MAKE UK CONFERENCE FEBRUARY 2020
the mouldings off the tools as
they come off the press. Maybe
that is right, but it doesn’t have
to be an enormous project. One
simple but effective solution is
to simply put sensors on CNC
machine tools. With less than
£1000-worth of sensors, you
can harvest the data and it really
pays off. In most cases we’ve
seen, there has been a doubling
of productivity within a month,
because people understand
what they can do to improve
the process. It’s getting them to
understand that it doesn’t have
to be expensive.
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
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Part of the challenge we’ve got
is that most of the Catapult sites
are big chrome shiny buildings,
and an SME will look at that
and assume that it’s not geared
up for their sort of business. It
doesn’t have to be like that –
manufacturers can do something
quite small and still make a big
difference to production.
MM: We hear a lot about
how the skills shortage
is affecting the industry.
In your experience, how
serious is it?
SP: Every time we survey the
market, the number one issue
is always skills. At Make UK, we
have monthly meetings with
the Department for Education
about the Apprenticeship Levy
system, and we’ve raised the point
that the Levy needs to be much
more ambitious to try and fill the
vocational skills gap. There’s a lot
of focus on immigration systems
around top-end engineers and
highly qualified engineering
graduates, but this country has a
lot of those. What we’re missing
is vocational skills. That’s where
everyone’s reporting shortages.
And that’s because the apprentice
system hasn’t been ambitious
enough. We need to work hard
on trying to improve that.
MM: After a rocky start,
has the Apprenticeship
Levy begun to have the
desired effect?
SP: There are lots of very
well-documented problems
with it and we have produced
lots of documents and reports
on how to improve it. It’s a
very messy system so for many
manufacturers it’s almost
incomprehensible. And then
we’ve got T-Levels to deal with
as well, which again nobody
seems to grasp.
Of the three million people
employed in UK manufacturing,
about 300,000 are EU nationals
at a vocational level. We’ve been
filling the gap caused by the lack
of people coming through the
system with EU labour, which
has stopped now and is making
the skills gap look much more
acute. About 70% of companies
are reporting vacancies at that
level. They haven’t got vacancies
at the top end. It’s very difficult
to get very skilled graduate
engineers to be a toolmaker –
they don’t want to do that; they
want to design jets.
We’re not we’re not focusing
enough on the vocational skills.
Government needs to be doing
more on that. They also must
not allow the Apprenticeship
Levy system to be diluted
with other apprenticeships
coming in. We’ve seen lots
things like financial services
apprenticeships coming in
now, which is not very helpful
when we’re trying to generate
engineering vocational skills.
MM: Manufacturing
Management is pleased
to be the official media
partner for the 2020
National Manufacturing
Conference. What can
attendees expect from
this year’s event?
SP: We are expecting a similar level of
attendance to previous years – about 1,000
delegates from across industry and government.
We will have some very senior people from the
government talking about the importance of
the sector to the economy. I have personally
invited any new Member of Parliament who
has an above-average manufacturing presence
in their constituency to attend the event, to
really demonstrate the importance of the
manufacturing industry to the UK.
For delegates, over and above the usual highquality
workshops around skills and Industry
4.0, there are two other things that have come
to our attention this year for the first time. The
first is on export support. We have a major focus
on exporting, particularly on trying to pull focus
away from dependency on the EU. This is quite a
challenge because many of the people exporting
to the EU are part of the wider supply chain.
They’re not exporting goods, they’re exporting
parts that go into a system, which has been a
subject that we’ve been trying to get government
to understand properly.
The second focus is on cyber security,
especially for small companies. There have been
some very recent horror stories about companies
being breached in the manufacturing sector,
so it’s pertinent to provide advice and support
around that. There will be plenty of new things
for delegates to think about, as well as some
insight from government about the direction
of travel, which should be quite interesting.
Primarily, though, it’s a key opportunity for
a lot of networking. The conference is a
complete cross-section of industry: you get the
big companies turn up, but also a lot of smaller
ones, and there’s a great opportunity for them
to share ideas and learn from each other.
MM: This is your chance to give a
message directly to the manufacturers
and politicians who’ll be attending.
SP: The message to government is a simple
one: manufacturing is really important to this
country. We need to now move on quickly with
Industrial Strategy, particularly around both
vocational skills for the sector and better digital
infrastructure like broadband. Industry 4.0 is
the way forward; we need to digitalise the sector.
We’re desperate for a really strong plan that
allows us to move ahead quickly on this.
To manufacturers, I say, let’s not wait
for trade deals. When I was running part of
the Smiths Group, we exported to over 100
countries around the world – and we certainly
weren’t doing that under trade deals; it was all
about going out there and winning contracts.
Manufacturers need to get out of that mindset
of sitting back and waiting for a trade deal to
fall into their laps. We need to be picking up
the opportunities now and moving forward.
Manufacturers have to be a bit more ambitious
in identifying potential export markets.
“Manufacturers need to get out
of the mindset of waiting for a
trade deal to fall into their laps.”
Stephen Phipson, chief executive, Make UK
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk