UK: Leading business leaders and academics join forces with government to make manufacturing ‘smarter’
The inaugural meeting of the Made Smarter Commission was held on 27th September 2018. The commission will drive the boosting of productivity, create more highly-skilled jobs in the manufacturing industry. The commission has been established to drive forward digital developments in British manufacturing to boost productivity, create more highly-skilled jobs and enable more efficient, cleaner production systems, as part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
Key priorities for the first meeting included discussing the North West pilot for adoption of digital technology by manufacturers in the North West and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund bid for digital manufacturing in development which aims to bring together the UK’s world-leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time.
The commission has discussed how the manufacturing industry can be transformed by new techniques such as 3D printing and other innovative uses of digital technologies as well as the need for stronger and more ambitious leadership.
The Made Smarter Commission is designed to oversee and take forward a plan for the sector, including how manufacturing will help realise the Grand Challenges, putting the industry at the heart of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
The UK sits in top 10 largest global manufacturing economies and is the fourth largest in the EU. In 2017, manufacturing GVA totalled £186 billion, supporting 2.7 million jobs (with estimates of 5 million across the whole manufacturing value chain) and still accounts for 48% of the UK total exports of goods and services.
Source:
Leading business leaders and academics join forces with government to make manufacturing ‘smarter’, published on the Government webpage on 27th September 2018.
