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have been prompted by
current events and talk of
reshoring; there is greater
power and resonance
behind the organisation’s
message that is seeing
momentum build and
Moore is able to engage
with more organisations,
now that the
GTMA/
Manufacturing Resource
Centre
Centre has an additional
resource in the form of
recently joined Alan
Arthur, chief technical
of cer.
The platform’s head
hints at UK government
contact that may lead
to support for
Reshoring UK
UK’s efforts,
while engagement has
also been made with
the Royal Academy of Engineering
– which has just published a report
( www.is.gd/ovomus ) on the industrial supply chain
response to the Covid-19 pandemic – to further push
Reshoring UK’s message of its existence and capability.
That report makes recommendations at large for the
engineering profession to prepare supply chains to
weather future disruptions – Reshoring UK is clearly one
tool in the box that is ready to play its part.
Julia Moore was also a panellist in the IORMA
‘Reshoring – Manufacturing Locally’ online event held in
July. IORMA is a Foresight Research Organisation
concerned with future trends in Global Consumer
Commerce and the impacts of evolving disruptive
technologies.
Additional panellists included Roger Willison-Gray,
corporate relations director, IORMA, who highlighted a
rather more banal supply chain problem caused by Covid-
19. Apparently, spare parts for domestic heating
systems were in short supply – valves and small
mechanical components for heating systems were just
not available. He is a big Industry 4.0 advocate and
suggests the use of technology to compete with the lowcost
overseas suppliers that we have relied on. Do more
with less; automate. Education and skills training to
support that move were highlighted as crucial, however,
by Beverly Nielsen, associate professor/director at IDEA
Institute, the Institute for Design & Economic Acceleration,
Birmingham City University.
Bringing a more high-pro le product to the reshoring
discussion was James Stephens, director global
government & external affairs, Aston Martin Lagonda
(AML), who also chairs an Automotive Council group
concerned with regional activity. A small manufacturer of
some 5,800 vehicles/annum, AML makes use of both
licensed components from other larger auto rms and
bespoke ones that have brand value made by smaller
suppliers, often in the UK. Noting that a number of parts
are no longer made in the UK and will not come back,
instead he focused on what’s possible and the future.
The majority of AML’s wheels are manufactured in Europe
and Asia, for example, and “it’s just too expensive to
bring back”, he offers, adding: “So we should, in some
respects, accept that we’ve lost that but look to the
future, where we have our strengths.”
Mike Hawes, CEO of the SMMT, speaking in another
recent webinar, backed Stephens, saying that, particularly
with respect to the Automotive Council report mentioned
previously on the reshoring opportunity: “Those
opportunities are still there. We don’t make probably 20-
30% of the products that go into vehicles – we just don’t
have that industry.
“Famously, we make very few alloy wheels, yet we
make 1.5 million vehicles. There’s at least four of them
on every vehicle, that’s an opportunity. But to attract
people here, you know, what we have seen is a
consistent erosion of investment in automotive over the
last three years. There’s a bit of a spike because of one
particular Land Rover investment, but that investment
has gone down, because people are still sitting on their
hands waiting to see whether the OEMs or the major
manufacturers are going to be here for the long term re
Brexit and the nal deal.” So, for the automotive sector
there is still a bigger issue at play.
However, Reshoring UK’s Moore, pointed out the
exibility of the country’s small SMEs in switching to
making new-to-them engineered parts for the medical
sector recently. “It is a very dif cult message for us as
associations to get through, that there is this layer of
SMEs with the skills that still exist. And that’s what
reshoring is showing or is demonstrating, that there are
companies that can undertake different processes within
varying engineering requirements.”
AML’s Stephens said the scaling up required for small
companies is a barrier. Yet he doesn’t rule out the sort of
reshored manufacturing that mimics its V12 engine
manufacture, which “is made in AML’s engine plant in
Cologne” and so “there is no reasonable, rational reason
why we couldn’t look to do that type of manufacturing in
the UK in the future. And we continue to continue to look
for various opportunities”.
The future for the industry is electric, he is clear,
though, adding that electric cars will need to be lighter,
which is an area where we do have strength. “We have
great strength in materials. We have great small
businesses up and down the country that are supplying
both aerospace and automotive, and they could supply
Supply chain
opportunities
within the
automotive sector
were pointed up
years ago but
many still remain
unclaimed, due
to a variety of
factors affecting
automotive
confi dence and
investment. But
with the move
to an electrifi ed
future, perhaps
there are some
new ones that
the UK can
exploit, such
as lightweight
materials
14 September 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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