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Tuesday 18 November 2008
Production
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|NewsletterManufacturing
Government's view of manufacturing is out of date
Wednesday 28 February 2007
The Government’s view of the high-tech manufacturing sector is woefully out of date.
This may not be very important were it not creating investment policies which are failing to attract high skill electronics jobs to this country.
The government body responsible for encouraging investment and helping UK firms to be more successful in world markets is UK Trade & Investment.
Yet the head of that organisation is not too worried whether a start-up such as Plastic Logic, which is pioneering work into printable electronic circuits, is forced to build its first production facility in Germany rather than the UK.
He is interested in making sure that the UK is seen as a prime location for doing microelectronics design and encouraging foreign companies to invest in R&D teams here.
Of course, he is right to do this, but any failure to recogniose the importance of whether or not Plastic Logic builds its first wafer facility here is worrying. It reflects an out-of-date view of manufacturing.
The view emanating from Government is that manufacturing is a thing of the past. Something which used to take place in the UK and which is now carried out in other parts of the world where labour costs are cheaper.
And quite right too says Government. Wrong.
Not all manufacturing is dependent on relatively low skilled work. Especially the type of semiconductor manufacturing which Plastic Logic plans to carry out in its wafer fab.
This is the very type of highly skill activities which UK T&I is so keen to encourage. It recognises the importance of gaining these skills when it is in a design firm, but not in a manufacturer.
This view dates back to a time when manufacturing firms were not seen as leading technical innovators.
The world has moved on, but sadly not Government thinking.
This may not be very important were it not creating investment policies which are failing to attract high skill electronics jobs to this country.
The government body responsible for encouraging investment and helping UK firms to be more successful in world markets is UK Trade & Investment.
Yet the head of that organisation is not too worried whether a start-up such as Plastic Logic, which is pioneering work into printable electronic circuits, is forced to build its first production facility in Germany rather than the UK.
He is interested in making sure that the UK is seen as a prime location for doing microelectronics design and encouraging foreign companies to invest in R&D teams here.
Of course, he is right to do this, but any failure to recogniose the importance of whether or not Plastic Logic builds its first wafer facility here is worrying. It reflects an out-of-date view of manufacturing.
The view emanating from Government is that manufacturing is a thing of the past. Something which used to take place in the UK and which is now carried out in other parts of the world where labour costs are cheaper.
And quite right too says Government. Wrong.
Not all manufacturing is dependent on relatively low skilled work. Especially the type of semiconductor manufacturing which Plastic Logic plans to carry out in its wafer fab.
This is the very type of highly skill activities which UK T&I is so keen to encourage. It recognises the importance of gaining these skills when it is in a design firm, but not in a manufacturer.
This view dates back to a time when manufacturing firms were not seen as leading technical innovators.
The world has moved on, but sadly not Government thinking.
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