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News Release from: Business Link MK
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 29 March 2006
How UK automotive manufacturers can
compete
Retired head of a UK-based automotive manufacturing company talked about his experiences , the state of UK manufacturing today and what needs to be done so that the UK can compete.
A Thames Valley consortium of local manufacturers came together in March, 2006, to hear from former head of Nissan UK, John Cushnaghan John also joined a panel of industry experts and key decision makers to answer questions from the audience on the position of UK manufacturing today
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 10 Oct 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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David Seall, CEO of EEF South who runs the Manufacturing Advisory Service in the South East.
Chaired the panel, which consisted of John Cushnaghan, Ian Hughes, director of Schools Business Links Unit, DfES and Alex Pratt, chairman of the local Business Link, Whitehall consultant and local manufacturer.
Cushnaghan is also project director of the recently announced National Manufacturing Skills Academy, which has just received an invitation to tender for a national strategy of improvement for all UK manufacturers.
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In his presentation, Cushnaghan talked about his experiences at Nissan, the state of UK manufacturing today and what needs to be done so that the UK can carry on competing in this industry.
Cushnaghan said: "The UK will never be a leading manufacturing country again.
However, we can act now to stabalise the position that we do have." Cushnaghan identified three key reasons for the current decline in UK manufacturing: * The large manufacturers now have global procurement departments and so they have access to a much wider range of suppliers with more purchasing power than ever.
* Secondly, there are simply not many indigineous UK manufacturers remaining.
* Finally, there is a very capable and competitive supply chain existing outside of the UK.
Cushnaghan said: "In Japan, the same manufacturing processes and mentality are used regardless of the product being made.
They have a simple national standard and it is regarded an honour for students to go into manufacturing.
We need to adopt a similar national strategy and standard if we are to maintain our competitiveness." That is exactly what the National Manufacturing Skills Academy intends to do.
The objective is to create a generic skills approach to manufacturing across all sectors.
"Supply will always follow the money which is a big disadvantage for the UK.
Even, the impact of Chinese' low cost manufacturing franchises is yet to come.
Although the low costs available from countries such as Hungary and China will not last forever, they will last long enough to do more damage." Cushnaghan concluded: "It is not too late.
There is still hope if we can start to improve the capability and national infrastucture quickly enough." Key outputs from 'Question Time': * There seems to be a lack of trust in the UK by large manufacturers in their suppliers with new products and innovation.
Why is that? - Alex Pratt, local manufacturer of specialist lighting products responded: "Our two largest contracts last year were from India and China.
We also experience that same hesitation from the UK markets.
I believe that the UK simply does not want to win and therefore see innovation as a danger instead of an opportunity.
The US and China do want to win and jump at new products and innovative ideas that will put them ahead of the rest of the market.
I am a strong believer that the UK can achieve a lot by simply changing its attitude.
We need to stop blaming the government about the state of manufacturing in the UK today and decide that we are going to be winners so that we do not get relegated." * What does the UK actually do well when it comes to manufacturing and do we need to simply build on these strengths to maintain our competitiveness? - Pratt and David Seall responded: "Creativity is the UK major strength but unfortunately we are not harnessing these innovations and they are being lost overseas".
"Yes, we do need to focus on our strengths but we need to do a lot more to raise our capability." Dr Ming Yun, an Oxford graduate who now runs manufacturing facilities back in Japan was in the audience and commented: "The Japanese view the British as being extremely professional in all that they do.
We also know that the British are the best at following procedures and processes.
This may be viewed as a weakness by some but a key strength for others." * 69% less students are studying maths degrees and the University of Sussex are dropping their physics degree this year.
How is this going to help our cause and can we turn things around quickly enough to save UK manufacturing? - Ian Hughes, DfES commented: "We have recently injected GBP 60m into developing a network of skills specialist schools that will address styles of teaching used to make maths and physics more appealing for 14-19 year olds.
Maths and physics are actually extremely hard subjects and therfore carry an element of risk for students chosing to study them.
We believe the skills are there to work with which is why our primary focus needs to be on changing the attitude of teachers and students.
Attitude is key." In response to how quickly we can turn things around, Cushnaghan commented: "That is a virtually impossible question to answer.
If the NMSA gets approval from the government, I believe it will take at least five years to get the strategy and programmes into place.
It could then be another five years before we start to see the benefits of those programmes and strategy." The strongest message of the day was that the UK needs to improve its attitude if we want to win.
This combined with the potential of a National strategy leaves us with the hope that all is most definitely not lost.
The Manufacturing Consortium (www.manufacturingconsortium.co.uk) is jointly funded by The Manufacturing Advisory Service, the Learning and Skills Council and Business Link.
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