Automation one of the key enablers to make UK industry competitive
21 February 2012
Author : Marco Pisano
According to optimistic figures, the automation, instrumentation & control industry brings around £5bn/year to the UK economy.
Many OEMs have maintained production & design facilities in the country but it is unclear how many of these can represent tangible opportunities for UK-based EMS companies.
The main OEM players in process control and automation electronics operating in the UK are now foreign owned (mainly from America, continental Europe and Japan). Companies such as Parker, ABB, Moog, Omron and Honeywell have all made their way into the UK market by acquiring local OEM brands and, at least for now, they have maintained a manufacturing presence in Britain.
UK-owned OEMs tend to be small and operating in niche markets such as aerospace & defence, clean energy, specific automotive etc. However, the real issue is not whether a company is local or foreign but rather if the UK has a competitive environment to retain and attract OEMs to invest in this country. Skills and supply-chains thus need to be world-class.
Reed Electronics Research estimates the same sector is three times bigger in Germany. The second world’s biggest exporter of goods after China has hence been investing in automation for the past decades when the UK has focused on “post-industrial” economics and services. The current crisis though has triggered debates about rebalancing the UK economy through a manufacturing-led recovery. For the first time in years, the government seems serious about understanding and supporting UK manufacturing.
Factory automation is certainly one of the key enablers to make industry competitive again and EMS companies should take full advantage of it as both users of highly automated processes to make their own plants globally competitive (and also partially address skills shortages) but also as manufacturers of these technologies. Foxconn for example has already announced its intention to invest heavily in robots to make processes more efficient and also decrease reliance on human resources which are giving the company bad headlines. This could even initiate a trend whereby technology rather than labour cost drives investment decisions.
Intellect is co-organising the Automated Britain conference on the 6th March in London to alert manufacturing industry, government and the media to the opportunities that automation offers and to spread best practice by having senior executives from the industry jointly present case studies on successful uses of automation to improve competitiveness. The Business Minister Mark Prisk will be opening an event that looks very promising for the UK electronics industry. EMS companies interested in process technology (as users or producers) will find the day extremely informative.
For more details and to register go to www.intellectuk.org/automatedbritain. EMTWorldwide readers will get Intellect members rate!
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