SECTOR FOCUS: MANUFACTURING
Perceptions fail to keep up as industry reinvents itself
of a ‘knowledge’ economy based around business services, education and tourism. The former ‘workshop of the world’ was being
T
BY JOHN R BRYSON Professor of Enterprise and Economic Geography, University of Birmingham
transformed into another service centre. This is a distorted account; the West Midlands is still a great manufacturing centre, but with important differences. It is possible to argue that manufacturing has been transformed, but our understanding of it has not kept pace with these transformations. A narrow fabrication view of
he recent economic history of the West Midlands revolves around accounts of deindustrialisation and the development
contains a complex combination of services and manufactured inputs and both sets of inputs are required for the product to function. All production systems are hybrid systems, but not all hybrid production systems produce hybrid products. For the West Midlands this means that
manufacturing is being replaced by one in which manufacturing includes research and development, design functions and marketing and advertising. Manufactured goods should now be conceptualised as products that contain different quantities of service inputs; some of these service inputs are part of the production process of manufactured products (design, accountancy, and marketing) and some support completed products (training, embedded services, content and servicing). Manufacturing and services are experiencing a
‘All production systems are hybrid systems, but not all hybrid production systems produce hybrid products’
manufacturing firms have to compete on the basis of innovation, design and services rather than solely on price. Cost control is critical leading to productivity improvement. Continual productivity improvements produces jobless growth creating a perception of manufacturing decline. Employment growth is possible with new products and overseas markets. All manufacturing firms in the West Midlands must concentrate on the development of distinctive high
quality products that are produced efficiently. It is important that all types of manufacturing are appreciated and valued. There are important challenges to face. Many
process of hybridisation leading to the creation of hybrid products that combine manufacturing and services together to create something that is more than a good and less than a pure service. A hybrid product
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FEBRUARY 2012 CHAMBERLINK 43
manufacturing firms have hard-to-fill vacancies and suffer from skill shortages. There is a real possibility that firms that restructured in response to globalisation are eventually undermined by skill shortages. We need to ensure that the rhetoric of deindustrialisation is replaced by an account based around innovative and competitive manufacturing; manufacturing must once again be considered as a career option.
Picture courtesy of University of Birmingham
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