Productivity boost for Yorkshire manufacturers with government-backed project

20 Yorkshire manufacturers are set for a productivity boost with a new government-backed initiative.

Innovate UK is supporting a new research project to provide the cohort of local firms with productivity solutions.

The scheme will be led by management consultancy Fluere and accountants Kirk Newsholme, working with Leeds Beckett University and Lloyds Bank.

Lasting for 12 months, the initiative has been backed by a £60k grant from Innovate UK, the business innovation arm of the UK government.

Dr Ollie Jones, principal lecturer in operations at Leeds Beckett University, explained: “Productivity is a hot topic in business management, but the truth is many companies are in the dark on the best way for them to measure it, let alone make improvements.

“Our quartet is working alongside local firms to help give them the means of doing this; for example, enabling them to spot where time can be saved from an order being placed to delivering the product to a customer.

“This is one of many focus areas where companies can release capacity to drive greater output.”

Dave Moore, relationship director at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, added: “In manufacturing particularly, there’s a lot of noise around emerging, productivity-boosting technologies like AI, automation, and robotics under Industry 4.0.

“But before businesses turn to high-tech solutions, they need to be confident of where they’ll reap the biggest gains, which will help them to speed up recovery post-lockdown and longer-term too.

“This project is a major step forward in that respect and will provide significant learnings that the region’s manufacturers can apply across the board.”

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