Make UK

The Manufacturers’ Organisation

Made Smarter West Midlands has developed close links with Make UK, which champions engineering and manufacturing businesses throughout the UK.

Make UK is focused on building a platform for the evolution of UK manufacturing, which fits in perfectly with the ethos of Made Smarter West Midlands. It has been calling for a national rollout of the programme since its inception.

Together, the two organisations organised a digital factory tour at iconsys’ Technology Hub in Stafford Park 16, Telford, for businesses to see first-hand the benefits of adopting digital technology.

Here, Chris Corkan, Interim Region Director, Midlands & East, Make UK, outlines why Made Smarter West Midlands is needed and its importance in removing barriers to encourage more SMEs to utilise digital technology.

“Some of the greatest barriers to manufacturing businesses adopting technology are the lack of understanding of what is available and having the relevant experience or skills to implement new technologies.

“Made Smarter West Midlands has offered a direct solution to SMEs at different stages of their digital journey, thereby unlocking the power to adopt different technologies to improve their day-to-day operations.

“It is vital we support manufacturers to harness digital technologies which, in turn, leads to higher productivity, efficiency and quality of their products.

“This can be from collaborating with firms to digitalise paperwork in their office, right through to introducing advanced robotics on the shop floor.

“In the post-pandemic world, Make UK has been delighted to host a successful large-scale factory tour event, industry dinners and roundtable meetings to push forward on this agenda together with manufacturing leaders.

“We believe the adoption of new technologies in the manufacturing and engineering sector can be the key to tackling regional inequalities and the UK’s productivity conundrum.

“The West Midlands played a significant part in the first industrial revolution and now hand-inhand with Made Smarter, the region’s manufacturing and engineering SMEs can successfully continue to step forward with confidence in the next phase of digitising the manufacturing sector.”