27 www.drivesncontrols.com June 2025 UK INDUSTRY n why we have to be looking beyond “traditional” engineering and STEM, and more towards “STEAM”– including the creatives and the arts. We’re already seeing the benefit of doing that at the AMRC. We’ve had apprentices who are former teachers reskilling into a new career, and design students interning with us – weaving the arts and creativity into what we’re doing. That kind of diversity of thought is especially important because of things such as AI, which we need to be leveraging into manufacturing. To gain the competitive advantage, we have to be an early adopter. But we also have to walk before we can run. There are all sorts of technological pieces that we have to get in place first. Building confidence To have a real chance of achieving and sustaining all of this, we need an industrial strategy that is integrated across sectors and capabilities such as AI, hydrogen and mobility – but also across government – and it needs to have longevity and teeth. We can’t afford to repeat the mistakes we saw with the 2015 industrial strategy that was aborted. What businesses need more than ever is certainty to gain the confidence of the investors that we need to back industry. We have to build that confidence as a sector. Publicly-procured programmes hold the potential to jumpstart the advanced manufacturing renaissance, as long as we capture both the supply chain pieces and the OEM elements. These programmes and their longevity, give confidence, and create a good base of manufacturing on which businesses can invest in innovation programmes and the skills that sustain them. Innovation doesn’t happen overnight. It can start small with one robot and a few connected machines. To do it on a bigger scale, to really impact productivity, bring in the right skills, innovation and supply chain, takes time. We have to start sowing the seeds of innovation now and to also to think about how we do that with a localised approach. AMRC Cymru and North West are both aligned with their regional economies, whether through skillsets, capabilities, or the technologies they’re developing, trying to drive productivity and adoption among SMEs. They have fantastic track records of impacting their regions, whether that’s AMRC Cymru’s Accelerating Decarbonisation and Productivity through Technology and Skills programme that’s elevated scale-up opportunities for SMEs, and enabled their adoption of digital tools, or its work with BAE Systems to investigate how digital technologies – along with greener, sustainable solutions – can elevate the RAF’s frontline aircraft. The team at AMRC North West is building on its successful 5G Factory of the Future programme with the Factory of the Future Open RAN (FoFoRAN) project, exploring accessible and affordable 5G Open RAN options for manufacturing, to increase the resilience of the UK mobile network and ensure that we’re not overly reliant on any one form of technology. R&D programmes such as these are huge for the UK economy, with the potential to support thousands of jobs. The technologies developed can spill out into other sectors. We see this support too in the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, which works closely with the other centres to develop a strategy, and ensure that we’re building on opportunities for the nation, anchored locally. This anchoring sees us working with local government. In South Yorkshire, we have a lot of advanced manufacturing assets. There are businesses developing skills and innovation with a strong link into the ecosystem – it’s vital that we capture that nascent talent and business in the market. For example, our work with Magnetic Systems Technology (Magtec) in Rotherham to devise and improve processes and enable high-volume production of traction motors, enabled it to revolutionise its manufacturing processes, resulting in a cleaner and 35% faster process that yields a more consistent product. Through simulation and comprehensive evaluation and implementation of cuttingedge manufacturing processes, AMRC has helped to shape Magtec's roadmap, embedding sustainable improvements that provide both immediate and long-term impacts, while providing Magtec with a strategic path to achieving its ambitious aim of building 5,000 motors annually – a six-fold increase in capacity. The work we’ve done means we’re getting invitations to collaborate further afield. With our fellow HVM Catapult centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), we’ve started an exciting journey in South Wales, with the opening of the HVM Catapult Baglan. AMRC Cymru engineers will run the centre’s digital factory hub, with links to green steel and offshore renewables. There’s a swell of excitement for the links between North and South Wales. We need to keep building these relationships, but we also have to be in a position where we have the agility to respond. There’s a huge amount of experience and talent in the AMRC family. I’ve been here for 17 years, and my career has taken me from the shop floor to top floor, starting as an engineer and now leading the organisation. It’s like we’re at Everest base camp now, regrouping and readying ourselves because we want to head to the summit. I know there’s a lot more we can do; we have a lot more to give, there’s more impact we can make to transform lives through innovation – and we will. n The AMRC works with cutting-edge technologies to help UK manufacturers to prepare for the future
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