Brian Holliday, Divisional Director, Siemens Industry Automation, argues that the manufacturing industry and the engineering skills of employees now and in the future will play a central role in helping sustain the UK’s economic health - but there is much work to be done.

It goes without saying that manufacturing in general, and engineering skills in particular, are going to be critical in assisting the UK to emerge from the downturn with a more evenly balanced economy.  We can no longer afford to rely upon the financial markets and the City to be the driving force of future economic prosperity.  Academics, commentators and business leaders all agree - we need to get back to ‘making things’ again.  And this is an objective I sincerely hope will be central to the role of the next government.

With the growing realisation that the UK economy needs to broaden its base there is evidently now a resurgence of interest in the role of manufacturing industries, and particularly identified key growth areas such as high technology, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and the emerging low carbon sectors.

With manufacturing output as a percentage of overall GDP having fallen significantly over recent years, it would be easy to convince ourselves that the country cannot return in the short term to perceived activity levels of previous decades.  However, if we are to regain a prominent global manufacturing position, the country will be reliant upon the skills, expertise and motivation of innovative manufacturing companies and their skilled engineers to help turn such a goal into reality.

I am pleased to see the level of Government interest in helping businesses develop the skills and technologies to ensure that manufacturing’s role in the British economy does not further decline, and it is clearly trying to increase its influence in key areas led by the work of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The publication of key strategic reports such as ‘Manufacturing: New Challenges New Opportunities’, ‘New Industries, New Jobs’ and ‘The UK Low Carbon Strategy’ has helped in this respect, and the important point is that they have been influential in helping the Government recognise the wealth creation potential of UK manufacturing and engineering industries going forward.  As a major engineering employer in the UK, Siemens is actively supporting some of the Government-led initiatives, including representation on the board of Manufacturing Insight - a new body designed to encourage and inspire young people to consider engineering as a profession, as well as supporting the new Manufacturing Technology Centre due to open in Coventry this year.

Whilst action at the macro level will take time and effort, nonetheless encouraging signs are there and Siemens intends to play its part in keeping the virtues of manufacturing and engineering at the forefront of the ongoing economic fight back and recovery.


Appropriate Up-skilling

At the micro industry level there is also much to be done, in particular around implementing appropriate skills and training support that will be essential if our macro goals are to be realised and the UK is to keep its rightful place as a high value, high flexibility manufacturing centre.

Presently, many manufacturing and industrial companies continue to face a variety of commercial challenges following the recent global economic shift. However an apparent majority are now focusing their efforts on balancing people, process and technology resources to do things better. 
Many commentators will agree that much is understood about the Excellence journey when it comes to people and process, but arguably manufacturers are less are well informed and engaged when it comes to deploying technology given the trends driving its increasing capability and complexity. Whilst technology can now enable more productive, informed and safer manufacturing, it is also an area that is not well understood by managers and this is certainly true also in the process sector.  British manufacturing companies commonly invest substantial sums in buildings and information technology, yet under-invest in areas that can arguably have greater impact on their global competitive position, namely training staff and joined-up industrial technology deployment.

It is clear that in vital areas such as manufacturing and, in particular, the industrial automation sector, technology capability is advancing at an increasing rate towards more distributed, intelligent and inter-connected systems that span sensing and control to automated management decision making.  Automation technology today can be implemented at significantly reduced capital investment costs and it addresses operational cost challenges through automation efficiencies, faster diagnosis of problems and improved reliability which ultimately impacts the plant’s Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
As industrial technology shifts however, this drives the necessity for manufacturers to up-skill their workforce if they are to keep from falling behind given the increasing internationalisation of manufacturing competition.  Achieving cost savings, operational efficiencies, environmental benefit and implementing energy consumption strategies will all need to be part of this drive.  

The real technology opportunities lie with addressing the intelligent manufacturing challenges driven by market shifts in demand such as mass customisation, whilst operating in increasingly regulated environments under greater cost pressures.  Technology today helps in many ways and it is now more achievable than ever before to implement joined-up technology strategies from digital product design through PLM software right through to the digital factory or process using Totally Integrated Automation in conjunction with Manufacturing Execution Systems.

To grasp such opportunities, British manufacturers face two key people challenges, namely getting the skills mix right and ensuring enough young engineers join the profession to help maximise the potential of industrial technology as it becomes increasingly software based and IP enabled.

Many companies have relied on increasingly multi-skilling workers, but a shift is required to redress the balance as employees reach the inevitable intellectual limits of working in multi-discipline, multi-platform environments.  Much can of course be learnt from best practice sharing across sectors, but in general, an observable ‘skills gap’ is appearing, particularly in the areas of industrial and process control.  Failing to counter this will leave companies at risk.

Businesses of course, have choices in addressing the gap such as increasing training levels for their staff across a number of control systems and their peripherals. However, this route brings with it economic, time and logistic challenges.  Another route would be to consider reducing the number of vendors they work with or to train staff at a system, rather than component, level.  The system approach releases engineers to operate at the heart of a business to clearly connect the control systems to corporate KPIs. An example of this is Component Based Automation which reduces complexity through ‘Black box’ abstraction – allowing the system to deal with complexities such as communication, machine interaction and fault diagnostics.  This approach reduces the need for individual component knowledge and refocuses engineering attention on what the overall process control system is delivering to the business.

It’s really about taking an alternative viewpoint on skills development and appropriately empowering critical employees with the right kind of knowledge rather than ‘too much’ knowledge to meet and exploit today’s opportunities.  Creating tighter control and vendor standards can support this philosophy, allowing companies to work in partnership with appropriate partners that can help them implement the right control solutions, given the array of options that now exist courtesy of intense technology advancement.


The Future

Appropriate skilling of the current engineering community is one thing.  Looking at the coming decades, and the future promotion of engineering as a viable and attractive career for today’s school-leavers, is also an important part of the skills investment debate.  From 300,000 UK graduates each year, only 10,000 have engineering-based qualifications. Compare this to the annual statistics that show some 600,000 engineering graduates emerging in China.  As predictions state that over the next 10 years the UK will require nearly 600,000 new workers as manufacturing technicians, and with 40% of the current engineering workforce aged 45 and over, it is clear that we must continue to ‘bang’ the engineering drum to ensure we remain competitive and that new blood seeks to join the industry.

Evidence suggests that engineering employers still need to do more to develop the engineers of the future.  The profession needs to be continually promoted as one that is rewarding, fulfilling and essential to this country’s future well-being.  The argument for its value as an alternative career choice to financial services, the creative industries or the service sector must be made and where necessary supported better financially by government and industry stakeholders from primary schools upwards.

At Siemens, I believe we are playing an active part. Accommodating secondary school students, working with local schools, driving work experience initiatives, supporting a vibrant graduate scheme, delivering mentor programmes, as well as financially supporting the Newcastle and Nottingham University-based E3 Academy, being just some examples of how we are trying to address the ongoing challenge everyone in the industry faces.

We must continue to fight the stereotypical positioning of engineering as a profession without appeal and future in the UK – especially given its rich intellectual rewards and the potential we have to make such a difference to our manufacturing economy.  Schools also need to reinvigorate and reposition the image of engineering, support more the focus on STEM subjects and help re-position professional engineering as an aspirational career choice.  Finally, the manufacturing profession, engineers, institutions & employers need to work together when it comes to selling the image and reputation of engineering as a career path that not only encompasses varied and challenging career opportunities across many sectors, but will also provide financially secure and rewarding employment.

It all boils down to the same thing – people.   Whether we reference Government-led initiatives to bring back the UK’s manufacturing muscle, or companies appropriately training employees to meet the technology challenges and opportunities of the new decade, or simply promoting engineering and ‘making things’ as an attractive career choice for youngsters – skills lie at the very heart of what we need to do.

Investing in the engineering community in the appropriate manner will deliver real benefit.  By doing so, companies will not only be able to secure their own and their employees’ futures, they will also be making a fundamental contribution in returning the UK to the forefront of manufacturing - an objective which can only be a positive step for the overall economic health and vibrancy of our nation.


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