MANUFACTURING - FATAL MISCONCEPTIONS
Many pundits in the press and some economists who ought to know better respond to the drastic decline of UK manufacturing industries as though it was of little consequence. We can only think that in their ignorance they have some kind of fantasy notion of what manufacturing is - chimneys belching smoke somewhere in a Northern industrial wasteland or lines of women sitting at assembly lines perhaps?
So what is 'manufacturing', if not ghastly dirty factories?
Nearly every industry that encompasses the creation of products and systems involving the use of science and technology comes within the definition of 'manufacturing'.
In the United States, it is accepted that out of 29 industries that require highly skilled science, technology and knowledge workers, 25 are in the manufacturing sector. So manufacturing provides employment for the majority of American knowledge workers. How can this be? Surely women sitting at assembly lines can't be that skilled?
To understand, we have to take a moment to understand what is encompassed within the blanket term manufacturing. 'Manufacturing' in modern industries encompasses:
- Mastery of fundamental scientific understanding in the fields of materials, communications, chemistry and bio-chemistry, physics and electronics.
- Invention - using deep knowledge of science and technology to conceive of new processes, systems and devices to solve practical problems and create new products.
- Understanding, predicting and influencing future consumer needs and wants.
- Design and engineering of new systems, devices and products - integrating knowledge and understanding drawn from many scientific disciplines to solve customers' problems and meet their needs.
- Pre-production engineering and pilot plant design - devising the most efficient designs for manufacturing.
- Design of efficient production methods, plant and equipment - an industry in itself
- Product testing to ensure customer acceptability, safety, usability, quality and reliability
A short pause for thought will reveal that all of the above processes are part of the design and manufacture of the automobile and its engine - and apart from small niche players, Britain has lost all of them. The know-how to create future generations of automobiles is now owned by foreign manufacturers such as Peugeot, Nissan and Honda.
Then, at the end of the line, comes......
- Production and assembly, sales and after-sales service and product support.
The important fact is that production and assembly can be located anywhere. The heart of manufacturing lies in the high level science, technology and processes that come before. It would seem that the UK is losing a large part of these as a result of ignorance and neglect.
The British disease.
There has always been a rather sniffy approach from various English elites towards 'trade and industry' (perhaps rooted in Victorian class-consciousness), in the ignorant belief that these are dull occupations and rather inferior to the manipulation of money.
It is therefore acceptable to go into something in finance, the professions, media, entertainment or fashion, but not - Lord save us from boredom and dirty fingernails - manufacturing industry.
The Effects?
With the connivance of ignorant politicians, and as a result of the known aversion of the City to support investment in companies involved in complex technologies plus a fair deal of management incompetence, Britain has lost its once pre-eminent place in most modern manufacturing industries. The real tragedy is that we are rapidly losing the clusters of advanced skills and know-how that underpin all modern manufacturing industries, leaving us with often foreign-owned assembly plants - like Peugeot's car plant at Ryton.
The Reality
A place in the modern globally competitive economy depends on full possession of all the advanced knowledge and processes that lie behind the activity of final assembly/'manufacturing'. Peugeot were able to close their Ryton plant easily because it did not contain any of that advanced know-how. It was simply a sort of Third-world assembly plant. Peugeot's vital knowledge, experience and skills in automotive design, development and engineering are located in France. This means that they have the choice to assemble cars anywhere.
Every time a UK-owned science or technology company is bought by a foreign competitor, there is a near-certainty that the advanced skills and knowledge embedded in their organisations will 'leach' over time to another country. We know this, because foreign companies in Britain invest less and less in the UK on the vital underlying Research and Development processes that create future advanced products and systems.
Wise Up, Pundits - 'manufacturing' is a central plank of a competitive modern economy.....
It is high time that those who offer judgments about what is good for the UK economy take a little time out to understand that the loss of the 'manufacturing' base is also the loss of a large part of the skills and know-how that underpin a modern economy. It is high time that Chancellor Brown came to his senses and realised that his vision of a dynamic modern Britain is slipping further and further away with every loss of position by UK companies in manufacturing industries.
The UK is favoured by strong education, media, design, creative and financial service industries. These are very good, but nowhere enough to keep Britain in the long term a wealthy and successful country in an increasingly competitive world. Office cleaning, retailing, call centres, hairdressing (the fastest growth occupation) and leisure services will not sustain a workforce skilled in science, technology and design. University research and science will follow the decline in these occupations and the companies that sustain them.
The slippery slope beckons........
