26 n UK INDUSTRY June 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com How to revive our flatlined productivity In the past ten years, while the world has been changing, one thing has remained constant in the UK – flat productivity. Global events, from Brexit and the Covid pandemic, to conflict and energy price increases, have created a difficult business backdrop, which has made it much harder for businesses to invest. There has been no certainty and no easy bets. I’m confident that we can turn this tide; that productivity can increase once again, and UK manufacturing can stand at the forefront of this mission. We have a strong manufacturing sector in the UK, around 90% of it being small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). If we are to reverse the productivity stall, we need to look at how strategies align for a single vision – whether that is industrial, place-based or others – and deliver for SMEs and the broader supply base alongside the primes. We should not view this so much as a challenge but as an opportunity for a revolution in manufacturing. We have a oncein-a-generation opportunity to kickstart it too, with new energy programmes, such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and floating offshore wind turbines, alongside new aerospace and defence programmes. Energy, mobility and infrastructure are all being looked at harder than ever by the government and industry, but now is the time to accelerate these programmes and give industry the confidence it needs to invest. Why? Because the world desperately needs new materials, new processes, new products and new applications that give us national economic resilience, financial prosperity and environmental sustainability. I think it is fair to say the current geopolitical situation has brought about real global uncertainty. International conflicts and new trade tariffs have brought risks to global supply chains. We need to ask what this means for the UK. My feeling is that we have to try to control the controllables. For UK industry, and particularly for the AMRC, some of these controllables are developing cutting-edge innovation, deploying that innovation, and focusing on skills and talent – making sure that we are bringing through the next generation of makers, and looking at that future pipeline of talent much more broadly than we have before. Clean energy revolution Building new nuclear energy power stations in the UK is a critical component of achieving growth and net-zero. The High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult is actively supporting the necessary technology developments both for the leading companies, and across the supply chain. We know there is a baseload of power that the UK needs. We also know there is substantial energy demand coming from our homes, businesses and indeed data centres in the UK – we host the most in Europe after Germany – and these form the spine for our growing use of AI. The need for more clean power will only increase. That surge in demand poses a real challenge and requires a mix of solutions. SMRs are part of the answer for providing the right amount of clean energy, close to the source of those data centres. And if the UK can be a pioneer in SMRs and capture that supply chain, we could not just drive the UKbased development of SMRs, but export to global markets too. The challenges are vast, but so is the potential. Building on the controllables, improving processes, driving innovation – if we can bring products to market quickly, we can ensure that the faith put in the manufacturing sector by the Government in the imminent Industrial Strategy, pays the economic dividends we all want to see. That’s why flagship projects such as Composites at Speed and Scale are so important. Compass – an £80m boost to composites R&D for aerostructure manufacturing in the UK – will establish the vital methodologies for the future production of Boeing’s next single-aisle aircraft. It will need to be lighter than ever and capable of being produced at a rate that can meet burgeoning global demand. The open-access Compass facility will cut large component processing times from around 40 hours to about four, and is a brilliant demonstration of the global orientation of the UK’s innovation capabilities. Diversity of thought for new products and processes is what is driving innovation; bringing fresh thinking and ideas to the table and stretching people’s preconceptions. That’s The UK manufacturing sector is at a pivotal moment. The world is changing, global politics are in flux, and economies are seeing seismic shifts. This unpredictability is an opportunity for a manufacturing renaissance, argues Professor Ben Morgan, the new interim CEO of the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). The Compass project will cut the time taken to process large composite components from around 40 hours to four
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