Seizing the opportunity for UK industry

But it’s easy to talk down UK industry. What that also says to me, especially in the light of some other key statistics from the same report, is that the UK has a huge opportunity. The work is there and 81% of companies listed “new product development” as a key business focus, while 85% of UK Manufacturers are either “very” or “quite” optimistic about the British economy over the next one to three years. So industry is looking forward – and well it should.

An example of this was recently covered in an article which appeared in the Financial Times online. One of the strongest sectors for UK industry is Food manufacture. And it’s a reliable one, too. Regardless of “onshoring” trends and opportunities, it is hard to envision a future where staple food products are imported wholesale from cheaper manufacturing economies – as Norman Soutar, chief executive of William Jackson Food, put it, “food manufacturing is more protected, you cannot ship it here from China. It has to be local”. As an employer of 2000 people who is implementing the national living wage by April of this year, the company is set to add around £1m to its overheads. Mr Souter points out “We just have to become more efficient”.

This isolated example is also indicative of UK industry in general. It simply must become more efficient to remain sustainable and to grow. Again, it would be easy to talk industry down, but again, this is also about opportunity. It’s entirely possible as well as necessary for UK industry to meet the challenge and it’s not something that should be feared, but rather an opportunity to be seized.

Pleasingly, The Annual Manufacturing Report gives a few clues about a general acceptance in industry of how it can happen, too. Almost half of respondents claim to be in the process of implementing a major automation project, with a further fifth saying that they had done so in the past 12 months. That’s two-thirds of UK manufacturers who have shown a commitment to automation recently. Moreover, 60% said that working conditions and job satisfaction had improved as a result of recent automation projects; 44% that jobs had been safeguarded; and 18% that new jobs had been created as a direct result.

So if the work is there, the sector has a positive outlook and we know how we can become more efficient and competitive, could the UK actually be a leading player in the so-called fourth industrial revolution?

I believe it can – for a couple of very good reasons, but not without a concerted and coordinated effort.

The concerted effort needs to come in the form of updating existing industrial infrastructure. At a private level, more manufacturers, particularly in the F&B sector which is widely known to be under-automated, need to invest in their medium and longer term future and start to feel the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things sooner. At a public level, we need sustained investment and incentives for companies to continue to innovate, continue to invest in their future and continue to make the UK a better place for industry. Government is an important part of the process – it can influence policy, regulations, export opportunities, infrastructure projects and, of course, STEM initiatives. That’s to say nothing of minimising the risk and uncertainty surrounding a possible “Brexit”. It is also an important consumer and should look to support UK industry directly where possible, such as with the recently announced trials of British designed and built driverless cars.

For UK industrial enterprise to seize the opportunity, simply saying “invest in automation” is rather simplistic. And it’s just not an option for most businesses to stop production and build flashy new plant. However, taking a strategic and structured approach to rapid evolution can set any enterprise on the road to becoming much more efficient and agile – the two key constituents of a successful and sustainable industrial sector for the next ten years and into the future.

The information revolution, the industrial application of which is at the heart of the nascent industrial revolution, relies on a highly connected and automated approach to business. At Rockwell Automation, we call this The Connected Enterprise. The concept is remarkably simple but the effect is very powerful. The Connected Enterprise is about bringing people, processes and technology together through the convergence of information technology and operational technology into a single unified industrial business architecture. And because it’s a continuous process of strategic, systematic evolution, the benefits begin with first phases of implementation and can continue long into the future.

The lifeblood of the Industrial Internet of Things revolution is information. It is about the data that is increasingly available from every internet connected element of any industrial process - from a confectionery line to an oil pipeline. But in order to turn that data into usable intelligence it must be collected, collated and processed. That’s a question of making enterprises smarter and more connected, and it can start now. It must start now, in fact, if we’re to seize the opportunity.

So let’s not talk down UK industry, let’s get connected and bring the future closer, quicker.