British Industrial Truck Association
"As we approach 2018, BITA’s statistics show that for our business sector, uncertainty is supressing strong underlying demand. Those best placed to take advantage, when clarity of outcome appears through the fog of political rhetoric, will have positioned their business in anticipation of new opportunities. However, correctly targeting investment prior to Brexit requires vision and intelligence. Industry 4.0 is one example of this challenge. Leveraging data to improve efficiency and safety, and mitigating risk by increasing flexibility, are realistic ambitions. However, it is converting data into useful business information, and acting decisively upon it, that is the real challenge.In an increasingly complex world, understanding these challenges requires connectivity, not just of equipment, but also of people. If a machine generates reliability data, does that data belong to the equipment operator, or to the machine builder? Is it permitted to collect, transmit, or trade data that identifies a machine operator? Answering these questions and lobbying for a favourable regulatory landscape requires social connectivity.Trade associations are a respected repository of knowledge, and provide a forum for pooling experience and unifying an industry sector voice. This “collaborate and compete” ethos integrates stakeholders to provide a trusted interface between industry, users and the authorities."
Ian Reid, CEO, CENSIS
"Given Brexit uncertainties, downgrades to UK credit and forecast growth, skills shortages, and interest rates’ upward bound, there doesn’t seem much for UK manufacturing to be cheerful about. Even the export fillip of weak sterling seems a mirage, as higher import costs bite! Such imperatives mean a shifting focus from staff and equipment utilisation to material and energy efficiencies. Meanwhile, product and service boundaries blur to accommodate servitisation models.Government commitment to economic rebalancing is backed by Industrial Strategy, Challenge Fund and Sector Deals, offering manufacturing concrete support. The innovation ecosystem, including HVM Catapult, offers opportunities to experiment with new technologies. The Industrial Digitalisation Review is mapping the adoption of new digital technologies, like IoT, enabling an indigenous I4.0 revolution. Innovation centres, like CENSIS, are accelerating such technologies from our increasingly impact-focused, world-leading research base to address industry-defined problems.Every silver lining has a cloud, and if 2018 is to mark a real turning point for UK manufacturing, we need some serious New Year’s resolutions: grasp digitalisation and don’t miss a second chance at robotics; help shape and utilise the innovation ecosystem to experiment with new technologies; and, if we’re asking government for anything new, it’s policy clarity and stability."
Dr David Baglee, reader in advanced maintenance, University of Sunderland
"Recently, the development of new information and communications technologies has triggered a revolution in manufacturing, and this is set to continue. In 2018, Industry 4.0 will offer vast opportunities for UK manufacturers to attract and develop a new generation of skilled employees, create new products and services and expand into new supply chains. In order to embrace fully Industry 4.0 and the new opportunities for UK manufacturing, the ever-present skills shortage will need to be addressed. The demand for employees with manufacturing and related skills is higher than supply. Industry driven training or re-training, new academic engineering programmes, which focus on digital technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning, are under development in many companies and universities. However, modern manufacturing involves more than just making things. Therefore, time is needed to identify the jobs of today and the future and ensure our training and teaching programmes are able to adapt to the every changing manufacturing environment thereby creating not just specialised skills but cross cutting skills for communication, creative thinking and problem-solving. Couple this with digital technologies to improve speed, efficiency and accuracy UK manufacturing will develop a highly skilled, technologically advanced world leading workforce for next year and beyond."
Lee Biggins, managing director, CV-Library
"There is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the UK economy right now, particularly with the full impact of Brexit yet to be seen. This has already had an effect on many of the nation’s major industries, manufacturing being one of the key sectors to have witnessed a great deal of change.According to recent job market data from CV-Library, the nation is experiencing a job boom, with manufacturing vacancies increasing by 24% when compared with data from the same period last year. This proves that despite the ongoing uncertainty, manufacturers are continuing to invest in their workforce. But what does this mean? With businesses in the manufacturing sector remaining resilient and continuing to drive their recruitment efforts, 2018 will see the industry and its workforce emerging stronger. Employers need to work hard to market their opportunities in the right way, and in 2018 we hope to see candidate appetite increasing. There is currently a huge pool of talented candidates out there, and for manufacturing professionals the year ahead will offer a whole host of exciting career opportunities. Businesses need to ensure that they remain confident and continue strengthening their workforce. This confidence is catching, and by doing so the industry can begin to attract talented new recruits and bridge the gap. What’s more, January is traditionally a very busy time for recruitment so we could see the manufacturing industry getting off to a fantastic start in 2018."
Steve Brambley, director of public affairs, GAMBICA
"While I’m happy to delay thinking about Christmas shopping (64 days away as I write this), it’s never too early to scan the horizon for threats and opportunities for industry – that is one of the key things that we do for our members after all. Two topics have dominated 2017 in our world and it is no surprise that they will continue to dominate 2018 too: Brexit and Industrial Strategy. There are also some new topics on the horizon that will have an impact in 2018, such as the launch of UKRI to boost research and innovation in the UK and the implementation of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). 2018 will be a key year for negotiating a path through Brexit, something we are doing through the EURIS Task Force, an industry collaboration to represent product manufacturers. We are urging trade negotiations to begin as soon as possible and the avoidance of regulatory divergence for products between the UK and the EU. Whatever the outcome, industry needs some certainty very early in the year to be able to make plans for dealing with the new landscape. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution continues the journey from concept to reality, we are pushing for a national network of smart manufacturing demonstrators that can prove the technology, enable solutions and provide facilities for training. I think 2018 will be the year we move from explaining what Industry 4.0 means to showing what it looks like."
John Coughlan,director & COO, TSP Engineering
"Next year will be one of confusion for UK manufacturing. The government urgently needs to deliver a plan for our future trading activites following Brexit; Theresa May has been stumbling along trying to sound confident and demonstrate that we have global players lining up to do business with us. The question we need to ask is ‘who are they? Is the USA one and, if so, is the recent tariff set on Bombardier an example of what we can expect in the future? Businesses like stability when planning, but 2018 will be a year of instability caused by the lack of a visible credible trading plan for the UK’s short- and medium-term future.Sterling will continue to decline, causing increases in the price of imported raw materials.The effect on inflation rising as a result will put greater pressure on businesses to deliver even higher wage increase over those delivered in 2017. This which will affect manufacturing efficiencies as labour relations decline, all resulting in the UK’s competitiveness declining, affecting our ability to be a reliable and affordable supplier of goods. There are, however, also huge opportunities. As a net importer, the UK has major capacity to develop import substitutions, and this will be a growth area for manufacturing, in particular for SMEs. Import substitutions will assist with controlling cost and our balance of payment as a nation, which will lead to future export opportunities. The manufacturing of import substitutions will be the source of real growth and activity fuelling the manufacturing sectors over the coming years."
Carl Perrin, director, AME
"A lot of attention has been spent on getting more young people into engineering, and rightly so. The main beneficiary of this renewed focus so far has been the rise in apprenticeships, but this will only deliver some of the solution to engineering and manufacturing firms desperate to plug the skills gap. What we’ve done at the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering (AME) over the last three years is slightly different and concentrates on generating industry-ready graduates that can go straight into the big wide world and start having a positive impact on performance. We successfully brought together Unipart Manufacturing and Coventry University in setting out the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’ and I’m delighted to say that 2017 saw our first cohort graduate. However, Brexit has the real potential to cause a serious skills drain, with overseas labour already showing signs of returning home. We want to share our successes. Surely this blueprint of creating more skilled engineers should be one that is rolled out across other locations with immediate effect? I don’t think we can wait for the politicians to make up their minds on the deal. 2018 should be the year where more employer-led programmes and initiatives are developed and launched that will look to upskill our workforces and ensure industry is competitive against our international rivals. It’s an exciting time to be involved in manufacturing!"
Gerry Walsh, group CEO, Chartered Institute for Procurement & Supply
In procurement and supply management terms, growth slowed towards the end of the second quarter as input prices chewed away at margins and the ‘Brexit brake’ was certainly in evidence as clients continued to be hesitant about making long-term plans. For 2018, inflationary price pressures are likely to remain, along with the raw material shortages experienced in 2017 as the Eurozone continues to ramp up manufacturing production. Overall, though, the sector looks healthy moving into 2018. But Brexit, unsurprisingly, will continue to impact. Though the pound stabilised a little towards the end of last year, currency fluctuations will continue to be the biggest concern for the sector. Brexit is also an opportunity to do a proper review of the supplier base. Whether moving sourcing to the UK, or to the EU or completely out of the EU, if companies haven’t done this for a while, now’s the time. This is just one smart alternative to usual business practices. To improve supply chain transparency, manufacturers need to simplify their supply chains and UK suppliers support that. Fifteen years ago, business was more about globalisation, but there’s a significant shift towards protectionism and our Risk Index highlighted this global movement. This is likely to gain traction in 2018."
Tony Hague, managing director, PP Control & Automation
"We live in very strange times. As we head into 2018, the feeling in industry is generally one of optimism and, at PP Control & Automation, we are enjoying a strong forward order book and lots of interest from new clients. All good, you would think. Yes, to a certain degree. However, there is a very big elephant in the room and it will come as no surprise to many to learn it begins with B and ends with T. The impending shadow of Brexit is lurking in the background for every manufacturer in the UK, and the sooner the politicians stop faffing around the better. The economy hates uncertainty, so the quicker we start to understand what future trading relationships may look like, the better for all concerned. My fear is that we don’t see this becoming clearer and, as we get closer to D-Day, this could spark a sharp decline in confidence and a possible downturn.Sterling should stay in line with its current position against the Euro and the Dollar, so UK exports should continue to do well. In fact, it is my firm belief that the rates we have now are the ‘new normal’, not a case of weak sterling, as I feel the pound has previously been overinflated. Interest rates have risen, but the sensationalism of ‘interest rates doubled’ that greeted news of the rise in October is hardly one to raise concern. The Bank of England has made it clear that it will probably be 12-18 months of small adjustments to get us back to around 1%, so this should not have too much of a negative effect on people’s view of the world and their willingness to get on with life as normal."
David Grammer, vice president of sales, PTC
"It’s not a question of if, but when the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold and, for UK manufacturing, 2018 could be the year when this happens. There have been thousands of column inches written about this topic and various new buzzwords created to try to sum up what it will bring to industry. All this has done has created a sense of confusion and that’s something we need to eliminate if we are going to make sure we don’t fall behind the rest. November’s Made Smarter Review is an important step-change in injecting much-needed energy behind adoption of this technology and we welcome a lot of the findings in the report. Any proposals that make it easier for companies to speed up making their decisions and remove the common myths that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a challenge to implement must be a good move. The fact the government is promoting the launch of 12 digital innovation hubs should mean it is easier for firms of all sizes to see this technology first-hand and how it can have a tangible impact on the way manufacturers interpret real-time data, artificial intelligence and use augmented reality to supply their customers more profitably. Many manufacturers are already collecting real time data and introducing machines that talk to each other…the challenge will be in analysing this information and using it to gain competitive advantage over our rivals all over the world."
John Southall, director, Southalls
"Manufacturing in 2018 can expect to continue to benefit from solid global demand, the competitive rate of sterling and a high productivity achieved with good health and safety. With another quarter of good growth for the UK economy, the country’s manufacturing sector can look ahead with confidence to a more buoyant future and a workforce that can invest time in a safer, healthier workplace. That confidence can last for quite some time, too, because it is broadly business as usual until March 2019, when the UK leaves the EU. In the meantime, regulatory changes will still need to be adhered to and 2018 has new health and safety legislation on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) coming into force in April. The new red tape reclassifies products and requires the re-testing and re-issuing of product certificates. With good advice, of course, purchases of PPE at the right price can be made with confidence for the right protection. The new regulation is also expected to improve PPE quality with an anti-counterfeit product element. This is the legal requirement for importers, distributors and retailers to be responsible, just as manufacturers are, for providing safe products. All PPE in use must also be audited and re-tested to the new product specifications. With that being said, 2018 will be as much a good time for manufacturers to prepare for a safer, healthier future."
Dr Michael Ward, CTO, AFRC, University of Strathclyde
"There is an opportunity in 2018 for the UK to reconsider its attitude to how technology can catalyse not just individual company productivity, but also supply chain productivity. This is at the level of linking technological innovation to supply chain change, as well as in-company change. One thing is certain: 2018 will start to open more discussion and debate on the question of what we should source internally, and how we secure supply in the future. This concerns products of all types, from food to automotive to aerospace and defence components and products. Clearly 2018 is a year when there will be a different focus on how the UK positions itself with the rest of the world, because of Brexit. Nobody knows how that is going to manifest itself. What is unarguable however, is that domestic and export supply and demand will be impacted, , as will the associated supply chains. My organisation takes the view that we can drive prosperity and increases in productivity through technological innovation, and there is an abundance of evidence to support the success of that model. But we have to consider where these technologies are going to end up and how we anchor them to the UK supply chain. If this is not done, we could perhaps find ourselves in a position where we don’t exploit the full potential to move the dial on productivity.On the other hand, if we can link our national strength in innovation to supply chain mechanisms that join it together, then that could give us a potential national advantage."
