How Digital Manufacturing could help the UK with its recovery

Digital Manufacturing is the digitisation of manufacturing products; associated processes; and supporting supply chains.

It’s not a new concept. It’s probably 30 years old. However, a number of emerging technologies that have matured over the last decade that are rapidly disrupting the manufacturing industry and existing value chains. In addition, the combination of the current global lockdown and the future impact of leaving the EU will be a trigger to accelerate that disruption. For example:

• The disruption of global and European supply chains will result in UK procurement reconsidering the risk and resilience.
• Reduced labour requirement from Digital Manufacturing means that manufacturing can be competitively brought back onshore.
• The impact of trade wars and tariffs and a desire to move from reliance on globalisation will require a new approach.
• The potential for state aid to accelerate capabilities in this industry post after leaving the EU could provide a competitive advantage. 

UK manufacturing product sales are c. ￡400 billion (ONS). This is the primary industry being disrupted. However, the wider ecosystem of companies that could benefit from Digital Manufacturing in the UK includes those involved with Industrial Digital Technologies including hardware & software; machine learning; design companies; sensors; data & analytics; information security, e-commerce and universities. The knock-on effect will also be felt by logistics, retailers and B2C businesses. This impact could be a multiple of the product sales market and it is forecast that the opportunity for Industrial Digital Technologies could lead to a 25% increase in productivity by 2025.

The UK government has made a multi-billion pound investment in the Industrial Strategy, the long-term plan to raise productivity in the UK. In addition, hundreds of millions have been invested in Made Smarter UK, the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). Hyper5 is a new consortium, chaired by Lord Erroll, well known in Parliament for his work on IOT, Information Security and AI. It is aiming to both catalyze the potential of the UK's Digital Manufacturing sector and support the diversification of the telecoms supply chain.

Digital Manufacturing will be a key element in the UK's recovery from this pandemic and in ensuring its future resilience and global competitiveness. Now is the time to start thinking differently about UK manufacturing.