Trends in manufacturing
As recent figures from the ONS on the last quarter of 2014 revealed patchy growth across many UK’s sectors what can manufacturing firms do in 2015 to continue to drive their businesses forward? With many firms focusing on their processes and automation in order to offer more competitive prices and products what are the key themes that will help them achieve this in 2015?
Innovation, innovation, innovation
Innovation is playing an increasingly larger role in the manufacturing sector and some would argue that 2015 will see this develop even further. Those firms that can utitlise innovation to their competitive advantage, by for example differentiating themselves, will be the ones
to gain the most.
Where innovation makes process and production more streamlined, companies can offer slicker logistical and production solutions to their clients, offering JIT products leading to better cost efficiencies and margins.
Small businesses have traditionally struggled to bring products to market in a timely way. However with experts highlighting that small businesses are gaining more confidence and learning to utiltise the resources available to them to innovate and bring products to market more quickly. A growing offering of alternative means of finance can help smaller businesses to gain pace, developing their offerings and through the use of expert knowledge and grants make the leap more quickly. Innovate UK, formerly known as the Technology Strategy Board, is positioning itself at the forefront of helping these businesses to succeed
3D or AM will continue to grow
This trend, still relatively in its infancy, has only really been adopted in the motorsport, aerospace and automotive industries, however, 2015 will potentially see huge growth in the use of AM across more mainstream manufacturing. Offering the ability to print hugely complex shapes AM enables otherwise tricky or costly (due to tooling processes) components to be manufactured and offers greatly enhanced design abilities. AM is set to continue to grow through 2015 and will change the way that parts are manufactured in the UK.
Will reshoring continue in to 2015?
One of the key buzzwords at the start of 2014 was reshoring, and whilst the pace certainly slowed later on 2014, there still seems to be an ongoing commitment to this process. As before, the uncertainty of supply chains and product quality from the East meant that firms felt more assured bringing production back to the UK. However, there are issues with this trend that may be borne out though 2015. Skills shortages as well as the practicalities of actual physical production space will need to be faced in order for reshoring to continue to grow.
So, whilst the latest figures for UK manufacturing sector may not inspire the general confidence within the industry is still relatively high. With experts pointing to growing order books and investment within the industry in training, plant and production and product/process innovation strong the results for the next quarter should certainly be better.
Manufacturing & Electronics Expo 2015 - 7th October - Kent Event Centre
