What new ways of working are being developed and what impact will they have?


AJ: We will shortly go to four-day week production. We have trialled it and we are seeing a huge benefit. The staff love it and think it is great. It also gives us potentially an extra business day if we need it.


We have changed some of the practices within the business and we have not seen any drop off in productivity. We are saving energy and our carbon footprint is coming down. I’m sure we will roll it out across all our businesses and keep it permanently.


JW: As well as the four-day week we are seeing companies going on nine-day fortnights. A lot of people are looking at annualised hours. Having banked hours really works out for organisations that are seasonal.


Businesses are looking at multi-skilling staff. They are also looking how they can bring skills in and if they can use the universities or colleges.


A lot more companies now are looking at apprentices, although it’s horrendous when you talk to clients who are recruiting people and get them through the apprenticeship, only to find out that they’re then being enticed into other organisations.


AR: There is a lot more focus on where technology can be deployed within a business environment. My background is in additive manufacturing, and it is about integration with other manufacturing technologies. What we are trying to move towards now is design in the context of digital manufacturing overall. How does it impact on all the design processes, all the manufacturing techniques that you use? Knowledge is really in the design process.


RB: There is a real case for localised investment. We are hearing lots of talk about levelling up. I want to see it stay on the agenda. I’m going to coin a new phrase and that is ‘manufacturing up’. It feels like there is a window of opportunity we need to grasp.


AJ: There’s no real manufacturing strategy for the north of England. This is one of the problems, isn’t it? The government is looking at the UK in general but they should be looking at what investment is needed in certain areas.


Lancashire is one of the biggest manufacturing areas in the UK and it needs to have its own specific support within manufacturing. It should be invested in the adoption of new digital technologies.


That means promoting and supporting businesses on the new digital technologies and offering support and advice on the introduction of things


like lean manufacturing. Where is the funding going to come from? That is a major consideration.


PJ: E&R’s four-day week is a win-win in terms of employee wellbeing and motivation and saving the business money and helping with decarbonisation. Additive manufacturing is far more energy efficient. We’ve got a real hotbed of activity here in Lancashire with organisations like AMRC North West, who are pioneering some of those techniques.


NM: On a positive note, we have invested about a quarter of a million pounds on digital software to challenge the industry. The digital technology we now have has allowed all our designs to be online.


We received capital funding and listened to the specialists. We knew what we wanted, including a successful two-and-a-half-year payback. The positive side is we save time on people doing things manually and we are not wasting other manufacturers’ time.


We hear a lot of about the cost of living crisis. There is a cost of manufacturing crisis that we don’t hear about


DG: Lancashire businesses are still making good money, dealing with the supply chain problems, finding new solutions and good ways to work. They are making a difference and they’re all crying out for good people to work for them.


We must make sure people in Lancashire understand that with a great attitude they can get a great job in manufacturing.


CH: The four-day week is interesting. We’ve got quite a few clients taking part in the pilot scheme and we’ve just had the six-month results, and they’ve all been super positive. Of those that took part in the survey, 95 per cent said that either productivity had stayed the same or increased. It takes a real culture within the business to make that work.


There are great stats in terms of carbon reduction, family savings and savings to childcare. It is not going to work for every business and its’s the more progressive ones


that are more accepting of the change, but we haven’t seen the wheels fall off any of them.


What support is required by the sector?


JW: Manufacturing needs more help and support in improving productivity and becoming more efficient, incorporating a lean environment while also working to reduce your carbon footprint. There is not actually a massive amount of support out there and that is one of the problems.


AJ: We need more government support as our business moves into the more technical world. We have a small R&D group and that’s a pure overhead. As we increase it, our overhead increases. So, we need some way of helping that development. It’s that that type of funding.


PJ: We’ve already got some support, it’s called the Automotive Transformation Fund. There’s a billion been put aside by the government to help the transition from internal combustion engine technology into low carbon, but we need more of that. A billion’s not enough.


We are being driven very hard to this deadline of 2030 for the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales. There has been £11bn invested across the UK in electrification production and we’ve seen £2.8bn of that in the North West. But the infrastructure is not keeping up with it.


It is great investing all this money in developing electric cars, but if the infrastructure’s not there, people are not going to buy the cars because of range anxiety.


AR: We have to support business and community engagement. So, come and have a conversation and see what can we do? How can we help?


CH: There are so many businesses in Lancashire that aren’t addressing what’s needed moving forward with AI, agile working, the things we’ve learnt from Covid.


NM: From our perspective it is tax cuts. How many taxes are going up? Give us some breaks where we can utilise our spare cash and reinvest it back into our business – in people, infrastructure and new, modern, energy efficient machinery. Also help us become net carbon zero by giving us these tax breaks.


RB: We need recognition that it is not just levelling up that is needed, it is manufacturing up. We’ve known that anyway and I’ve heard a tremendous case in this room for all the good things that could really drive it forward.


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