THE ROAD TO RECOVERY: INDUSTRY CALLS FOR STIMULUS PACKAGE
Britain’s manufacturers are calling for a National Recovery Plan, including an immediate stimulus package, to boost investment and help save jobs on the back of a major survey showing that output in the sector plunged to a record low, as the full impact of the crisis hit home. The Make UK/BDO Manufacturing Outlook Q2
survey comes on the back of the historic fall in GDP and shows the balance for output reached the lowest level in the thirty year history of the survey. Looking forward, the survey shows the prospect for the next quarter and the rest of the year looks little better. Furthermore, both UK and export orders
plunged and while the furlough scheme appears to have mitigated the worst impact of immediate redundancies, evidence suggests that without government intervention to free up firms to invest again this has merely delayed more large scale redundancies. Given the outlook for the rest of the year and
into 2021, Make UK is calling on the Government to work with business and other key stakeholders
from across the UK on a National Recovery Plan. In the short term this should begin with an immediate stimulus package including a Business Rates holiday for manufacturers similar to that granted to the retail sector earlier this year. Make UK believes this would be the single most important measure the Chancellor could introduce having the quickest impact for companies of all sizes and across all sectors. This should be accompanied by other
immediate measures including a National Infrastructure Strategy with a commitment to projects to help supply chains, a car scrappage scheme and incentives to invest in digital technology and skills. Make UK also reiterated its previous call for Government help for recapitalisation to direct support at key sectors and allow companies to access capital to service debt incurred during the lockdown. Tom Lawton, Head of Manufacturing at BDO
said: “With COVID-19 causing instability in global supply chains and uncertainty surrounding our future trading relationships, the UK will become
more reliant than ever on its manufacturing sector. Now is the time for the Government to step up and show its support.” According to the survey, output reached a
record low of -56%, while both UK and export orders fell to -52%. Alarmingly the prospects for the next quarter appear little better despite the easing of lockdowns across Europe and Asia with the forward looking indicator of output for the next three months at -42%, the worst ever predicted in the survey’s history. Whilst a slight improvement is in store for total orders in the next quarter at -41% it remains an extremely distressed balance historically. As with the impact on output and orders, both
employment and investment levels were cut back significantly. The employment balance fell to -22%, with the likely pattern for job cuts for the rest of the year highlighted by the employment balance accelerating further in the next three months to -36%. The survey of 309 companies was carried out between 5 and 26 May.
www.makeuk.org
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MINIMUM MANNING IMPROVES WORKER SAFETY
How encouraging to see a public vote of confidence in the way the UK manufacturing sector has dealt with the challenges of the pandemic. According to the Annual Attitudes to UK Industry study, carried out by Populus for Cadence Innovation Marketing, 74% of the UK public believe the manufacturing sector has stepped up to support the UK during the Coronavirus crisis (see p.6). This vote of confidence is well-
deserved, as manufacturers are helping us deal with both the physical and mental issues the pandemic has created. They are not only producing the products we all need to live and work safely (screens, facemasks and temperature measurement devices etc), but are adapting existing technology to help deal with some of the anxieties of returning to ‘real’ life. For example, social distancing sensors that reassure workers the 2m rule isn’t being encroached (see ‘In Brief’ column opposite). Michelle Lea
Editor
At the end of March 2020, OGUK figures showed a decrease in staff numbers on North Sea offshore installations of 40% due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is now expecting the change in manning levels to last “quite a long time”. As a result of the pandemic,
operators have made changes to help keep workers socially distanced, implementing safety measures such as screens, single cabins and staggered working hours, but does the reduced personnel leave enough manpower to keep these platforms running in their current form? What if platforms didn’t need
people; just safe, reliable systems that could be operated remotely? This would not only reduce the risk of virus infection, but reduce the risk of injury or death from accidents, decrease costs, improve safety standards, and mitigate mistakes caused by human error. In 2018, Servelec Controls
achieved just this for Centrica Energy, in an innovative project
coined ‘Simplification’. Successful project delivery resulted in an improved level of safety by removing personnel from unnecessary risk, and delivered a return on their £65million investment inside two years. Having proved concept viability,
Servelec Controls’ engineers are now working with other operators to transform their assets to be remotely operable. Servelec Controls’ minimum manning solution provides a range of benefits: • Improved personnel safety • Reduction in OPEX • Asset life extension • Reduce intervention time • Optimised operations • Remote operation of offshore platform systems
www.serveleccontrols.com
Social distancing wearable technology is beginning to play a crucial role in allowing employees to return to work safely, and also to alleviate any anxiety workers may feel about being in close proximity to colleagues. For example, Beaconzone’s Social
Distancing Solution (SDS) alerts users and stores data associated with any distancing incidents. Wearable devices alert users by
emitting a flashing light and/or vibration if they overstep a set distance. The time and duration of a breach is stored then automatically synchronised with a station for review, tracking and tracing. SDS is a stand- alone ‘out of the box’ solution with no ongoing subscription. Entrepreneur Neil Levett has also
introduced an electronic warning tag, which sends an audible and visual warning when the wearer is within two metres of another tag. He has now launched
keep2m.co.uk, a site selling them as a key part of an overall social distancing solution.
www.beaconzone.co.uk www.keep2m.co.uk
4 JUNE 2020 | PROCESS & CONTROL
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