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Jason Ford
Jason Ford
News Editor
Talking about manufacturing
Leaders from manufacturing and engineering gather in Sheffield tomorrow to address how the industry can support the government in its efforts to rebalance the economy.
The Manufacturing Convention, part of the Global Manufacturing Festival: Sheffield, brings together senior figures from companies including Siemens UK, Tata Steel and Westinghouse to discuss how manufacturing will contribute to the UK economy.
Taking place tomorrow, the convention intends to address the key issues relating to emerging markets, the UK skills strategy for manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and the nuclear sector.
Despite widespread public concern over the safety of nuclear power following recent events in Japan, the nuclear sector received some fresh momentum on Friday March 11 when Rolls-Royce and Areva signed a strategic industrial partnership covering the manufacture of components for new nuclear power plants in Britain and overseas.
Areva is to build the nuclear steam generating systems for the first four EPR reactors planned for construction in the UK by EDF. Similarly, the company is competing for four reactors with Horizon Nuclear Power and is in discussions with NuGen for the construction of two EPRs.
With between 390 to 400 new reactors estimated to be built globally, the partnership has been designed to put Rolls-Royce and Areva at the forefront of nuclear new build.
A report published today suggests that manufacturing in itself is only part of the story when delivering fiscal value to the economy.
In a statement, The Work Foundation argues that if the Coalition is to safeguard the future of UK manufacturing, it must go beyond the traditional view that manufacturing is just about “making things”.
The report says that manufacturers now earn between 15 and 20 per cent of their revenue from services.
These so-called ‘manu-services‘ (combinations of innovative products with value-adding services) should, the report argues, be placed at the heart of the government’s growth agenda.
The report shows that while the UK currently trails behind Germany, Japan and France in hi-tech manufacturing, its biggest strength now lies in the ability to integrate services into manufacturing processes.
Report author Andrew Sissons said: ‘Manu-services play to Britain’s strategic strengths: a highly skilled workforce, a strong service sector and excellent universities and institutions.
‘Only 42 per cent of manufacturing jobs in the UK are now in production. This…reflects the growing level of employment provided by key manu-services areas, chiefly research, design and marketing and servicing of products.’
Policy recommendations include ensuring that Technology and Innovation Centres engage in non-technological innovation, specifically designed to promote manu-services.
Similarly, universities should be encouraged to work with manufacturers to provide skills for manu-services which may include joint STEM and non-STEM degrees. This would ensure that manu-service firms have access to the skills and specialists needed to effectively combine goods and services.
Finally, the winners of 2011’s National Science & Engineering Competition were announced over the weekend at Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair in London
Andrew Cowan, from Sutton Grammar School for Boys, was named Young Engineer of the Year while Hannah Eastwood, from Loreto College, Coleraine, was announced as Young Scientist of the Year.
Andrew’s Search and Rescue Robot allows the user to control the robot and view environmental information from a remote control panel. Hannah’s project explores how chromium can be removed from drinking water in order to purify tap water and reclaim it for the steel industry.
Readers' comments (3)
Stronzo Squirrelli | 14 Mar 2011 3:21 pm
"expand UK engineering" egghead economists hector,
"that'll exorcise recession's awful spectre!"
but the bankers don't give a hoot,
for they'll not invest their loot,
in the UK's underfunded manufacturing sector.
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Philip Baker | 14 Mar 2011 8:14 pm
Talking Manufacturing.
This convention will achieve nothing for the genuine UK manufacturer, who is now an almost extinct species.
The representation at this conference will be by European's Executives representing UK companies, who's main interest, is to secure UK tax pays money as development grants, to save them using their own European corporate capitol in return for keeping jobs in Britain, the new industrial economic blackmail ...
I have just returned from a weeks industrial selling in Hong Kong, and no longer will you find British Engineers, (the real back bone of British ambassadorial representation) you will find Alstom, ABB and Siemens represented by their own French, German, Swiss and Italian engineers who are awash in our former commonwealth markets looking after their own countries interests .....
We may have companies trading in the UK as Alstom, Siemens and EDF, but they are not British, they are French, German and Swiss who do not represent the real interests of UK manufacturing, and this is the first thing we need to discuss in talking UK Manufacturing.
The second issue is to understand that it is manufactured goods that built Britain's wealth from 1850 until 1979 when the Margaret Thatcher government, threw British manufacturing to the dogs of corporate finance, and sold off our countries assets to those European friends who now control this countries fate, (the biggest Conservative Government lie to suggest that they alone protect UK populace from Europe control).
The worlds largest market is China and what they need are manufactured goods.
But they wont be getting them from Europe much longer, because they have learnt from the British experience, you get wealthy by supplying your own market using your own population.
Their export strategy is to sell to Western Europe, "manu- services" from their own brand new plant using, their own premium priced graduate labour..
Who then is going to buy this new "manu- services", concept ?
Like the last much vaulted industrial strategy of 10 years ago, JVCs in China, which is already in the bin.
What UK manufacturing needs to do, is manufacture every possible thing it needs for its own market, and stop spending its own currency, in every other place in the world, encouraged by our pseudo European owned UK companies.
Its called the wooden dollar strategy ...
This British government needs to wake up to the rape and pillaging of our own British manufacturing companies, before we have nothing left to service our own needs, and before we are driven to the IMF as we were in the 1970's, before we had North Sea oil, (now sadly nearly all wasted in the great Tory experiment), and the stupefying financial service failure
Yours sincerely - Philip Baker MIET.
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Stronzo Squirrelli | 15 Mar 2011 3:49 pm
Philip Baker, MIET,
speaks sense about UK industry,
Phil, you're my man!
and I'm now a big fan,
of the Wooden Dollar Strategy.
Run for Parliament. I'd vote for you!
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