Elated factory employees swagger across the stage to the sounds of Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk. The near 300 strong audience jiggles toes, taps fingers and is swept along by an irresistible vibe that UK manufacturing has got its groove on.
The Works Management Manufacturing Champions Awards will go down as the moment the shy guys of UK plc threw down their dorky specs and danced with the snake-hipped abandon of Patrick Swayze.
The stage was lit up by ten winners embodying the commitment to quality, ingenuity and determination to add value that ensures British factories take on the world. The one great pity was that business minister, Anna Soubry was not there to see it. The minister’s press officer phoned to cancel her attendance at the 11th hour with Soubry reported to be ‘too sick to travel’.
That decision deprived the government of a golden opportunity to meet the men and women of frontline UK factories who are determined to do more in the next phase proposed industrial strategy.
People like Mick Straw, ops director at Hi-Technology Group and Manufacturing Leader Award winner. Straw’s horse whisperer like talent for motivating colleagues has helped catapult the SME tool injection moulding firm towards record-breaking OTIF delivery scores and double digit annual growth.
Trailblazers were apparent at every turn at these awards. Jacob Hoster of Carl Zeiss scooped the Rising Star Award after the apprentice wowed judges with his mastery of electron microscopes made in Cambridge. Hoster has used his prodigious talent to secure international customer orders worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, and all at the tender age of 21.
Hoster’s bright, talented and has a berth in British manufacturing. But candidates like Hoster are still the exception rather than the rule, the awards heard. Julie Madigan, CEO of The Manufacturing Institute- headline sponsor of the Champions Awards- told delegates: “In the 12 months since we last all came together we have seen a new government, political and economic turmoil, a crisis in the steel industry and one issue that refuses to go away - the shortage of skills needed for modern manufacturing.”
Nearly 90 per cent of manufacturers quizzed by TMI say the problem has worsened added Madigan. Reversing the trend will take a titanic effort to showcase the buzz of being in manufacturing to school pupils, Madigan added.
And that work is well underway. Two of our class of 2014 Manufacturing Champions winners- Eric Hitch of Fujifilm, Broadstairs and Kirsty Wainwright of Parson Peebles, Rosyth-spoke passionately about their campaign to convince kids of the merits of manufacturing. “We have a lot of schools coming around the plant,” said Hitch. “The qualifications people can achieve working at a factory are extensive. It’s totally changed all you can do is get out in the community and spread the word.”
Wainwright added: “For me manufacturing stands for quality. I really do believe that’s seething to be proud of. My biggest supporter is my 10 year old niece. I spoke at her school and she said: ‘I want to do what my aunty Kirsty does.’
One 10 year old was convinced, now for a nation more. Doing that will take industry-wide commitment to celebrating star manufacturing employees through events like Manufacturing Champions mused Max Gosney, group editor of Works Management. “Without characters or champions in manufacturing, you can be sure a kid isn’t going to say: ‘When I grow up, I want to be an engineer’. We must change that, we must show the world who you are and the wonderful things you do.”
We’ll also need to hustle and harry a Conservative government whose no show at Manufacturing Champions only adds to suspicions of a slow retreat from the sabre rattling manufacturing rhetoric of the Coalition years. Gosney of WM concluded. “Those who are fresh to the industry will be disappointed and surprised by the minister’s cancellation today. Meanwhile those of you who’ve worked in manufacturing for a while will just shrug your shoulder say: ‘same old story”
WM has written to David Cameron and Anna Soubry urging them to meet with our Champions winners of 2015. Will the PM be washing his hair? Email us your views at mgosney@findlay.co.uk
