n NEWS November/December 2024 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 THOUSANDS OF SMALLER manufacturers could bene t from a £16m expansion of the Made Smarter Adoption programme that the chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her recent budget. The funding will be used to expand the programme to cover the whole of England in 2025-26. The programme oers access to technology advice, leadership, and skills training, as well as grant funding for digital internships and technology projects. The new funding will help to boost productivity, growth, create high-value jobs and decarbonise SME manufacturers across the country. Since Made Smarter was launched in North West England in 2019, around 2,500 manufacturers have bene tted. The scheme has funded 379 technology projects, which are predicted to create more than 1,700 new jobs, upskill 3,200 existing roles, and expand the economy by £267m over the coming three years. In 2022, the programme was extended to four other regions – the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and East Midlands – and a locally funded programme was launched in the West of England. Brian Holliday, who co-chairs the Made Smarter Commission and is MD of Siemens Digital Industries, says that the budget announcements on the Made Smarter Adoption and Innovation programmes “are a tremendously positive acknowledgement of the impact that Made Smarter is having on UK manufacturing. Manufacturing leaders need Made Smarter, which has become the bestknown start-point and signposting service for the sector in support of productivity, competitiveness and sustainability improvement at scale.” “Over the last ve years Made Smarter has transformed countless SME manufacturers, introducing them to new technologies and new digital skills,” adds Donna Edwards, director of Made Smarter’s North West adoption scheme. “The programme has proven that by oering businesses specialist advice to help them select the right approach, level of investment and tools for their business, they can grow and build resilience. The Budget also laid out plans for a modern Industrial Strategy, up to £37m of funding to extend the Made Smarter Innovation programme during 2025-26, and long-term funding for growth-driving sectors, including more than £2bn for the automotive sector and £975m for aerospace. Plans to expand the Made Smarter scheme were rst announced by the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt in 2023 as part of £4.5bn of funding for British manufacturing. He also said that the Government was working with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to explore making the programme UK-wide from 2026-27. £16m funding will expand Made Smarter to SMEs across England pSiemens is planning to cut up to 5,000 jobs in its global industrial automation business, which employs a total of around 70,000, according to a Reuters report. “Sometimes we have to do some re-engineering because the developments weren't as positive as we expected them to be,” Siemens CEO Roland Busch said after the company had reported a 46% fall in prots in its digital industries business. He added, however, that he saw good long-term potential for the automation sector, because of shrinking populations and the low level of mechanisation in SMEs. pSKF has closed its roller bearing manufacturing plant in Luton with the loss of around 300 jobs after more than a century of production. The closure was announced last year with SKF saying that it was part of a change in strategic direction to ensure long-term competitiveness in the European market, and that there was “no viable alternative”. The plant was opened in 1911 and was the company's rst site outside Sweden. SFK will continue to have a presence in Luton with around 50 non-factory workers. pABB is buying Aurora Motors, the US-headquartered supplier of vertical pump motors, which has an engineering operation in Shanghai, China, and customers in 30 countries. Financial terms have not been disclosed. The deal is part of ABB Motion’s growth strategy, and will allow its Nema motors division to enhance its product oering, expand its supply chain, and improve support to its global customer base. pOxford Metrics, the smart sensing and software company, has acquired the Gloucester-based manufacturing measurement specialist, The Sempre Group, for up to £5.5m, depending on its earnings. The acquisition will strengthen Oxford Metrics’ smart manufacturing division, following its earlier purchase of Industrial Vision Systems (IVS). p The global industrial automation market will grow by $107bn between 2024 and 2028 (a CAGR of 9.45%) according to a new report from Technavio. It detects a trend towards open automation software. In two other recent reports, Technavio predicts that sales of AC motors will grow by $34.9bn (with a CAGR of 6%), and micro-PLCs by $2.4bn (a CAGR of 7%), over the same period. www.technavio.com NEWS BRIEFS Made Smarter Commission co-chair, Brian Holliday: a tremendously positive acknowledgement of the impact that Made Smarter is having on UK manufacturing
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