Thursday 27 September 2018

New UK Commission aims to make manufacturing ‘smarter’

Business and academics have joined forces with the government in an effort to make manufacturing “smarter”.

The Made Smarter Commission has been established to drive forward digital developments in British manufacturing to boost productivity, create more highly-skilled jobs and enable more efficient and cleaner production systems.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark and Siemens CEO Juergen Maier will today co-chair the inaugural meeting, which will be attended by eight women and nine men from some of the world’s leading businesses, trade bodies and academic institutions.

Organisations that are part of the Commission include the manufacturers’ association EEF, Jaguar Land Rover, GE Digital, ABB, Nestle UK and Ireland, Rolls-Royce, Accenture, Airbus UK and Royal Academy of Engineering.

Key priorities for the first meeting include discussions around a pilot for the adoption of digital technology by manufacturers in the North West and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund bid for digital manufacturing in development.

The Commission will also discuss how the manufacturing industry can be transformed by new techniques such as 3D printing.

Mr Clark said: “Britain has a long and proud manufacturing heritage currently supporting 2.7 million jobs across the country and through our modern Industrial Strategy, we are creating opportunities for UK manufacturing to continue to grow.

“The increased adoption of digital technologies will bring enormous benefits, potentially generating £455 billion over the next 10 years – booting productivity, creating thousands of new highly skilled jobs and enabling more efficient, cleaner production systems.”

New and innovative technologies will be part of the discussions at Energy Live Expo on 31st October, with Energy Minister Claire Perry headlining the event. To book your place, you can send an e-mail to tickets@energylivenews.com.