Manufacturing: you're in good shape

The companies were all middle size metalforming companies and Mr Pannen declared himself surprised at the young age of the machine tools in use within these companies. “The machines are younger than those found in Japanese companies,” he said – Mr Pannen has latterley spent over 10 years in Japan, heading up the Trumpf operation there. In addition to the machines, he also observes that many companies also boast new, modern premises; also that many companies themselves are run by people who have previously had failing businesses but who have set up new companies in a short space of time, around 12 months. Mr Pannen described this as restructuring, another commen feature as compared to his previous experience. “These companies are typicaly run by owners or managers from the production side of manufacturing – skilled people who know how to make money out of manufacturing.” This positive state of affairs contrasted strongly with a “melancholy” that seems to be attached to manufacturing in the UK, as gleaned from his reading of the national press. He was at a loss to understand this and the fact that in the UK the general public had little awareness of manufacturing companies - again a complete contrast to Japan. He offered that with the falling pound against the euro that industry had good opportunity to increase exports, also that the UK is also best placed, for reasons of history, to exploit India as a place to do business. Mr Pannen expressed surprise that metalforming manufacturers seemed reluctant to invest in automation to achieve an unmanned night shift, preferring to employ people. Trumpf's MACH presence was seeking to both understand why and also offer solutions, he underlined. Laser profilers with nozzle changers and press brakes that can be both robot-loaded and manually fed were two technologies on show: “automation without compromise,” Mr Pannen offered, adding: “We want to explain how it is possible to have a safe return on investment.” * MACH 2008 also saw the launch of Tru Tops Fab, a production control and manufacturing management software package. Available in Europe for many years, Mr Pannen was instrumental in pushing for its UK release.