What to expect from the new-look MAS

So how will this change from the service that has been delivered across the country for almost 10 years? Essentially the service change will be one of focused evolution rather than revolution. MAS was originally set up to focus on shopfloor productivity to help improve business competitiveness – however we have seen a shift in demand from 'lean' to 'growth', particularly in high value manufacturers. We will be focusing more effort on helping businesses to grow and create jobs. This will be done by working with manufacturers on their strategy, helping them identify new business opportunities and diversification, and also to help them to introduce new products successfully. Alongside this core service we will work with manufacturers to develop their supply chains, identifying from top to bottom the weaknesses and opportunities and working closely with them to resolve the issues to make them stronger and more robust. The main change manufacturers will see is a consistent approach to MAS across the country. However, while this is now a national service, it will be delivered locally and we'll ensure that our advisor team, located across the country, will react to local issues. We will also work with local organisations, such as the LEPs, to tailor the needs to local markets – particularly in the area of best practice visits and awareness raising events. The Manufacturing Advisory Consortium has worked with a large number of businesses and has a huge amount of data that demonstrates historical benefits from our projects. We know what works and how to focus development in manufacturers to optimise economic and jobs growth. In this way, based on real data, we can be sure we will meet our targets which will be monitored closely by DBIS throughout the contract.