Rocky nails it when he questions “what if it isn’t a capital gap, but a capability gap that manifests as a capital gap?”. And proceeds to identify just where it falls over in the UK.
Comparison to the Mittelstand manufacturing supply chain in Germany is key here. Germany have continued to value and hence invest in a continuous supply chain for their industrial manufacturing sectors. They can take innovative products and technologies from concept right through to production, at mass volumes if the market so dictates. Government-backed research institutions help the Mittelstand suppliers to adapt and adopt new approaches, so they can always be ahead and offer high value into their customers along the value chain.
The UK, on the other hand, have continued to offshore this capability over the last 40 years, leaving a landscape that no longer has the supply chain capable of scaling new products and technology though to production. In the UK we sell, licence or exit to international businesses, only for them to reap the rewards of our clever ideas and early-stage R&D. We’re great at great ideas, not so great at retaining these and building businesses around them, which can in-turn feed larger organisations with the technologies necessary to stay ahead of the pack.
Blame is easy to appoint but doesn’t help. Addressing the problem is much more beneficial and what successive UK Governments have been aiming for. The huge numbers pumped into UKRI and other investment vehicles to support new business growth should have created more tangible, long-term output than they have.
The article suggests a number of reasons – we are measuring the wrong outputs, we don’t assess for long term value, our well-intentioned industry bodies to facilitate this transition are not delivering. The fundamental challenge here is that over the past 40 years we have lost some of the facilities, infrastructure and supply chains here needed to feed the growth of UK Mittlestand-sized companies. Its these ‘British Mittlestand’ companies of today that will grow into the UK-based global manufacturing businesses of tomorrow.
But all is not lost. We’ve seen new focus on supporting advanced manufacturing enterprises to scale and grow business. There is demand in emerging deep tech sectors such as e-mobility for localised manufacturing and supply chains. Localisation of supply chains can protect product, the IP and the knowhow that sits behind it. There is a real opportunity, with organisations such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group, ARMC and the support through direct funding from Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, DRIVE35 Scale Up fund, InnovateUK and others to support businesses invest in advanced manufacturing facilities, equipment, knowledge and processes. These organisations are supporting a new wave of technology advancements. Innovators are creating solutions and products for scale in the UK but destined for global markets.
There is certainly industrial will, expertise and knowledge still at large in the UK to make this happen. It needs concerted political will, and importantly – understanding – to achieve this, but within this context we see brighter futures on the horizon.
For us at @Hypermotive, it is validation of the business we have been building over the last decade. What started out as an engineering services business quickly evolved into one that can not only provide the brains and innovation in design, but also quickly scale-up to manufacture cutting edge e-mobility solutions. The industrial pull mentioned by Rocky has driven our business growth and provided the resilience that a manufacturing base provides to a business. Where we have seen some of our technical-services only competitors not make it past the first few years, Hypermotive’s appetite to take on the hard, often challenging strategy of becoming a part of the UK manufacturing supply chain has stood us in good stead when the going gets tough. Its not just about being able to design something, it’s about being able to manage the supply chain, purchasing, materials planning, manufacturing processes, inspection, quality control, logistics and the customer relationship. It’s about working out what we can manufacture competitively in the UK, with reliable suppliers, partners and collaborations across the UK and offshore.
Hypermotive are proud to be helping to drive a resurgence in UK Mittelstand manufacturing supply chain, in a challenging economic environment. It is an environment that plays to the UK strength of innovative and well-designed product, developed to the highest standards and manufactured to the highest quality. The current and future pace of technology development demands a different kind of supplier; one who can bring intelligence, innovation, advanced tools and techniques and fast manufacturing scale up to give our customers a technical and commercial edge in the marketplace.
Hypermotive are neither just and engineering business nor just a manufacturing business – we combine both to leverage some of the unique capabilities and expertise that we have within the UK. As Rocky might say, we are a modern industrialist business.
Thanks for your article, Rocky – we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. It validates all we’ve been working so hard at for the last 10 years, helping to in-fill the Valley of Death and our customers scale their products in the UK.
A thought-provoking article by Rocky Verma –https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/4c6c505f-2357-41e8-9194-af8e376ca299 gives reasons why, despite significant investment in R&D and innovation in the UK, we still can’t bridge the so-called “Valley of Death”.
Rocky nails it when he questions “what if it isn’t a capital gap, but a capability gap that manifests as a capital gap?”. And proceeds to identify just where it falls over in the UK.
Comparison to the Mittelstand manufacturing supply chain in Germany is key here. Germany have continued to value and hence invest in a continuous supply chain for their industrial manufacturing sectors. They can take innovative products and technologies from concept right through to production, at mass volumes if the market so dictates. Government-backed research institutions help the Mittelstand suppliers to adapt and adopt new approaches, so they can always be ahead and offer high value into their customers along the value chain.
The UK, on the other hand, have continued to offshore this capability over the last 40 years, leaving a landscape that no longer has the supply chain capable of scaling new products and technology though to production. In the UK we sell, licence or exit to international businesses, only for them to reap the rewards of our clever ideas and early-stage R&D. We’re great at great ideas, not so great at retaining these and building businesses around them, which can in-turn feed larger organisations with the technologies necessary to stay ahead of the pack.
Blame is easy to appoint but doesn’t help. Addressing the problem is much more beneficial and what successive UK Governments have been aiming for. The huge numbers pumped into UKRI and other investment vehicles to support new business growth should have created more tangible, long-term output than they have.
The article suggests a number of reasons – we are measuring the wrong outputs, we don’t assess for long term value, our well-intentioned industry bodies to facilitate this transition are not delivering. The fundamental challenge here is that over the past 40 years we have lost some of the facilities, infrastructure and supply chains here needed to feed the growth of UK Mittlestand-sized companies. Its these ‘British Mittlestand’ companies of today that will grow into the UK-based global manufacturing businesses of tomorrow.
But all is not lost. We’ve seen new focus on supporting advanced manufacturing enterprises to scale and grow business. There is demand in emerging deep tech sectors such as e-mobility for localised manufacturing and supply chains. Localisation of supply chains can protect product, the IP and the knowhow that sits behind it. There is a real opportunity, with organisations such as the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Warwick Manufacturing Group, ARMC and the support through direct funding from Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, DRIVE35 Scale Up fund, InnovateUK and others to support businesses invest in advanced manufacturing facilities, equipment, knowledge and processes. These organisations are supporting a new wave of technology advancements. Innovators are creating solutions and products for scale in the UK but destined for global markets.
There is certainly industrial will, expertise and knowledge still at large in the UK to make this happen. It needs concerted political will, and importantly – understanding – to achieve this, but within this context we see brighter futures on the horizon.
For us at @Hypermotive, it is validation of the business we have been building over the last decade. What started out as an engineering services business quickly evolved into one that can not only provide the brains and innovation in design, but also quickly scale-up to manufacture cutting edge e-mobility solutions. The industrial pull mentioned by Rocky has driven our business growth and provided the resilience that a manufacturing base provides to a business. Where we have seen some of our technical-services only competitors not make it past the first few years, Hypermotive’s appetite to take on the hard, often challenging strategy of becoming a part of the UK manufacturing supply chain has stood us in good stead when the going gets tough. Its not just about being able to design something, it’s about being able to manage the supply chain, purchasing, materials planning, manufacturing processes, inspection, quality control, logistics and the customer relationship. It’s about working out what we can manufacture competitively in the UK, with reliable suppliers, partners and collaborations across the UK and offshore.
Hypermotive are proud to be helping to drive a resurgence in UK Mittelstand manufacturing supply chain, in a challenging economic environment. It is an environment that plays to the UK strength of innovative and well-designed product, developed to the highest standards and manufactured to the highest quality. The current and future pace of technology development demands a different kind of supplier; one who can bring intelligence, innovation, advanced tools and techniques and fast manufacturing scale up to give our customers a technical and commercial edge in the marketplace.
Hypermotive are neither just and engineering business nor just a manufacturing business – we combine both to leverage some of the unique capabilities and expertise that we have within the UK. As Rocky might say, we are a modern industrialist business.
Thanks for your article, Rocky – we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. It validates all we’ve been working so hard at for the last 10 years, helping to in-fill the Valley of Death and our customers scale their products in the UK.
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/4c6c505f-2357-41e8-9194-af8e376ca299
#manufacturing #ukmanufacturing #tier1 #innovation #supplychain @Manufacturing Technology Centre @Drive35 @InnovateUK @ AMRC @WMG @Hypermotive