July 23, 2024
The UK’s manufacturing sector has probably faced several challenges in recent years and so far in 2024 there hasn’t been much to change this perception. In this article, we explore some of those challenges, and suggest the solutions that could assist SMEs to change to meet those challenges head on, through the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies.
1. Stagnation of Growth:
The UK’s manufacturing industry may have appeared to have bounced back quickly from the global pandemic between 2020 and 2021 in 2022, but it also fell into recession during 2023. For the majority this recession wasn’t a falling off the cliff moment, it was more like slipping gradually into a sticky quagmire. This is evident because manufacturing output currently stands at 3.6% below January 2020 levels, compared to the overall economy’s growth of 2.8%. These figures are not really surprising considering that, over this same period, there has been significant disruption to recovery in the UK due to geopolitical and economic factors. The war in Ukraine, Brexit, and lack of inward investment has been putting increased strain on the manufacturing sector in the UK. Supply chain disruption and challenges in pricing from the energy market, and some other import/export factors that have also become horrifyingly normal in these post-Brexit years.
However, despite the apparent stagnation in growth of these past four years there wasn’t a specific single incident that brought about the decline in 2023. We just slipped into the recession, and luckily it actually didn’t stick. Hence, as the country headed towards the General Election this year the manufacturing sector had started to prove its resilience with some small signs of recovery. New opportunities have been shown to exist through getting to grips with the new, or should we really say renewed, drive towards Digital Manufacturing. This actually covers a whole range of ways of working, and we specifically avoid referring to them as “problems to solve”, that drive efficiencies, lower costs, and increase the potential for growth. This has been quietly significant, over this same period of apparent decline, through an increase in both the awareness and utilisation of 3D Printing, also knowns as Additive Manufacturing (AM). The pandemic certainly brought 3D printing out into the limelight, and these forms of advanced manufacturing have Digital Manufacturing in their DNA. Just about every aspect of the part creation process being a digital processes, with all of the technologies driven by software. Large manufacturing companies have been investing in these technologies for much longer than just four or five years. Some have been involved for decades, and those based in the UK don’t always expect to manufacture in-house, since very few these days are considered to be vertically integrated. Hence, opportunities really do exist in the SME supply chain to learn how to exploit these new technologies to be in a position to carry on being the preferred suppliers to the large industry, both at home and overseas.
2. Long-Term Support:
It is true that change can be positive and, for reasons that are probably far to complicated to explore here, it does seem that in this post-General Election period confidence levels among companies are now starting to return. However, it is still a long way off from being a robust feeling, since overall, new prospects for the manufacturing sector remain at low levels. This has to stem from the lack of central government support that has been over a sustained period. Furthermore, this has also been amplified by the continued regional disparities in the levels of local government support that have been made available. The imbalance in the so called “levelling up”, if left unchanged, could permanently affect the manufacturing sector in some regions. The outcome of which would be to hamper future growth for many more years to come. The new policymakers in government must address fundamental growth problems in all regions of the UK, and not just cherry pick those that might grab headlines in the newspapers. What is needed is a long-term industrial strategy that sees the East of England, for instance, being pitched as equally as the north-west. We definitely, do not need more initiatives, with the word “Smart” (or any other derivative) in them, contracted out to private enterprise to oversee implementation, and then only targeting specific regions at the detriment to the others.
Anyway, the solution for SMEs in the UK is a long term strategy that must include support for advanced manufacturing, particularly targeting small businesses, those with turnovers of under £10M, and smaller workforces. The financial support must be made available directly to those companies in need of support and without being diluted by middleman quango organisations that seem to have just exploded in number in the past two decades. Helping companies to invest and adopt new techniques and processes, such as those presented by the Additive Manufacturing sector will be a true springboard for growth, real catapults to accelerate them ahead. The UK really does rely on it’s small manufacturing companies, and future long-term support has to see the smaller companies benefitting, and not having to stand in the shadows of big business and watch as they receive all the government handouts.
3. Sustainability:
Sustainability has recently become one of the most talked about subjects across the entire globe, and some have stated it’s becoming the biggest challenge for the UK manufacturing sector in 2024 and beyond. One aspect of this very wide reaching set of issues is reducing industrial emissions, and this has been highly publicised under the banner of ‘Achieving Net Zero‘. Targets set by the previous government mean we are heading towards goals that need to be achieved by 2030 and 2050. However, a big issue that has been revealed recently is that there are still many companies that have yet to start any planning, let alone complete any actions.
One thing that isn’t making life any easier though, and again industry wide, is that the manufacturing sector is having to adapt to ever more complex supply chains. Since Brexit, and the pandemic, many manufacturers have been hampered by increased lead times, increased environmental concerns over the transport of goods, and increased costs, all of which can lead to negative affects on sustainability, and any targets for Net Zero. Here, though, solutions definitely do exist through the adoption of advanced manufacturing, such as Additive Manufacturing. Careful re-design of parts can lead to fewer manufacturing operations, that in turn lead to less storage requirements, less transport requirements, and can even result in far less energy consumption. Furthermore, there are now several examples of products that are designed to be made via AM requiring less energy when put to use. In hydraulics, for instance, AM products with AM components now operate with far greater efficiencies than ever thought possible. Several companies in the fluid power market now offer products that are smaller and more lightweight, and require less energy to run. All of this has been shown to drive not just towards achieving Net Zero, but going far beyond in reducing emissions.
4. Skills & Manpower:
One of the greatest challenges that has faced the UK since Brexit, has been dealing with the talent shortages as huge numbers of workers left the UK to return to their European homelands. This left a gap in the available resource pool of skilled workers, and in far fewer European students coming to the UK for their studies. Many of whom would have stayed in the UK to take up jobs in engineering and scientific roles. Roles that would have been supporting the innovation and development, and hence also the growth of UK based advanced manufacturing technologies. Therefore, if there is to be a larger recovery in the manufacturing sector then the country must fill the skills gap and ensure that there is trained and motivated manpower in order to underpin our future. However, the second edge of the skills shortage has been an ever decreasing number of our youth in schools and in further education taking up STEM subjects, also worsened by declining numbers of teachers, lecturers and technicians in the relevant subjects.
Advanced manufacturing techniques and processes, such as the range of metal Additive Manufacturing technologies, actually step in here and offer a lot of hope for the UK. This is because these newer techniques and processes are already held in higher regard by the younger generations. They immediately see, and understand, the possibilities of 3D printing objects. Things that were once only scenes in science fiction films of the 70s and 80s, for Generation X are now reality for Generation Z. What’s more, these new processes are not viewed as being as difficult, or dirty, to learn and become skilled in, and are even treated as hobbies. Therefore, with the right level of nurturing and support by government, as has been seen elsewhere in Europe, the US and in Asia, the UK could develop a very strong generation of technicians, engineers and scientists all skilled up for advanced manufacturing.
5. Digitalisation:
Lastly there is the subject of Digitalisation, and this is something that is quite puzzling to some. That is, it could easily be argued that Digitalisation should not even be considered as a critical challenge for the UK manufacturing sector in 2024. In an era of mobile phones with 5G, landline broadband internet connections, also finally including fibre optic communications directly to premises, digitalisation certainly shouldn’t be considered as something that is difficult to get to grips with. There can hardly be a single company anywhere that isn’t using email and office based software for day to day operations linked to running the business. In essence, and for the most part, every single business in the UK should already be in a good place for the so called digital economy.
Where digitalisation has seen a bit of a barrier, is in some forms of machinery and/or conventional factory processes that rely on limit switches, relays and programmable logic circuits, for instance. However, even here there has been a steady march towards software and digital electronic solutions. More and more factory automation has been turned over to fully digital controllers. Where product development is concerned, and for a generation at least, it has been the norm to use CAD for designing new products, and there has been an ever increasing use of software in and around factory shopfloors to transfer CAD data directly to machines.
A final point to make about Advanced Manufacturing, and particularly in the form of 3D printing, is that it has the greatest advantage when we consider Digital Manufacturing. Put simply, it starts and ends as a set of digital processes. CAD models exist only in computers. These are then processed by software to make build files. The files are sent to machines that use software to translate them into operations controlled by computers. Finally, when jobs are finished the process reports can be output and saved as digital files. Even when the solid objects are passed on to other processes, such as machining, heat treatment, dimensional measurement, inspection, many of these processes themselves are fully digital. The pinnacle of which is probably CT scanning that can even take the solid object and compare it directly back to the original 3D CAD model, and in very precise detail; beyond the capability of any analogue or manual process. With Additive manufacturing there is always a digital twin!
Conclusion
Answering the original question, this must be a resounding, Yes! The increased utilisation of advanced manufacturing technologies could easily be one route to the full recovery of the UK’s manufacturing sector; placing it once more at the forefront of the world’s economies.
These are all processes and technologies that are at the fingertips of British industry, and perhaps for want of a bit more support from government, industry bodies, and other policy makers alike, could all be readily adopted to create growth, lead to a sustainable future for all, and provide routes for skills development, and future proofing the workforce of today and tomorrow.
M A M Solutions exists to support the SME’s of the United Kingdom on their journey to learning about, and adopting Additive Manufacturing. With services that cover training, business assessments and improvement actions, to a consultancy service covering the full value chain of AM. Unique in the marketplace, there is no other consultancy in the UK that has the same depth of knowledge, or range of expertise, in metal additive manufacturing that is able to singularly dedicate itself, and in the most cost effective way, to your growth and success. Contact M A M Solutions today to find out more.