We applaud the publication of the CBI’s Manufacturing Advisory Group’s ‘Competing with the world’s best’. It is hailed as the first in a series that will monitor and summarise the UK’s manufacturing situation. Its condition is better than recognised, says the report, which sets targets for 2000: a 10% share of the world’s main manufacturing economies’ manufactured exports (8.7% in 1990) and a trade surplus in manufactured goods (£18 billion trade gap in 1990).
Interestingly, says the report, UK productivity has risen substantially in the years 1980-1990, from 58 to 71, taking then West Germany as 100. In contrast, West Germany, France (at 98) and Italy (at 90) have all flatlined, it is observed, while the USA has improved from 108 to 124. [This UK productivity performance is probably linked to the closure of many poorly performing manufacturing companies that occurred during the ‘Thatcher decade’.] Interesting, too, is the fact that the UK invests more as a percentage of value added (13%) than does West Germany.
In news and a timely reference to industrial policy appears, although it’s Sweden that is looking for inspiration via a three-year study in which UK-based Japanese firm Yamazaki Machinery UK is held up as a beacon of high productivity. The study analysed companies relevant to Sweden, so car firms were not included.
Another machine tool builder, this time German lathe maker VDF Boehringer (today within Taiwan’s FFG), is scoring success in the UK at a pump and valve maker wanting to produce in batches of one. Direct downloading of NC programs and automatic tool change are key. Further sales are anticipated by one-year-old subsidiary Boehringer UK, these resulting from investments made by the UK’s privatised water companies.
In features this month, we lead on the battle between CO2 and YAG laser sources. The former are the most common by far for metal cutting, but we say that YAG’s attraction will grow as its power capability increases, because it is easily transmitted along optical fibres, while it additionally cuts reflective materials more easily. It is the beginning of the journey to today’s fibre lasers, which are increasingly dominant and able to match CO2’s thick-material performance.
Computer technology is the subject of another feature article, with the ability to realistically model for visual, aerodynamic and mechanical assembly purposes shortening product lead times, avoiding manual model making and supporting the then in-vogue concurrent engineering (simultaneous design and production planning). Inevitably, it is the automotive industry that is the subject case.
The EDM process is covered elsewhere and we report that improving machine control is ‘eroding’ dependence on operators. Just as above, it is increasing computer power that makes it possible, with ‘fuzzy logic’ key – a technology that, we highlight, requires 32-bit computer power to drive it. Fuzzy logic has the ability to handle ‘shades of grey’ in its decision making, taking information from a variety of process inputs in this case.
This issue we have another major automotive report. And while recent arrival Nissan is prominent, there is much other activity noted within the sector. Ford’s Zeta engine is now in production at Bridgend, while Vauxhall has spent £60 million on a new paint plant at Ellesmere Port. That latter facility also boasts Europe’s first operational MAP 3.0 computer network. MAP (manufacturing automation protocol) is driven by Vauxhall owner GM; it is a factory floor communications network that links ‘islands of automation’. Vauxhall is about to launch its first four-wheel drive recreational vehicle, the Frontera, too. The Toyota factory in Derby is under construction, Honda’s Swindon engine operation is running (it will add a further engine line and start to make the Accord in 1992), while Nissan is tooling up for its new Micra, on the back of a £700 million spend on facilities. Nissan will be back in the news in 25 years’ time, linked to EU exit and industrial policy.
In other news this month:
- To boost business, thousands of shops start Sunday opening, defying trading laws
- America’s General Motors announces it will close 21 plants
- One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson born
- Unemployment above 2.5m; first time since early 1988
- USSR formally dissolves; 11 of 12 republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States
- Cricketer, cricket commentator John Arlott dies, 71, at home in Alderney
