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Manufacturing: far from doom and gloom

Dan Burrows, senior business consultant at Waterstons Ltd looks at manufacturing, and why it is far from doom and gloom.

With manufacturing output having fallen from over 30% of GDP in 1970 to around 12% in 2011, the industry now plays a much smaller part in the economic ecosystem than in the past, and it’s easy to point the finger at manufacturers and say ‘British manufacturing is dead, let’s move on’. Unfortunately for UK manufacturers, this widely held opinion devalues our expertise and experience in this sector, and gives the false impression that the UK just doesn’t make things any more.

Sadly, we’re no longer recognised as the powerhouse of the global manufacturing sector. One can understand to some extent how this has become the case. It’s fair to say that few domestically manufactured products feature widely in people’s everyday lives. Looking around my desk I’m struggling to identify anything I’m likely to find the words ‘Made in Britain’ proudly displayed upon.

Furthermore, when I leave my desk this evening, I will step into my Swedish car, in which I will listen to music stored on my Californian designed, Chinese made smartphone. I will arrive home and enjoy a (French made) glass of Australian wine, watch my favourite shows on a Japanese-made television, and eventually retire to rest on a mattress made in Denmark. You get the picture.

So if the UK isn’t making anything, how is it possible that I know so many people who work in manufacturing companies? Admittedly, living in the North East I have the advantage of Nissan employing over five thousand people just up the road, meaning I’d be hard pushed NOT to know a lot of people in manufacturing. That argument falls apart, though, as I don’t actually know anyone who works at Nissan.In fact, the people I know in manufacturing make all sorts of other things. Foodstuffs are one example; it’s not quite the classic British manufacturing stereotype of men in flat caps operating large noisy machines, but it IS manufacturing, and it’s on a large scale too. It doesn’t end with food though, I know people who make other things; from solutions to monitoring performance of marine engines, to fuel-saving accessories for fossil-fuelled engines, caravans, and even boats.

The point here is that we as a country still make a lot of stuff which might not to many be that obvious; not the things they handle every hour of every day, nor the shiny headline-grabbing gadgets we all love to own, but more discreet, less noticeable items we all want, need or can’t do without. The proof of the pudding is in official statistics which show that UK manufacturing output is growing, albeit slowly. It’s a far cry from hearing the death-knell which we’ve all been led to expect by the doomsayers.

It’s once we start to look under the skin of UK manufacturing that it becomes clear just how much of a part the sector plays in our daily lives. British expertise in filling niches has led to a global marketplace where the UK has become a key supplier of unusual, innovative, and highly specialised products. British manufacturers dominate Formula One motor racing (and indeed many other forms of motorsport), with the majority of competitors’ cars both designed and built in the UK. Every F1 team supports an ecosystem of small, expert manufacturers making cutting edge products designed to give that critical tenth of a second advantage over their rivals. Every one of those teams and every one of their suppliers also has a direct impact on the rest of us, delivering technology that ultimately filters down to the average road user in the form of safety, performance and efficiency improvements. The tyres we use today, the crash structures whichprotect us, engine technology, electronic ‘drive by wire’ control systems, aerodynamic improvements and even hybrid technology would all be significantly less developed were it not for the development hothouse of motorsport.

Next year we will mark 110 years since the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight in a manned aircraft; in 2013 aircraft will travel billions of miles across our skies, many of which will be made possible thanks to another UK manufacturing success. Rolls Royce currently quote that there are over 13,000 of their jet engines in service. A large number of these are built in Derby, where Rolls Royce have had a manufacturing presence dating back to 1907; proof if it was needed that UK manufacturers can be globally successful. Cutting edge technology which Rolls Royce developed back in the 1960s and 1970s forms a crucial part of modern aerospace engineering and Rolls Royce have rightly become acknowledged as global experts in aero-engine manufacture.

As a planet, we have become better connected in so many ways besides air travel; the internet is credited to have been ‘invented’ by an Englishman, Tim Berners-Lee, but that hardly counts as manufacturing, does it? Although the backbone of the internet relies heavily on hardware assembled in the Far East, UK electronics manufacturing is some of the most highly regarded in the world and components designed and made here, at factories like that of National Semiconductor in Greenock (now part of Texas Instruments, the third largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world), are crucial enablers to technology we use every day.

So it’s not all doom and gloom in UK manufacturing. The engineering and manufacturing talent that led to so many inventions that changed the world is alive and well. There is a common image of eccentric Brits, huddled over untidy benches in sheds, tinkering away on slightly mad projects. This image may be unfair, although there are certainly some who fit that particular profile, but it is borne out of truth; we in the UK are dogged pursuers of that one product that will fix a problem, bridge a gap or change lives. This determination has led to numerous manufacturing successes of which we should all be proud. We may no longer be the manufacturing engine that drives the world, but we can definitely claim to be the oil that helps it run.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Waterstons Ltd .