Against the odds: The future of UK manufacturing
Against the odds: The future of UK manufacturing
Top 10 investment priorities for the next 12 months Enhancing AI capabilities
Improving operations
All eyes on AI
Increasing permanent headcount to drive output/productivity
Increasing output/productivity through automation and AI
23%
22%
Manufacturers surveyed expressed that increasing output and/ or productivity through automation and AI is their top investment priority for the year ahead.
Reducing operational costs (other than through AI/automation)
Expanding existing production capacity
19%
21%
Reducing operational costs through automation and AI
Upskilling and training existing team members
18%
21%
Improving operational resilience through automation and AI Improving operational resilience (other than through AI/automation)
Improving Environmental, Social or Governance factors
18%
19%
17%
18%
Expanding delivery/logistics fleet
Expert voices
“Many companies I come across could be described as hybrids; they are automated to an extent, but they still have quite a high labour content. “With wages rising, any lack of historic investment in plant, equipment and technology may prove short sighted and there are examples of companies moving production overseas to places like the US, where they have had significant investment in automation five or 10 years ago.” David Stone is the CEO at Prompt Business Strategies. His expertise have seen him grow businesses through the implementation of organisation and financial restructuring: “Many of our clients have imposed price increases. This is obviously easier when you’re entering into a new relationship but a lot are also revisiting existing contracts to make the case for their increased overheads, including salaries. “There has certainly been an uptick in administrations after a long period where there was no movement at all. However, parallel to this we’re also seeing that clients who were at risk are, in some circumstances, able to refinance with alternative lenders who are willing to take a different level of risk.” Wendy Parish is Head of Portfolio - London and South at private and commercial banking and wealth management firm Arbuthnot Latham:
And almost nine in 10 (87%) of those firms surveyed say AI, machine learning or automation is relevant to their business. Clearly, this category represents a broad spread of technologies and applications.
Automation has been fundamental to many
Almost twice as many (47%) say there is the potential to apply it more widely in their organisation. There can be significant cost involved when adopting AI, with a lengthy payback period, and there is the risk that ongoing investment will bring people challenges, with fewer jobs and less hands-on experience being a likely outcome. But, for those that have access to funding, it is something they should be looking at to drive efficiencies and free up human resource.
aspects of manufacturing for a century, but we can confidently imagine a range of new and transformational ways AI can be applied across the sector, from managing supply chains to predictive maintenance, minimising waste and new product development. Nearly a quarter (24%) say they are already using AI machine learning or automation to its full potential.
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