FEBRUARY 2020 MAKE UK CONFERENCE
Manufacturers
exporting to
the EU will still
have to use EU
laws post-Brexit,
warns Phipson
automotive sector, which directly employs
800,000 people plus another 260,000 in the
supply chain, are well reported (see p6). That’s
down to a combination of factors: the transition
of technology plus people not buying cars,
because they’re not sure about what cars to buy.
MM: How well-placed is the UK
automotive industry to capitalise on
the changes in that sector?
SP: We’re very good at sharp-end innovation
– that’s why most Formula One cars are built
here. Does this translate to being good at making
electric vehicles? Unfortunately, we’re way
behind. China has invested more than $10 billion
in battery manufacturing, and we can’t hope to
compete with that. However, all is not lost. We
are probably the world leaders in hydrogen fuel
cells, for example, which will become increasingly
important for the next generation of zeroemission
vehicles. There’ll be a transition to EVs
in the next couple of years, but there’s also a lot
of mileage around some of the new technologies.
MM: While we’re on the
topic of innovation, what
impact has the High Value
Manufacturing Catapult
had on UK industry?
SP: The growth of the Catapult
sites has been good, although
there’s still a challenge around
SME engagement with them.
However, the HVMC as it
stands is now bigger than
the Fraunhofer Institute in
Germany, which is a fantastic
step forward in terms of
support for manufacturing,
especially on things like additive
manufacturing. We’ve had lots
of companies from Europe
and Asia coming to look at
the Catapult initiative. Part of
our role at Make UK is about
making sure more companies
are informed of HVMC
initiatives and have the chance
to participate in them. It’s
surprising how many companies
don’t know about the Catapult:
I was recently with a very, very
large brand name who had
never heard of it. We made the
connection and now they have a
sizeable joint project going on.
MM: Do we, then, still have
work to do to get ‘beyond
the buzzword’ when it
comes to Industry 4.0?
SP: Again, this is where the
government can help us move
on. We’ve had two years of
standing still on great initiatives
like the Industrial Strategy, so
now we need to move forward
with those initiatives. Although
HVMC has been a great success,
the digitisation programme now
is the one that manufacturing
has to focus on. How do we get
300,000 businesses into the
digital age when 60% of them
don’t even have their payroll
on a computer? They’ll hear the
term ‘Industry 4.0’ and think,
‘what on earth does that mean?’.
We have to start with the basics.
There’s a lot of work to do on
that and again, a lot of that is
about communication.
MM: Are we behind the
curve on this, or are other
countries also struggling
with digitalisation?
SP: We’re part of the European
Network of Manufacturing
Organisations and I spend
a lot of time my German
counterparts. We always think
of the Germans as being way
ahead, but they are not in this
case. We’ve also got a cousin
organisation in America, called
the National Association of
Manufacturers. In discussions
with them, it’s clear that
American manufacturing is way
behind us as well. We’re not
actually as bad as we think we
are, but we have got a very long
way to go.
A lot of the barriers are bad
perception: for a small injection
machine injection moulding
company with 50 employees,
they think Industry 4.0 is about
putting a robot arm to extract
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