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The UK manufacturing sector is bracing for financial losses brought about by the pandemic.

But a new report out today says finances in the manufacturing sector were already in trouble before the pandemic from inadequate cash management, late payment and overly complex supply chains.

The supply chain and operations consultancy Insider Pro completed a comprehensive examination of 1,500 SME manufacturers accounts for the last 5 years. Nick Peters spoke to Insider Pro managing director Jeremy Bowley about the UK Manufacturing Barometer.

Photo by Kateryna Babaieva from Pexels

Made Smarter, the government-backed programme that helps manufacturers adopt digital manufacturing technologies, is holding a conference this week to celebrate the second anniversary of its launch and remind UK manufacturers of the competitive advantage they can gain through the digitalisation of their businesses.

In this ZenootTV Special Report, Nick Peters speaks to Juergen Maier, who was such a major influence on the development of the Made Smarter programme, and hears from the managing director of an SME manufacturer whose business has been radically improved by working with the Made Smarter team.

Vince Cable was arguably the most influential Business Secretary in the UK government of the last 20 years.

A Liberal Democrat, he held the post during the Coalition government of 2010-2015. Today he is a board member of the Institute for Prosperity, whose goal is to put manufacturing at the forefront of driving the UK economy forwards.

He spoke to Nick Peters about those ideas, and about his reaction to the Budget.

Post-Brexit exporting to the EU has been very difficult for a great many businesses, particularly in the agriculture and fishing industries.

In response, the government set up an SME version of the Brexit Business Task Force, which met last week to identify and resolve areas of difficulty.

Barry Leahey of Playdale Playgrounds in Cumbria was at the meeting, organised by the Cabinet Office. In this ZenootTV special report, he tells Nick Peters why he believes the current difficulties will subside.

The latest Barometer survey of UK manufacturers says exporters are having a very difficult time coping with EU trade, now the UK has left the single market and customs union.

Nick Peters reports on the Barometer’s findings, and talks to one Shrewsbury exporter who says government ministers should be ‘brought to book’ for failing to properly prepare the IT systems manufacturers use to process export documentation.

The Barometer is produced by the South West Manufacturing Advisory Service and the full report is available at: www.swmas.co.uk

Image: Port of Dover

A new challenger bank is being created to cater to the specific needs of SMEs, particularly manufacturers. It’s being formed by the Scottish industrialist Jim McColl of Clyde Blowers, in partnership with a number of other entrepreneurs.

Will it provide the kind of banking service manufacturers need and want?

In this Special Report, Nick Peters speaks with Dr Ewan Lloyd-Baker, himself a seasoned manufacturer who turned around the legendary companies Hayward Tyler and Peter Brotherhood, and who is now head of the fund management company Seismic.

Seismic  Alba Co Ltd

Image of Jim McColl: Ferguson Marine

It is National Apprenticeship Week in the UK, a time to celebrate all that is good about bringing young people into worthwhile careers.

But according to the In-Comm Training Barometer, the pandemic has forced over half the companies in the manufacturing sector to suspend apprenticeships and training, leading to the possibility of a lost generation of apprentices.

Nick Peters spoke to Verity Davidge, Policy Director at Make UK, and she says that while Covid-19 is largely responsible for what’s happening now, apprenticeships were already under threat from the government’s own Apprenticeship Levy, regarded by many from its inception in 2017 as badly thought out – and badly managed.

Picture courtesy AMRC

The pandemic devastated many parts of the UK economy. For many sectors, the harm will be long-lived, and for some companies, it will be terminal.

On the other hand, parts of the UK manufacturing sector responded with speed and daring to the challenge posed by the coronavirus, and efforts are now underway to understand what lessons can and should be learned from the experience.

In this ZenootTV Special Report, Nick Peters talks to Professor Tim Minshall, head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, about the comprehensive research he and his team have been doing into the sector’s response to the crisis.

(Image courtesy Draeger UK)

As zero emissions travel becomes not just a goal but an approaching reality, manufacturing will have to adapt. Automotive supply chains are undergoing significant changes as the balance switches from production of internal combustion engines (ICE) to battery-powered electric vehicles (BEV).

It is not just ground travel that is changing – aviation is embracing a zero-emissions future, supported by heavy UK government investment in hydrogen and battery-power propulsion systems.

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft open up the prospect of flying taxis operating in our town and city centres. With large-sized drones also changing he future of logistics, the government is also backing a revolutionary idea for dealing with both passengers and cargo – Urban Airports.

In this interview with the visionary founder of urban-Air Port Ltd, Ricky Sandhu, Nick Peters asks how this will affect our lives and bring new opportunities for UK manufacturing.

The news that Nissan is going to continue to build the Qashqai model at its Sunderland plant brought relief to a highly nervous UK automotive sector, but how confident should carmakers – and their suppliers be about the future?

In this ZenootTV Special Report, Professor David Bailey of the Birmingham Business School at the University of Birmingham warns the long term security of the industry depends on the government accelerating investment in EV battery technology.

Picture: Nissan GB

The UK government’s insistence on the freedom to create its own regulations governing the economy is forcing the chemicals industry to recreate the regulatory system it spent 10 years building, at an anticipated cost of at least £1 billion.

And, ironically, the end product will be almost exactly the same as the existing EU REACH regime from which we are now excluded – because the EU marketplace is so important, there is no merit in diverging from it.

In this ZenootTV Special Report, Nick Peters speaks to Steve Elliott of the CIA, the Chemicals Industries Association.

(Image: Andy Beecroft / Saltend Chemical Works at Dawn)

Since Coronavirus struck, the UK manufacturing sector has been obliged to change in many fundamental ways, from where people work, how they work, even to what they produce. In other words, to act with agility.

Companies’ future prosperity – their survival even – is likely to depend on the level of agility they are capable of when responding to future challenges.

For the latest in our Manufacturer in Profile series, we talk to one company, Megger, that has used its own agility as a showcase for others to learn from.

The CEO of a specialist engineering company in the Midlands says UK manufacturers need to take advantage of the supply chain disruption caused by the Coronavirus to bring much of the manufacturing that was once offshored back to the UK.

Rowan Crozier of Brandauer Ltd says OEMs have faced significant difficulties because extended supply chains have proved too fragile. He said they should be looking to source components more locally – and SME manufacturers need to prove themselves ready to satisfy that demand.

Make UK’s survey, titled ‘Building Agility in Manufacturing’ was conducted among over 200 senior UK manufacturing executives, seeking to discover the pain points and opportunities they see in the year ahead.

Among the pain points manufacturers are most worried about: post-Brexit bureaucracy, lockdowns and political instability.

Among the opportunities they are ready to grasp: swifter digital adoption, greater investment and reshoring of supply chains leading to expanding local markets.

Conclusion: those companies who take those opportunities will have the agility to survive the pain.

In this ZenootTV Special Report, Nick Peters speaks to Make UK chief executive Stephen Phipson, and Cara Haffey, manufacturing lead partner at PwC, sponsors of the survey.

You can download the report here: Executive Survey 2021

A special report from the ZenootTV Skills & Training Hub.

For any UK manufacturer starting out on their journey towards adopting digital manufacturing technologies – a core requirement for future-proofing their business – one of the biggest headaches is recruiting talent to help guide the process once it’s started. Manchester-based IN4.0 Group not only help businesses embark on that digital journey, but they have also created a Talent Academy that trains young STEM graduates to become junior engineers, then places them with their clients to make their digital adoption go smoothly.

It’s Win:Win:Win – for the graduates, who get jobs. For the clients, who are on the path to greater productivity and profitability, and for the North West region which gets to retain this great talent and thus improve the region’s prosperity.

Nick Peters discusses IN4.0’s work with chief executive Mo Isap.