The south has more manufacturing companies than any other UK region. Many are smaller, specialist and niche manufacturers, but many are also leading edge and world-beaters.
This was the message from The Business Magazine publisher David Murray welcoming guests to the first Southern Manufacturing 100 dinner, which was held on February 11 at Oakley Hall Hotel, near Basingstoke.
Manufacturing is also intrinsic to all other business sectors, Murray added, a point highlighted by after-dinner speakers Joe Nellis, Cranfield School of Management professor of global economy, and Jim Newton, market development director of McLaren Applied Technologies.
Today’s insights on tomorrow’s world
Get ready for a far more complex and changeable business world. That was the message from Professor Nellis as he provided insights into the dynamics and drivers now increasingly influencing national economies and global markets.
“If you think it’s been tough in the past 25 years, we haven’t even started to see the impact on manufacturing of the global shift of economic and political power from west to east. Things are exploding, changing fast, but not here in the western world. The past 10 years of global change will seem like a snail’s pace compared to the next 10.”
Nellis highlighted that in the late1970s the UK manufacturing sector focused on ‘more of the same’, maintaining its output, rather than capital widening and deepening through investment, innovation and increased use of technology.
He posed the underlying questions: “What will companies look like in the next 10 years? Are you willing to change? Is your business ready to meet the challenges, grasp the opportunities?”
Tomorrow’s technologies used in today’s world
McLaren is a name indelibly linked to motor racing, but its applied technology division is steadily spreading its innovation, engineering and manufacturing excellence beyond the automotive world.
Jim Newton revealed that McLaren Applied Technologies is now working across several sectors, designing intelligent products and processes for underground drilling rigs, hybrid power units, cycling, human surgery, and financial services that can ‘phone home’ via Internet to optimise performance.
From its Woking headquarters, his team can monitor the automotive performance of McLaren F1 race-cars as they compete live around the world – recording 150 real-time data streams running at 1,000 samples per second, linked to predictive analytics.
“We manufacture six race-cars per year, but within 12 months that vehicle will be about 70% different…. Winning in F1 is not about having the most cash, but being the most effective – having a competitive mindset, a set of behaviours, ways of working, core technologies and deep applicable understanding of what it takes to succeed long-term.”
* The Southern Manufacturing 100 celebrates the top private independent manufacturing companies – a £7 billion combined turnover regional listing representing 53,500 employees, which is promoted by 'The Business Magazine' and sponsored by lawyers Shoosmiths, NatWest bank, advisory firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson, global insurance broker JLT and technology solutions provider Taylor Made.
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