20th April 2023
The third in a series of six programmes from UK Manufacturing TV looks at the challenge facing SME manufacturers to recruit the skills they need, now and in the future.
With the national workforce depleted by Brexit and Covid, the crisis that has been evolving over years of underinvestment in skills, education and technology is close to becoming an existential threat.
Hosts, Nick Peters and Jonny Williamson, are joined by David Bailey from the Birmingham Business School, Hilary Leevers, CEO of Engineering UK, PP Control & Automation’s very own CEO, Tony Hague and fellow Manufacturing Assembly Network member, Rowan Crozier, CEO of Brandauer, Stewart McKinlay, Director of Skills at the Manufacturing Skills Academy at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), Mike Wilson, Chief Automation Officer at the MTC and Angela Lawlor, Founder of Marvelous Manufacturing.
“I think the UK right now is at a pivotal point in all that’s followed over the last two or three years. I think there’s a real opportunity for some serious investment and serious growth in UK manufacturing.
But we’re going to be hamstrung in order to seize that growth if we haven’t got the right people. UK manufacturers need a strong conveyor belt of technically trained and competent people. Further education has a big part to play in that but not just further education – UK manufacturers shouldn’t always look to government and others to solve their problems for them.
Manufacturers can do more. They can invest, they can develop training academies, training schools. You don’t have to be a big organisation to start investing in your people.”
TONY HAGUE, CEO, PP C&A
For more in-depth reports and news bites, browse UK Manufacturing TV.
Tony Hague, CEO of PP Control & Automation, offers up an alternative and often undiscovered fix for the recruitment woes manufacturing is currently suffering from.
One aspect of manufacturing that goes under the radar when considering labour woes, is outsourcing and the more you consider it, the more you wonder why an increasing number of firms haven’t adopted this approach.
“If you strip back recruitment to its very basics, then outsourcing part, or all the build, means your strategic partner will take on the costs and responsibility of recruiting new employees and you don’t have to face the hefty bills associated with candidate advertising or a recruitment agency.”
One of the UK’s leading strategic manufacturing specialists is tapping into the UK’s unprecedented investment in upgrading the electricity grid.
As Britain accelerates investment in grid infrastructure, protection and control capacity could become a critical delivery constraint.
The appointment of a new Prime Minister inevitably brings renewed debate about the direction of the UK economy and what it could mean for business.
Ian Knight, Chief Information Officer at PP Control & Automation (PP C&A) challenges the prevailing, often vague narrative around AI adoption and reframes the conversation around a more practical starting point: operational constraints.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant concept for manufacturers. It is already being explored across quotation, production planning, engineering, quality, supply chain and customer service functions. Yet, for many organisations, the gap between experimentation and meaningful operational impact remains difficult to close.
A leading aquaculture specialist – that is changing the way fish are vaccinated safely – has signed a major manufacturing deal.
On paper, defined discipline-specific suppliers can look organised. However, every additional supplier introduces another handoff, and every handoff creates another point where time, quality, communication and accountability can be lost.
Very rarely does growth not surface because an OEM lacks ambition. Shortcomings arise because operating models built to support such ambition don’t evolve quickly enough.
